June 7, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



485 



every time one went into the bee-yard. Such colonics spend 

 their time in hunting up some one to sting. I have had a 

 few black bees that seemed always on the wing, ready to 

 "go for" the first person who entered the apiary. 



The yellow races of bees do not, as a rule, use their 

 stiiii^ so freely and vigorously as black bees. But who cares 

 for black bees? No one wants them, but the 'way-back bee- 

 man — the fellow who doesn't read the bee-papers. 



To give further evidence that the peculiarity of a race 

 of bees is transmitted to future generations through, or by, 

 the drone, 1 will relate my experience with a few drones T 

 bought from a distant apiary to mate a few queens. I found 

 these drones and bees 20 miles from my apiary. I took home 

 about too drones. The color of drones and bees was nearly 

 an albino — in fact, the drones seemed to be covered with 

 white hair. When the bees hatched from the Italian queens 

 mated to these drones, I found them a clear albino bee, and 

 very handsome. It will be seen by this that it requires as 

 much care in selecting a drone-mother as it does the queen- 

 mother. 



A. I. Root once told his readers not to pay any atten- 

 tion to color of drones. That was all right if it was neces- 

 sary only to rear bees. But I have an idea that his re- 

 marks related to color only. If we are looking for the best 

 results in breeding bees, the selection of the drone-bee must 

 be looked after sharply. Essex Co., Mass. 



# 



Rendering Beeswax and Bee-Glue 



BY F. GREINER. 



DURING a recent long-continued storm I have looked 

 over a lot of extracting combs, culled out the poorest 

 and rendered them with other scraps, etc., into wax. 

 TIk- conclusions I have formed are these: 



I am getting pretty fair pay for my time when making 

 wax, but I am getting very little for the combs treated. 

 In other words, the wax I am able to make only just about 

 pays fi.r the time it takes to get it. I can make but about 

 three runs with the German steam wax-extractor, and the 

 amount of wax at the end of the day will be about 15 

 pounds. It is a mussy job and I would gladly give any man 

 half or more of the wax that he might be able to boil, 

 squeeze, extract or get in any way out of the stuff, providing 

 I had nothing to do about it. 



It is detestable work, anyhow. Such scraps as can 

 be rendered by the solar machine I am willing to work over, 

 but this old-comb business I would like to get rid of. I 

 think I shall build a large solar extractor and make my wax 

 so in the future. I don't expect to obtain very much that 

 way, but it will be nice, and there will be less disagreeable 

 work and waste of time. 



By way of suggestion, there are just a few men who 

 know how to make beeswax at a profit. They obtain all the 

 wax there is "in it." They even work slumgum over at a 

 profit, and assure us that it contains ]/^ or more of its weight 

 in wax. Now, I don't question the veracity of these gentle- 

 men, but it seems to me that they are just the men to go into 

 the business of making up our wax. I would take a very 

 small share of what they could squeeze or get otherwise out 

 of my combs. They ought to be able to make money out of 

 such a business ; besides, they would render the bee-keepers 

 a valuable service. An establishment of this kind run on a 

 large scale could be run much more economically than we 

 bee-keepers are doing it. If this thing should materialize, 

 I should be glad enough. 



It is not my intention or desire to advocate wasteful 

 methods. On the other hand, I feel that the bee-keepers 

 must be saving. Wax is a valuable and indispensable prod- 

 uct, and we ought to produce more of it. 



A few pounds of wax per year mean very little to each 

 bee-keeper individually, but in the aggregate it means thou- 

 sands of pounds and dollars. Can we save them? 



In the matter of wax-making, the often accumulating 

 propolis has apparently received no attention. It contains 

 quite a little nice wax. I have known instances where the 

 propolizing of sections, etc., was done with pure wax. In 

 fitting our section-honey for crating — which means scraping 

 the sections with the knife — a great deal of propolis accumu- 

 lates on the work-bench and on the floor. Then again dur- 

 ing the winter, when we clean section-holders, fences, supi 

 etc., from the sticky stuff, a number of gallons are swept 

 up from the floor and work- table. Formerly this was 

 burned up just to dispose of it. In examining some of this 



material the past winter it appeared to me as containing quite 

 a percent of wax. and for the sake of the experiment I filled 

 an old iron-kettle with it, placing it on my shop-stove. I 

 was attending to some other work at the time. When the 

 stuff had melted I kept dipping off the clear beeswax. Then 

 1 discovered 1 could just pour the wax off. 



Propolis is very heavy. It will sink in water. Wax is 

 lighter than either propolis or water, consequently these sub- 

 stances could be separated by their specific gravity if they 

 could be brought all together to the fluid state. Unfortu- 

 nately, propolis does not melt at the boiling point of water, 

 and it is therefore not practical to bring the propolis to the 

 melting point while in water. When propolis is in powder 

 form the wax which it contains will, to a great extent, sep- 

 arate from it in the hot water bath, and if left to cool the 

 wax will about all be on top of the water, the propolis being 

 found at the bottom. 



From a mess of saved-up scrapings, such as always ac- 

 cumulate while getting section honey ready for crating, I 

 obtained fully 25 percent, by weight, of beeswax of a beau- 

 tiful color. If there should be among the 500,000 or 600,000 

 bee-keepers only 1,000 of them who are similarly situated as 

 I am, and will save the scrapings spoken of, with very little 

 trouble they each may obtain 5 or 6 lbs of nice wax, worth 

 $1.50 — the price of several good bee-papers — and not be out 

 one red cent. This would mean the saving of $1,500, or 

 possibly an enlarged number of readers of the American 

 Bee Journal or other bee-periodicals. 



What pleased me most was not the saving of a few 

 pounds of wax, but the discovery that beeswax and bee- 

 slue could be separated easilv from each other. 



Naples, N. Y. 



# 



Comb Honey and Natural Swarming— 

 Queen-Rearing and the Pre- 

 vention of Increase 



BY "BLOOM FIELD." 



THIS article is intended for beginners who have but a 

 home apiary, and that with a limited number of colo- 

 nies, and who operate for comb honey. Under the con- 

 ditions named, the best results will be obtained by natural 

 swarming, for while it has some disadvantages, the advan- 

 tages predominate. The golden rule of bee-keeping is to "Keep 

 your colonies strong" and undivided as much as possible. 

 Under natural swarming, some colonies will not swarm at 

 all, and these are precisely the colonies that give the great- 

 est yield of surplus honey. This is a distinct and important 

 advantage, for increase of colonies is always obtained at 

 the expense of surplus honey. This is so nearly universally 

 true that the exceptions need not be considered. 



To keep down increase of colonies, and rear the best 

 queens from select stock, is the next thing to be aimed at. To 

 accomplish this double purpose, proceed as follows: 



Early in the spring practice stimulative feeding with 

 one or more colonies, that contain the best strain of bees. 

 Use judgment as to the number of young queens you will re- 

 quire under the circumstances. When one of the best colonies 

 swarms, which you have stimulated and induced to swarm 

 early, hive it on the old stand. This swarm contains an old 

 queen, but as she is one of your very best, she deserves to live 

 another year, unless her bees supersede her. We are now 

 done with this swarm, and will not again refer to it. 



Open the hive of the parent colony and see how many 

 good queen-cells it contains, and how many nuclei you 

 can safelv break it up into. Use judgment. These queen- 

 cells have been reared under the impulse of natural swarm- 

 ing, in full colonies, from select stock, and they will produce 

 the very best of queens, long-lived and prolific. 



Move the nuclei thus started to other locations. In each, 

 hang a Doolittle feeder of sweetened water or weak syrup. 

 close the entrance with wire-cloth, and confine the bees for 

 ;, days, and give them only a limited amount of ventilation. 



Later in the reason, when one of your common stock 

 swarms, hive it on the old stand on starters, with a _ queen- 

 excluder above, and the supers over all. Give plenty of super- 

 room. Open the hive of the pa nl colony and brush off all 

 the bees in front of the swarm. This swarm is now a "hum- 

 mer," and should produce large quantities of surplus honey in 

 the supers. If you are afraid they will swarm out and de- 

 camp, give them plenty of ventilation, and put a queen-guard 

 at the entrance for 3 or 4 days. Take the combs from the 



