1901 



I'HE AMERICAN DEE-KEEPER 



15 



the support will pei'mit; and the 

 publishers have generously offered 

 to compensate these who will co- 

 operate with us in extending that 

 "support" as will be seen by re- 

 ferring to another page. 



Let every arriateur reader take 

 his place around the "Amateur 

 Table," and by his questions and 

 contributions to that page, add life 

 and interest thereto. We want 

 every young bee-keeper to feel that 

 this is his privilege, and to know 

 that he is welcome — whether man, 

 woman, boy or girl. We are confi- 

 dent that this could be made one of 

 the most interesting and instruct- 

 ive departments of The Bee- 

 keeper. 



tobacco smoke for introducing 



QUEENS. 



The use of tobacco smoke in in- 

 troducing queens has long been 

 used and advocated by Mr. Henry 

 Alley, but it appears that until re- 

 cently its real value has not been 

 generally appreciated. The Bee- 

 keepers' Reiileio now appears to re- 

 gard tobacco smoke, in introducing, 

 with much favor. We have on 

 several occasions used it for this 

 purpose with very satisfactory re- 

 sults. It is a fact, however, that 

 of the many hundreds of queens 

 which we have had occasion to in- 

 troduce in the past ten years, we 

 do not remember of a single failure 

 to have the queen accepted by the 

 bees, regardless of the method of 

 introducing. The tobacco smoke 

 method, though, has been used in 

 instances where it would be unsafe 

 to attempt almost any other plan ; 

 such, for example, as introducing 

 ten or a dozen queens into a single 

 colony, simply separated by 

 divisions of wire-cloth into as many 

 compartments as there were queens. 

 This we have done with perfect suc- 

 cess; and that in a colony made up 



entirely of old bees, without 

 brood of any kind. The necessity 

 for such a severe test would seldom 

 arise, yet we have found it desir- 

 able to do so at times, and found it 

 practicable. But very little of the 

 smoke is necessary, and it is not 

 advisable to use it at all at a time 

 when robbers are troublesome. If 

 the tobacc:) is placed in the smoker 

 and the fire well started, one very 

 light puff is all that is required. A 

 whiff or two from a pipe or cigar 

 answers the purpose very well. 



THE WAX "SECRET." 



Quite to our surprise, the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal not only declares 

 its sincerity in requesting an ex- 

 planation in regard to our hint that 

 it was foolishness to set forth 

 "slow cooling" as the secret of the 

 bright yellow color often seen in 

 beeswax, but very emphatically de- 

 fends the idea as a truth. We 

 regret that our space will not per- 

 mit a reproduction of the Journal's 

 lengthy comments, which would 

 occupy more than a page; but we 

 cannot refrain from catching a 

 little of its Vesuvian overflow: 



"As a matter of fact, the slow 

 cooling is a sine qua non in ninety- 

 nine cases out of a hundred, and 

 perhaps necessary in the one-hun- 

 dredth case. As Mr. Hill men- 

 tions, some wax from old combs 

 needs the addition of acid to bring 

 out the bright color; but that does 

 not take away the necessity of slow 

 cooling, and there is practically no 

 bright yellow wax without slow 

 cooling." 



If any reader of The American 

 Bee-keeper has a quantity of dark 

 beeswax which he desires to trans- 

 form into bright yellow, he will 

 note with pleasure that the secret 

 is now out. Simply melt it and 

 cool it slowly (?). 



Wax should be kept hot after it 



