594 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



amber, and dark. For instance, there 

 will be "fancy light," "fancy amber," and 

 "fancy dark," "No. 1 light," "No. 1 am- 

 ber," and "No. 1 dark." 



The sections, after grading and scrap- 

 ing, are to be placed in clean shipping 

 cases having glass in one or both ends. 

 Several of these may be placed in a single 

 crate for shipment. To prevent breaking 

 down of the combs it is best to put straw 

 In the bottom of the crate for the ship- 

 ping cases to rest on, and the crates 

 should be so placed as to keep the combs 

 in a perpendicular position. The crates 

 are also likely to be kept right side up 

 if convenient handles are attached to the 

 sides — preferably strips with the ends 

 projecting beyond the corners. Care in 

 handling will generally be given if the 

 glass in the shipping cases shows. 



Prodnctton of Wax 



No method has yet been brought for- 

 ward which will enable one, at the pres- 

 ent relative prices of honey and wax, to 

 turn the whole working force of the bees, 



Fig. 8. Solar Wax Extractor. 

 or even the greater part of it, into the 

 production of wax instead of honey; in 

 fact, the small amount of wax produced 

 incidentally in apiaries managed for ex- 

 tracted or for section honey is usually 

 turned into honey the following season; 

 that is, it is made into comb foundation, 

 which is then employed in the .same hives 

 to increase their yield of marketable 

 honey. It is even the case that in most 

 apiaries managed on approved modern 

 methods more pounds of foundation are 



employed than wax produced; hence less 

 progressive bee keepers — those who ad- 

 here to the use of box hives and who can 

 not therefore utilize comb foundation — 

 are called upon for their wax product. 

 As each pound of wax represents several 

 pounds of honey, all cappings removed 

 when preparing combs for the extractor, 

 all scrapings and trimmings and bits of 

 drone comb, are to be saved and ren- 

 dered into wax. This is best done in the 

 solar wax extractor (Fig. S), the essen- 

 tial parts of which are a metal tank with 

 wire-cloth strainer and a glass cover, the 

 latter generally made double. The bot- 

 tom of the metal tank is strewn with 

 pieces of comb, the glass cover adjusted, 

 and the whole exposed to the direct rays 

 of the sun. A superior quality of wax 

 filters through the strainer. 



The Wintering' of Bees 



How to bring bees successfully through 

 the winter in the colder portions of the 

 United States is a problem which gives 

 anxiety to all who are about to attempt 

 it for the first time in those sections, and 

 even many who have kept bees for years 

 still find it their greatest difficulty. A 

 queen may die and the colony dwindle 

 away. But care as to ventilation, damp- 

 ness, age of the bees, etc., will usually 

 insure a successful wintering. Out-of-door 

 wintering is to be preferred where the 

 climate is not too sevei'e. 



General Considerations 



Whatever method be followed in win- 

 tering, certain conditions regarding the 

 colony itself are plainly essential: First, 

 it should have a good queen; second, a 

 fair-sized cluster of healthy bees, neither 

 too old nor too young; third, a plentiful 

 supply of good food. The first of these 

 conditions may be counted as fulfilled if 

 the queen at the head of the colony is 

 not more than two years old, is still 

 active, and has always kept her colony 

 populous; yet a younger queen — even one 

 of the current season's rearing, and thus 

 but a few weeks or months old — is, if 

 raised under favorable conditions, much 

 to be preferred. The second point is met 

 if brood rearing has been continued with- 



