114 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



August 



the majority of Northern bee-keep- 

 ers, while the tropical honey producer 

 is qualified to view the proposition 

 from an appreciative and comprehen- 

 sive standpoint, and while wax is the 

 prime object, nobody, perhaps, would 

 object to loading a ship once a year 

 even with the cheap honey which 

 might incidentally accumulate We 

 will not question the cost of produc- 

 tion of a pound of wax, which is var- 

 iously stated by acknowledged experts 

 in the honey business, as its applica- 

 tion does not become the subject, we 

 know no expert in the production of 

 wax, notwithstanding there is a grow- 

 ing demand for this commodity the 

 world over. 



To succeed in producing wax would 

 necessitate inexpensive appliances 

 and thousands of colonies surrounded 

 by abundant forage, a suitable hive 

 could be made of adobe or mud for 

 the walls, which possess the advanta- 

 ges of cheapness and being cool, aud 

 to which the bees will not attach the 

 combs, enabling the cover of bark or 

 a cheap board to be easily removed 

 and inverted upon the walls where all 

 combs could be cut away from all. 

 sides of the brood and conveyed to 

 the solar extractor, where, with no co- 

 coons to impede its workings, the new 

 white combs would melt like snow be- 

 neath the powerful rays of a tropical 

 sun, and the flakes of wax need only 

 to be caked and put into merchant- 

 able shape. 



With thousands of square miles of 

 floral clad mountains and valleys, 

 which the bee-keeper is priviledged 

 to occupy and utilize, no winter's 

 deadly blast to impede incessant work, 

 why could these earthern hives not be 



multiplied aud apiaries extended in- 

 definitely, a tank feeder cheaply ar- 

 ranged to " feed back " a portion of 

 the accumulated honey during a 

 dearth from natural sources, and the 

 " season " drawn out, and wax secre- 

 tion proportionately ? Ten or twelve 

 thousand colonies with their energies 

 devoted to comb building would not 

 be as difficult to obtain, under favor- 

 able conditions, as might be imagined, 

 while the work of caring for that num- 

 ber could be handled by five or six 

 competent men. As to the value of 

 an "average season's " product I will 

 not venture to estimate, though if half 

 a dozen "hustlers" controlled 12,000 

 wax-producing colonies in Mexico I 

 will venture the assertion they "would 

 have more to show for a season's work 

 than any six honey producers of 

 Southern California can show for 

 1894. 



Titusville, Pa. 



The Advantage of Having 

 Queens Clipped. 



BY A. G. AMOS. 



As I was watching a fine large swarm 

 of bees entering its new hive on the 

 old stand the other day my thoughts 

 wandered back to the time when I 

 commenced bee-keeping with two old 

 box hives filled with black bees, and 

 my first swarm which issued and 

 alighted in a neighboring tree close by 

 the roadside. 



Of course you all know the disad- 

 vantage of climbing trees and the ac- 

 cidents which will happen while hiv- 

 ing swarms which have undipped 

 queens, and there are also a great 

 many good swarms left which if they 

 had a clipped queen would be saved. 



