THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



191 



machine on some liouey which he intended to 

 "take up," as he wished to save tlie comb to use 

 in some of his frame liives. We informed him 

 that we liad sent for and daily expected to re- 

 ceive the knife, witliout whicli we could do but 

 little. Two weeks move passed away, and we 

 neither heard from our money or the letter of in- 

 quiry concerning it. Friend S. had taken up his 

 bees, (I am sorry to say tliat this system is still 

 practiced in this neighborhood,) and was ready 

 for us to make our visit with the machine. He 

 thought that his father had a knife which would 

 answer the purpose, and as I was to go by 

 his house I was to stop and get it. Accordingly 

 I loaded up the machine and started, but when I 

 came to slop for the knife, the old gentleman in- 

 formed me that the one he had was nothing but 

 a piece of hoop iron ground off to cut cheese 

 curd and would probably not suit our pur^, 

 pose. 



Arriving at the scene of action, the machine 

 was set up and the honey brought out. We first 

 tried a frame with a thick comb of buckwheat 

 lioney, which had been taken from the hive some 

 time previous. After having had two hands at 

 work on it for about half an hour, it was pro- 

 nounced "uncapped," although it looked as 

 though mice had done it. It was ])at into the 

 "Extractor" and the process of whirling began. 

 But we had forgotten that we must have another 

 comb on the other side to balance it, as it was 

 very thick and heavy. So another half hour 

 was spent in uncapping, and then the turning 

 again commenced. But the honey did not seem 

 inclined to fly. We just began to see the difTer- 

 ence between taking honey directly from the 

 hive in warm weather, and taking it from a cold 

 room, where it had Iain until it was as cold and 

 stringy as tar. That our honey must be warmed 

 seemed self-evident. So it was taken out and 

 perched upon a box behind the stove to warm, 

 while we directed our attention to uncapping 

 combs taken from the hives. 



It was now getting well on towards nine 

 o'clock. Mr. S. w\as to start for Scranlon early 

 next morning, and intended taking. the honey 

 there to market. Six or eight hives were piled 

 up in the room, ready to have their contents 

 "extracted," which, of course, it would not take 

 long to do by machinery ! Mr. S. remarkt d 

 that "the frame behind the stove must be nearly 

 warm enough," when " spat" went something 

 in that direction, and on looking, it was found 

 that the honey had got warm, broken from the 

 frame, and fallen down in a heap behind the 

 wood-box ! This so excited him that he knocked 

 the lamp chimney off with his knife, and 

 dropped another piece of honey on the floor. 

 After trying until all concerned were satisfied 

 we drew from our machine about one pint of 

 strained honey, to say nothing of Avhat was 

 drained on the floor. In fact we had a sweet 

 time generally. We came to the conclusion that 

 cold honey in new comb, uncapped with a 

 butcher knife, was not just what the " melex- 

 tractor " was calculated for. Take the honey 

 from the hive before it is capped, or get it de- 

 cently uncapped in warm weather, and it works 

 like a charm. 



Two or three days after this, I (very unex- 

 pectedly) received a letter from Mi*. Baldridge, 

 dated October 25th, containing fifty cents, and 

 stating that he had a style of honey knife which 

 worked satisfactorily, which he sold for one dol- 

 lar and fifty cents, and that he would mail one 

 to us some time "this week." About two weeks 

 after this I received a — lioney knife. It is made 

 out of the best quality of torought- iron, fastened 

 into a common turned wooden handle with 

 melted lead. Mr. B. says it will work satisfac- 

 torily, and I hope it will, as that is all that will 

 be required. 



Will those who successfully use the " Smela- 

 tore," and know how to uncap the cells for its 

 use in any decent length of time, please describe 

 the modutf operandi? VvMtli us it is the one thing 

 3'et needful. I have not yet had a chance to try 

 the knife received from Mr. Baldridge, as it 

 reached me so late in the season. Though it may 

 work well, I must say to him that I do not ad- 

 mire his style of punctuality, as I think six 

 weeks altogether longer than necessary to get 

 returns from Illinois. 



Mr. S., I believe, concluded to sell his honey 

 in the comb, probably consoling himself by think- 

 ing that it would carry nicer and sell much better 

 in that shape. 



I. F. TlLLIKGHAST. 



Factoryville, Pa., Jan. 4, 1870. 



[For the Amarican Bee Journal.] 



Superseding Fertile Workers. 



Mr. Editor : — On page 144 of the January 

 number of the Joukkal, I see an article from Mr. 

 John S. Rose, in which he gives his mode of 

 treating a colony of bees containing a fertile 

 worker. He states that he was successful in in- 

 troducing a queen, after subjecting tlie colony 

 to a dose of puff-ball smoke. Having less faith 

 in that kind of treatment than I perhaps should 

 have had, I did not test its merits in either of the 

 cases to which I am about to refer ; nor do I 

 know that I ever will test it, so long as the 

 mode of treatment to which I subjected two 

 colonies, during the past season, proves success- 

 ful. 



The fiist was a colony which, from some cause 

 unknown tome, lost its Cjueen in the latter part 

 of March. They failed to rear a young queen, 

 and in a short time I found eggs deposited in the 

 cells of both worker and dvone-comb. I found 

 as many as four eggs in one cell, and on close 

 examination I was satisfied there was nothing in 

 the shape of a true queen in the hive. This 

 further convinced me that I had a fertile worker 

 to deal with, or some kind of an egg-laying crea- 

 ture or creatures that did not properly under- 

 stand the bee-raising business — there being more 

 eggs laid in one cell than could be matured in so 

 small a space. How to get rid of this kind of 

 egg-laying creature puzzled me exceedingly. I 

 thought of puff-ball, but being too much of a 

 sceptic with regard to its effect as a remedial 

 agent in such cases, I determined to adopt some 

 other mode of treatment. It being early in the 



