AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



619 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. 

 Beeville, Texas. 



Beeswax on Clothing — Pieces of Comb. 



Mrs. Atchley : — The way I remove 

 beeswax from clothing, is to lay a piece 

 of tissue-paper on the wax, then pass a 

 hot flat-iron over it ; repeat it, that is, 

 move the paper and pass the hot iron 

 over it until the wax disappears from 

 the cloth. 



I have two colonies of bees. The 

 frames are too large for Langstroth 

 hives, so I cut the comb out and fit it in 

 Hoffman frames, which leaves me a lot 

 of small pieces of comb. Would it do to 

 wire the pieces in a frame, just as well 

 as to give the bees comb foundation ? 

 J. C. Knoll. 



Friend Knoll, I feel myself indebted to 

 you for the recipe to remove wax from 

 clothing, and I kno^v it will benefit many 

 others. I thank you very much for your 

 kindness. 



In regard to your pieces of comb I will 

 say that if the combs are new, you can 

 use them as starters, or place them in a 

 frame and fasten them with strips of 

 wood tacked across the frames on both 

 sides, and the bees will soon patch them 

 all up nicely. But if combs are old and 

 dark, I would not use them. 



Jennie Atchley. 



Mating Young Italian Queens. 



Mrs. Atchley : — Please tell me in the 

 American Bee Journal how to get my 

 young Italian queens purely mated. 



T. N. Pettigrew. 



Fincastle, Va. 



Friend Pettigrew, there are several 

 ways to manage to have nearly all your 

 queens mate purely. I will name two, 

 and if you will follow either plan you 

 will have but very few mismated queens: 



1st. Allow only the pure drones to 

 fly within two miles of your mating 



yard, by putting the hives out that far 

 from other bees. 



2nd. If you are not so situated to 

 move your hives containing the virgins 

 out beyond the easy flight of other 

 drones, put drone-excluding zinc over 

 the entrances of all the hives with un- 

 desirable drones, and do not allow any 

 but your pure drones to fly. 



Now, all that you have to do to insure 

 safe mating is to so arrange your mating 

 yards that nothing but pure drones can 

 fly, and you will be O. K. I know you 

 are a beginner, and this is why I go into 

 detail for you, as I could have only said 

 in a short way, do not allow any but 

 pure drones to fly within two miles of 

 your bees, which would have answered 

 your question. But I propose to be as 

 much help to you as my time will allow, 

 and as I am able, so, now to close I will 

 repeat, you must so arrange your hives 

 with zinc so that your impure drones 

 cannot fly ; or carry the virgin queens in 

 their hives, together with the pure 

 drones, at least two miles from other 

 bees, to be on the safe side. 



Jennie Atchley. 



The Texas State Convention. 



(Continued from page 587.) 

 The following historical address was 

 delivered by Dr. Wm. R. Howard: 



Origin of the Texas Bee-Association. 



This is our 16th annual meeting, and 

 it is to us more like a family reunion 

 than a meeting to transact business. 

 Yet we are here from all parts of our 

 beloved State, each one with his mite of 

 experience to contribute to the general 

 welfare of each other. When last we 

 met here, we counted five of our original 

 or charter members, to-day we meet 

 these same members who have been with 

 us from the beginning. Yet many are 

 here who have for years been active and 

 efficient members, who have done their 

 part toward perpetuating our noble 

 society. 



I am persuaded that a brief history of 

 the origin and progress of this associa- 

 tion of fraternal workers will be of in- 

 terest to many here, if for no other pur- 

 pose than to recall many of the happy 

 recollections of bye-gone days, when 

 many of us were younger and more 

 earnest in the work. While our sweet- 

 est dreams have not been realized, our 

 fondest hopes have not ended in fruition, 

 or our most ardent faith ended in sight, 

 yet that sweet charity of brotherly love 



