48 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



March 



1 



full. When all was melted, a cover was 

 put on the disli, moved to the backpart 

 of the stove or tlie wick of the oil-stove 

 pretty well turned down. My aim now 

 was to keep the melted wax in a quite 

 state for some little time, until the agita- 

 tion of boiling had subsided. Still I did 

 ni)t want the wax to cool off very much. 

 but give it time that any impurities 

 might settle. After an elapse of about 30 

 minutes I commenced drawing off the 

 wax, running it into slightly oiled, new> 

 tin basins; all of these when full were set 

 to one side and kept covered so that the 

 cooling process nnght go on slowly, thus 

 preventing the cracking of the cakes. 

 Moulded in new tin the cakes came out 

 nmch brighter tlian when using any old 

 rusty basins, as I have done before. I 

 was greatly pleased wiih the appearance 

 of the wax and so were others. Having 

 some on exhibition at the fair some ex- 

 perienced bee-keepers asked me repeated- 

 ly how I had managed my wax, whether 

 I had varnished it, etc. For that reason 

 I make .special mention of this point. 

 All wax that wouid run from the faucet 

 without tipping the can up, came out 

 perfectly clean and none of the cakes, 

 when cool, had any sediment. That 

 which did not run out was allowed to 

 cool in the can, slightly tipping the can 

 back, to leave the faucet above the top 

 surface of the wax. As soon as hardened 

 sufficiently and yet before the wax had 

 become really cold, the slab about an'inch 

 thick was taken out and dirt and other 

 impurities were scraped off from the 

 bottom. I melted this cake with the 

 next batch each time and thus managed 

 I had only one .small cake of inferior wax 

 in my whole lot of 150 pounds 

 Naples, N. Y., Jan., 1900. 



That ''an apiary is a place where ihey 

 grow apes," as expressed in the compo.M- 

 tion of a little school girl, is rather con- 

 tradicted by one of our amateur subscrib- 

 ers, who says he has found out that 

 " bee-keeping is no monkey business." 



'Skies" on Comb Honey Production. 



sUR last instructions to Friend Haf- 

 fins was on the management of 

 swarms. We will now give him 

 a short les.son on the production of comb 

 honey: 



To get bees to build comb and store 

 honey in se6lions is an easy matter, but 

 to produce a really fine article of comb 

 honey is one of the finest points in bee- 

 keeping. 



The first step toward scientific comb 

 honey production, is the selection of the 

 bees. Any bee that will gather honey 

 will do for extracted honey, but not so 

 for comb. Only those colonies should 

 be selected that are nearest perfect as 

 comb builders, and whose cappings are 

 the whitest. Only such colonies as these 

 must be used as breeders. No drones 

 must be allowed to fly from any colony, 

 except those having these desirable 

 qualities. No queens must be reared 

 from any but colonies having these 

 qualities. 



If this is done persistently, and every 

 queen destroyed, the work of whose pro- 

 geny falls below the standard you have 

 set, for a few seasons, you will have an 

 apiary of thoroughbred, fancy, comb 

 honey producers — that is, as far as the 

 bees go. But no matter how thoroughly 

 bred the bees, if you are slovenly and 

 careless in your general work with them, 

 or lacking in the details, the product of 

 your apiary will fall below the standard of 

 the fanc}' class. 



Probably the first thing for the beginner 

 ambitious of becoming a first-class comb 

 honey producer, jto learn, is the impor- 

 tance of keeping the hives level. Too much 

 stress cannot be laid on this point. If 

 you would have perfectly built comb, 

 you must have your hives perfectly level. 

 You may tip them forward during the 

 winter or spring, but keep them level 

 during the summer. 



It matters little what kind of hive is 

 used, so long as it accommodates a suit- 

 able surplus arrangement. The surplus 



