1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



67 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Query and Eemarks. 



Mr. Editor : — By this time I suppose you 

 think I am very fond of asking questions. Like 

 every lover of knowledge, I am not ashamed to 

 let what I do not know be known. What I 

 want to know this time is, if a queen is impure 

 whose drone progeny is both black and Italians. 

 This seems very strange, yet it is true. Some 

 are marked very nice, but the stripes are dark, 

 and others are entirely black, having no stripes 

 at all. Her worker progeny are very nicely 

 marked, all being of a uniform color and having 

 three yellow bands. I raised some queens from 

 her and they are also light, but I have not yet 

 tested them. I watched the young drones as 

 they came out and they are marked as above. 



"Some beekeepers seem to be down on arti- 

 ficial queens. Well, I know nothing about their 

 queens, but I do know that I raised some this 

 season (black) that I would not give for some 

 natural queens I have, in regard to prolificness. 

 They may not be as long lived, and there are 

 some that are not half as prolific as natural 

 queens, but this ought not to discourage any one 

 who intends to keep bees, for he must expect to 

 have failures, and when he does fail in anything, 

 he mustmot denounce it as impracticable, but try 

 it again until he finds it is so. 



C. E. AVlDENER. 



Cumberland, Maryland, July 22, 1872. 



[Translated from the Bienenzeitung.] 



My Uncapping Instrument. 



After I had procured for myself an extractor, 

 I for some time uncapped the combs by means of 

 a sharp knife. But this was too tedious work, 

 so I set to work to invent a machine that would 

 do the uncapping. To this end I constructed a 

 cylinder 3 inches long and 1 inch in diameter, in 

 which I placed pegs made out of strong wire, at 

 such distances apart as would correspond with 

 the cells of worker comb. With this I cut 

 through the cover of the cells, the work going on 

 very quick. But as the combs were often much 

 injured by the pegs, I was not satisfied with the 

 machine, and set to work again to remedy this 

 evil. The idea then presented itself, that the 

 covers of the cell being pure wax would readily 

 melt. I took a small tin cup, put water in it 

 and placed it upon a stove. When the water be- 

 gan to boil, I took the cup and gently slid it over 

 the surface of the comb. And what joy ! The 

 covers at once dissolved and swam upon the 

 honey. I place the thus uncovered combs in the 

 honey extractor and took out the honey. The 

 combs were quite clean, and were not in the 

 least injured. The tin-cup being without a 

 cover, the water cooled off so rapidly, that I 

 was compelled almost every minute to warm it 

 again. To remedy this, I had made an entirely 

 closed box of tin in the shape of a smoothing 

 iron. It is 3 inches long, 2 inches broad, and 1^ 

 inches high, and contains about £ pint of water. 



On the top it has a small opening like a flask, in 

 which to pour the water. This is stopped with 

 a cork. A handle 4 inches long is attached to 

 this. 



With this instrument I uncap my honey combs 

 very readily, and since the water is shut in 

 tightly, the instrument will not so easily cool 

 oft"; I can readily uncover two combs without 

 rewarming. 



I hope that this instrument will lighten the 

 labors of the beekeepers ; any one can readily 

 have one made for himself. 



Adoloph Heller. 



Kopidluo, in Bohemia, Sept.. 20, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Day with Novice. 



Mr. Editor : — In moving into Ohio, which I 

 did last spring, I found myself in the vicinity of 

 Medina, where our apiarian friend, Mr. A. J. 

 Boot, lives. I was not long in planning a visit 

 to his apiary, where 8,000 pounds of honey, 

 worth nearly $2,000, were slung out of sixty- four 

 hives, two years ago. 



A ride by rail of two or three hours landed 

 me at the place. 



About the middle of June last, I found him 

 doing his second day's slinging, and from the 

 number of barrels in sight, I thought him a man 

 of "great expectations." Mr. Root very kindly 

 explained to me all that I desired to learn in re- 

 lation to his ways and means "of conducting his 

 apiary." I enjoyed the day exceedingly, aud 

 returned a wiser if not a better man. 



Mr. R. has been using for several years an 

 equal number of the American and Langstroth 

 hives, but, after cool deliberation, has piled 

 Young America with three patents against the 

 fence, and uses nothing but the Langstroth, or 

 Langstroth simplified. 



I find him to be a good inventive mechanic, 

 and his "tin corners" are a very important 

 matter to beekeepers, and is the perfection of 

 beauty and durability to the comb frame ; only 

 by seeing them in actual use can we gain a true 

 idea of their beauty and utility. I do not know 

 how I can do the beekeeping fraternity a better 

 turn than by urging them to send for a set and 

 try them for themselves. It seems to me they 

 never can be superseded, for what is there of a 

 bee hive but a movable frame in a simple box or 

 hive? Nothing. Therefore he who contributes 

 to make the Langstroth frame (there is none 

 other) better, and the box or case easy for far- 

 mers to make and easy for them to handle the 

 bees with, contributes to the general good ; but 

 he who dabbles in mothtraps, claptraps and fan- 

 ciful notions, throws dust in the eyes while he 

 rifles the pocket. I speak as a practical apia- 

 rian, mechanic, aud hive manufacturer. 



D. W. Whiting. 



Shelby, Ohio. 



For cleanliness and neatness, they may be a 

 mirror to the finest dame. — Butler. 



