1372.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



95 



wide, extending from top to bottom, upon a bench 

 about two feet from the ground, with the open 

 side exposed to the west, where it received the 

 full benefit of the Hyperborean blasts of Lake 

 Erie ; yet it came out in the spring in good con- 

 dition. 



If cold will kill bees, why did not they perish ? 

 If bees are wintered in a special repository they 

 must not be too strong in numbers. One quart 

 of young bees is amply sufficient. We agree ex- 

 actly with Mr. Dadant's views of the •' Utility 

 of Drones." Why breed a horde of useless con- 

 sumers? By rearing them from choice queens 

 in one or two hives only, we will get better stock 

 where queens are fertilized in the open air. Not 

 wishing to weary you, Mr. Editor, with our de- 

 sultory remarks, we close for tlie present. 



Heuekt A. Bukch. 

 South Haven, Mich. 



[For Wagner's American Bee Journal.] 



Uncapping Combs. 



Mr. Editor : — On page 67 of your September 

 number, I see an article on the subject of un- 

 capping honey by heat. As we have made some 

 experiments in this direction, this article deter- 

 mines us to give them now. In June or July, 

 1>71, we tried a plan similar to Mr. Hellei's, ex- 

 cept that we used a thick knife properly heated, 

 but never could get it to work satisfactorily ; the 

 wax would not float in the honey, as it appears 

 to have done for Mr. Heller, but would run and 

 close a large portion of the cells with thick drops 

 of wax. We infer Mr. H. placed his combs in 

 a horizontal position. This would be too incon- 

 venient, besides we do not think anything would 

 be gained over the usual method. 



\V'e next tried placing cloth over the face of 

 the comb, applying a heated iron cylinder on the 

 outside of the cloth, lifting the latter as fast as 

 the roller passed over it, the object being for the 

 cloth to absorb the wax as fast as me ted, and 

 thus removing the caps adhering to it. This, 

 too, proved unsatisfactory, sometimes producing 

 tearing work. Yet we are not sure if we had no 

 better plan, it might succeed, in careful hands, 

 but we think we have a better. By taking a 

 common tea kettle, containing a small quantity 

 of water, and placing it over a brisk tire until 

 a strong jet of steam was thrown out, then 

 taking a frame by the shou'ders, in the same 

 position in which ii was placed in the hive, and 

 holding it before the jet, allowing the steam to 

 touch, first, the upper part of the comb, and 

 raising the comb as fast as the wax ran off clear 

 of the cells, we soon found a strip, about 2£ 

 inches wide, from the top of the comb io the bot- 

 tom, beautifully cleared of cappings, every cell 

 remaining well defined and uninjured ; but the 

 wax would form in solid streaks on each side of 

 the uncapped portion, and to apply heat suffi- 

 cient to remelt it would injure the cells around 

 it, and if we attempted to move the frame from 

 right to left at the same time we lifted it up- 

 wards, to keep the wax flowing from above 

 downwards, Ave found that while the jet was 



moving over the comb, the wax would cool so 

 rapidly while the frame was being moved, it 

 would be hard before the steam could be applied 

 to it. In short, the jet of steam was not broad 

 enough to keep the entire width of the comb 

 melted at once, and once hardened in thick cords, 

 it could not be again melted without injury to 

 the combs, though we thus uncapped a great 

 many combs by it, in strips from top to bottom, 

 and removing the cords of wax between them 

 with a knife. We finally devised a machine 

 that will, we think, perectly accomplish the ob- 

 ject. 



Have a cylinder or tube of tin about one 

 and a half inches in diameter, and as long as 

 your frames are. On one side of this have a row 

 of very small holes punched in a straight line 

 from one end to the other and close together ; 

 now have the ends of the tube securely closed 

 and a hole one inch in diameter cut out of the 

 under side in the center ; this is to receive a 

 small tin tube about one foot long, the other end 

 to be inserted so as to fit tightly into a tin lid 

 made to fit the top of a tea kettle or other suit- 

 able vessel, the spout of which (if it has one) 

 must be closed. All being secure and water in 

 •our kettle, a brisk fire is all that is needed to 

 give us a broad she t of s cam, extending hori- 

 zontally, as wide as our frame. We have only 

 to take a frame to be uncapped, place it pretty 

 close to the row of holes in the cylinder, beginning 

 at the top of the frame, slowly raise the frame 

 as fast as the wax melts and flows downward, 

 when the entire capping will run off the bottom 

 of our frame melted wax. 



It was too late last season before we devised 

 this implement, and having, this season, to re- 

 move our apiary from Mobile to this place, we 

 have had no opportunity to thoroughly test it, 

 but we uncapped so many combs successfully 

 with nothing but our tea kettle, that we feel 

 confident it will succeed uuder all circumstances. 



We had not intended to communicate our dis- 

 covery until we had thoroughly tested and per- 

 fected it, but the communication in your Sep- 

 tember number has determined us to give it now, 

 lest the hint there given might lead some genius 

 to sec the "point." and the Patent Office be be- 

 sieged for a patent, and we only wish we were 

 genius enough to invent all the improvements in 

 apiarian fixtures, we feel quite sure that de- 

 partment of the Patent Office would have a long 

 rest. J. M. Worden. 



Oxford, Culhonn Co., Alabama. 



In order to defend themselves from cold during 

 winter, they crowd about the middle of the hive 

 as near to each other as they can be in the space 

 that is between two combs. There they stir 

 themselves from time to time, without change of 

 place, and this motion excites a warmth that 

 protects them from external cold. The heat is 

 so great by this agitation, that it is communi- 

 cated to the glass windows of the hive, where it 

 is very sensible to the hand that is applied. 



It is probable that they succeed one another 

 by turns in laboring, because they work night 



