18U4 



GLEANINGS IN BKECULTURK 



queens not killed by reversing, or by the swarms 

 coming out without any capped queen-cells or 

 any preparation along the line of queen-cells, 

 the reversing of frames for this purpose proved 

 as fallacious here as for section honey. The 

 only advantage I could ever find in reversing 

 frames was that, by thus doing, the combs 

 would be built as perfectly to the bottom-bar 

 of the frames as to the top-bar, so that the 

 trouble of ridding the frames of bees, on ac- 

 count of their hiding in the space between the 

 bottom-bar and the comb, was obviated. While 

 this was a real gain, yet in my opinion the gain 

 here is not of sufficient amount to pay for the 

 trouble and cost of reversible frames. This can 

 also be accomplished in other ways, such as 

 placing the frames in an upper story and run- 

 ning for extracted honey, or having them filled 

 with early honey for the bees to winter on. 



Question.— \Yh'a,t is the best way to purify 

 beeswax so as to free it from dirt and give it 

 that nice yellow look we see in some of the 

 foundation sent out? I have a lot of old dirty 

 beeswax and old combs which I wish to reduce 

 to nice yellow wax this wintisr. 



Ansiver.~lf I mistake not, some of our foun- 

 dation-makers bleach or cleanse their wax by 

 the use of chemicals. Regarding the use of 

 these I know nothing, and I doubt whether the 

 ardinary practical bee-keeper could make it 

 pay to use chemicals for purifying beeswax, 

 iven were he familiar with their use. Any 

 3lan by which the wax is kept in a liquid state 

 'or a long time, the same being perfectly station- 

 iry during this time and while cooling, and 

 asing quite a body of water with the wax for 

 ■.he dirt to settle into, has a tendency to sepa- 

 rate the impurities from the wax. and give it a 

 M-ight yellow color. If, in addition to the 

 ibove, a pint of good strong vinegar is used for 

 ivery ten pounds of wax and one quart of wa- 

 «r, the result will be far more satisfactory. My 

 )laii is as follows: Put 10 lbs. of wax, one 

 [uart of water, and one pint of strong vinegar, 

 nto a flaring tin dish, and set it on the stove 

 ill the wax is melted and the whole become as 

 lot as it will bear without boiling over. If the 

 mpurities are of any size it should now be 

 trained through common cotton cloth, or these 

 mpurities are likely to be partially Imbedded 

 n the wax at the bottom of the cake when cold, 

 oas to make the job unsatisfactory. Having 

 his accomplished, spread down two or three 

 hicknesses of old carpet or two or three horse- 

 lankets, where the wax is expected to stay till 

 old; then set the vessel of wax in the middle, 

 nd wrap ov.-r the top and sides till well pro- 

 3cted from the outside air. so that the whole 

 lay be two or three hours in cooling. If you 

 'ill watch the liquid you have in the vessel 

 efore covering up, you will note that the whole 

 lass seems to be in agitation, rolling and turn- 

 »g about as though it were alive. This is the 



57 



work of the vinegar, and that which makes the- 

 dirt separate more perfectly from the wax than 

 it otherwise would. If strained asgiven above, 

 there will be only a fine dross at the bottom of 

 thecakewhen cold, which is easily .separated 

 from the wax by scraping with a dull knife. 

 Bro. A. 1. Root said in Gleanings. som<! fifteen 

 years ago, after receiving wax of me treated in 

 the above way, that the same was the nicest 

 wax he had ever received up to that time. The 

 above way of cleansing wax did not originate 

 with me, but was given by Quinby in his " Bee- 

 keeping," about 30 years ago. 



THOSE STRAWS. 



Dr. Miller must have raised a good crop of 

 straw this year— long and short straws, little 

 and big straws, and pointed straws. I am very 

 busy getting ready for Crystal Spring Farm 

 Apiary, where I will welcome all bee-keeping 

 friends at any time after the first of March. 



Carpenter, Madison Co., 111. Edw. Smith. 



BEE-CANDY— A CAUTION. 



On page 881 of Gleanings for Dec. 1 I no- 

 tice a valuable article on candy for queen -cages 

 and feeding bees, by Mrs. Jennie Atchley: and 

 as I read it over I was wondering how many of 

 the bee-keeping friends have had trouble in 

 making a candy that was just right; and did it 

 ever occur to them that the sugar might be at 

 fault? I do not remember of ever seeing men- 

 tion made of it in the journals or text-books, 

 but there is to be found on the market what is 

 known to the trade as powdered XXXX su- 

 gar, which is much used for frostings, etc., for 

 cake, and is used without eggs or cooking; and 

 it will set or harden in a very short lime, some- 

 thing like plaster of Paris. It is wholly unfit 

 for use in making bee-candy, and I thought per- 

 haps it might not be out of place to mention it 

 at this time, as it is usually sold in place of the 

 common pulverized sugar, which it strongly re- 

 sembles in looks, but it is not so sweet: and un- 

 less the purchaser is posted, and states that it 

 will not answer, usually no mention is made of 

 it by the party selling it. I should probably 

 have been ignorant of its existence myself had 

 I not been engaged in the grocery trade for a 

 number of years, during which time I came 

 across it, and have tried it in my family, etc., 

 but I can not recommend Its use as a food or for 

 general purposes. T. J. Dugdale. 



West Galway, N. Y., Dec. 5. 



[The candy that we have been using with 

 such success is the very one which you seem to 

 think is not suitable. What we have ordered 

 is XXXX powdered sugar. It has a very dif- 



