66 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



April 



mod cake, loose from the sides of the 

 kettle, when you can break it to pieces 

 piittinfT it through the oil can purifying 

 process, given by Mr. Greiner., Take 

 out the bag, and if you have done the 

 work as you should, not a particle of 

 wax will be found remaining in the 

 refuse. Given very briefly, this is the 

 plan I have used in getting out wax 

 where I have enough old comb to make 

 a wholesale affair of the matter. With 

 only a moderate amount, or with the 

 general accumulation from an apiary of 

 !00 to 150 colonies, I prefer the solar 

 wax extractor to anything else. 



•'EBENEZER SKIES." 



Wonder who "Ebenezer Skies" is ? 

 That must be a nom de plume for we 

 should have heard from a man who could 

 put the pith of comb honey production 

 in so small a space as he does it on 

 pages 48 and 49, before, if he were writ- 

 ing over his real name. But whether it 

 is a nom dc plume or otherwise, his ai't-^ 

 icle tells all there is in comb honey pro- 

 duction in the shortest, or nut-shell 

 space, I ever saw it, and tliose two col- 

 umns will bear reading one, two, three, 

 four, five and six times, in as many days, 

 till each part touched is thoroughly 

 stamped upon the memory. And not the 

 least part is that of the right kind of 

 bees for the production of comb honey. 

 Bees wiiich will not produce comb to 

 perfection nor cap the cells whitely (and 

 the majority of the bees in the country 

 today will not do tliis) are not the bees 

 for successful eomb honey production. 

 Weed the '-scrubs" out of your apiary 

 as carefully as the best dairyman does 

 from his herd of cows, till you have 

 what you want. Don't say it cannot be 

 done — it can be done ; but it takes time 

 and patience, and unless you can use 

 these you are of little account in the 

 ranks of bee-keepers. Then those Level 

 hives. Did you note that ? Go into the 

 apiaries of the land ; look at the hives 

 "sprawling" all about! Is it any won- 

 der so many complain about combs at- 



tached to separators ? But space for- 

 bids writing more at this time. Read 

 that article the seventh time, for there 

 is ^^lots"" in it. 



Borodino, N.Y., Marcli 10. 1900. 



A FIGHT WITH BEES. 



THE following experience, from the 

 Youth's Companion, might prove 

 valuable as an acquisition to the 

 available capital of the opponents of 

 Apis dorsata. There is but little doubt 

 that the bee which figured in the epi- 

 sode was dorsata ; and by simply clip- 

 ping off the two final paragraphs the 

 story might be used with good effect : 



Mr. HughC'lifford gives in Blackwood's Magazine 

 a realistic account of a fight with bees. It was in 

 the interior of the state of Penang, in the Malay 

 Peninsula, and took place some nine years ago. 

 Mr. Cliflford was an old jungle traveler, but on this 

 particular journey he met with a new experience. 



The man who was leading the way stopped sud- 

 denly, and pointed to something ahead. They 

 were standing by a narrow creek with steep banks, 

 and on the opposite bank, about half a dozen 

 yards distant, was a patch of black and yellow pe- 

 culiarly blended. It had a strange, furry appear- 

 ance, with a sort of restless shimmer. 



Suddenly the patch rose like a cheap black-and- 

 yellow railway rug tossed upward by the wind. A 

 humming sound accompanied its flight, aud a sec- 

 ond later it had precipitated itself upon the travel- 

 ers, a furious flight of revengeful bees. The men 

 turned and fled. Mr. Clifford says: 



"1 broke headlong through my frightened fol- 

 lowers, tore out of the little belt of jungle and 

 sprinted across a patch of short grass. For a mo- 

 ment I believed that I had given the enemy the 

 slip, and I turned to watch my people, who, with 

 burdens thrown down, came tumbling out of cover, 

 beating the air and screaming lustily. 



"The next moment i was again in flight. I pull- 

 ed my large felt kat from my head and threshed 

 around with it. Still the bees came on. settling 

 upon my flannel shirt and my coarse jungle trou- 

 sers, and stinging my face and hands and arms 

 mercilessly. 



"I was panting for breath, sweating at every 

 pore, and beginning to feel something akin to real 

 fear, when I saw the glistening waters of the Ren- 

 gai river. I shouted to my howling men 'Take to 

 the water!" and plunged in. 



"My Malays came helter-skelter, and with us 

 came the army of bees, stinging as if for life. I 

 was thoroughly winded when I took to the water, 

 and it was impossible to dive for more than a few 



