1^97. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



469 



made a, practice of leveling down unfinisht combs In sections. 

 Coming from such an authority we knew it to be good ; but 

 what iwts a comb-leveler ? Root listed nothing of the sort — 

 not then. My first impression was that the combs were 

 simply scraped down ; my son, on the other hand, suggested 

 heat; so the tin shears and soldering iron were brought into 

 requisition ; and when, some time after, I got Dr. Miller to 

 describe Mr. Taylor's comb-leveler in the pages of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, I found we had pretty well hit it. Anyhow, 

 the leveler which we made out of our own " 'eads," or rather 

 out of a gallon kerosene tin and sundry contributions from 

 the ever-handy scrap-box, answers the purpose very well, and 

 — cost nothing. 



Again ; we used to fix on starters with melted wax and a 

 carael's-hair brush. It was a slow, messy, and unsatisfactory 

 process, and I longed in vain for a better. "Many's the time 

 and oft " I had pondered over that little wood-cut of the Daisy 

 fastener, and wondered, and kept on wondering, how it was 

 workt. At last one day, my son, who was busy leveling down 

 some combs, suddenly exclaimed, " Now I know the principle 

 of the Daisy fastener ! The lamp heats a thin sheet of metal, 

 which melts away sufficient wax to fix the starter in its 

 place." " Can we make one, think you ?" I askt. With that 

 colonial confidence begotten of being so often compelled to 

 help one's self, he promptly answered "Yes, or I'm a Dutch- 

 man." Well, the scrap-box was overhauled, and a spiral steel 

 spring (once part of an automatic cart-brake, and worth that 

 day fully its weight — well, in silver if not In gold) was fer- 

 retted out, and on the following day our Daisy was at work 

 turning 'em out like 'ot-cakes, and fully warranting the as- 

 surance that it was equal to fixing 500 starters an hour; at 

 least we've done 4.50 per hour on uur home-made tool, and 

 that " without a heffort." 



But wait till our automatic machinery for turning out 

 sections of nice white honey by steam by the million and /or 

 the million, is perfected — if the scrap-box will only stand the 

 strain. No more painful stings, no more sticky propolis, no 

 more plaguy bee-bread, and, better than all, no more pesky 

 bees! A crate of sections is simply shaken out into one big 

 hopper, five barrels of sugar and a pint bottle of Essence of 

 Floral All-Sorts Into another quantum suff. of water, and 

 melted ceresine turned on, the belts adjusted, the lever pusht 

 back, and then — but there, it is not protected yet; when it is, 

 I will let you know — until then, adieu. 



SrKEADING BROOD AND BREEDING UP. 



P. S. — Will some one of the California contributors — per- 

 haps Dr. Gallup or Prof. Cook — kindly inform us, through the 

 American Bee Journal, whether spreading brood ;ls had re- 

 course to by the majority of California apiarists at any time 

 during the year t that is to say, not merely at sprinijtime, but 

 may be In the middle of summer, or towards the end, should a 

 let-up in nectar-secreting flowers have reduced the colonies 

 and weakened them for an expected flow. 



Also, does experience show that colonies may be made to 

 breed up at any time during the summer by artificial feeding, 

 to an extent commensurate with the cost and laborof feeding ? 

 or is it only calculated to expedite breeding up in early spring, 

 when the bees are ready to Dreed up naturally .' 



"PATENT VENEER WOOD" FOR SHIPPING COMB HONEY. 



Is McCullum's "Patent Veneer Wood," from which fruit- 

 boxes are now so extensively made, at all likely to be found 

 serviceable for shipping comb honey, and to come into general 

 use for that purpose ? I would much like to see something 

 about this wonderful new invention, and its adaptability to 

 our calling, in the American Bee Journal. It might even do 

 for hives, certainly for supers, as it cannot warp, and is as 

 strong as Iron — at least so it is claimed by Mr. McCullum, who 

 is now in Cape Town, pushing his Invention amongst our fruit- 

 shippers. South Africa. 



Watery-Appearing Capping in Comb Honey. 



BV O. M. DOOI.rrTLE. 



Question. — In the fall of 18!J4 I Italianized a part of my 

 apiary, and during the season of 1895 the colonies which were 

 so Italianized gave me section honey which lookt badly on 

 account of the capping to the cells apparently lying flat on 

 the honey, with no air-space under the capping : I had noticed 

 a very little such before, in colonies that had a trace of Italian 

 blood in them ; but the Italianized colonies gave two-thirds of 

 all the honey they stored, of such a watery appearance that it 

 hurt the sale of my honey much. I do not recollect ever see- 

 ing anything regarding this matter in print, and ask if this 

 capping close to the honey is a characteristic of the Italian bee. 



Answer. — The matter of watery-appearing honey was the 

 subject of much discussion at our bee-conventions and else- 

 where in the early 70's, at about the time the Italian bee had 

 obtained a good foothold in the United States, and very many 

 condemned them on account of their being so economical of 

 wax and space as to give their comb honey the appearance our 

 questioner speaks of. 



If the questioner had noticed more closely he would not 

 only have discovered that, besides there being no air between 

 the capping and the honey, the capping itself contained les^ 

 than one-half the thickness in wax that is used by the black 

 bees. While the Italian bee was condemned by many comb- 

 honey men on account of their bad-appearing honey, yet those 

 who used the extractor were loud in their praise of this qual- 

 ity ; " for," said they, " as less wax is used, less honey will be 

 consumed for wax-secretion, and this will give us the amount 

 of honey which the black bees use in secreting wax for us to 

 turn directly into cash." Hence it came about that the Italian 

 bee was especially recommended for an apiary workt for ex- 

 tracted honey, while the blacks and hybrids were thought by 

 some to be the better bees for comb honey. 



Not long after this it was noticed that certain strains of 

 the Italian bee, and those coming from mothers many genera- 

 tions off from imported stock, gave combs of a whiteness which 

 nearly if not quite equaled those produced by black bees, and 

 so we set to breeding in this direction till the success along 

 this white-capping line was so great that scarcely a thing 

 about the watery appearance of comb honey has appeared for 

 the past eight or ten years in our bee-papers. 



Here lies one of the objections made by some against the 

 further importation of bees from Italy, that, by such importa- 

 tions, we have a new warfare to begin till we can breed this 

 watery-capping propensity out of them. While I think there 

 is something in this objection, still, so far as I knowfrom per- 

 sonal experience, and some facts gleaned from others, a great 

 advance along the line of white capping of comb has been 

 made in Italy as well as in this country; and our questioner 

 must have gotten hold of some of the very worst bees along 

 this line which are imported from Italy today. 



With me the Cyprian bees were worse along this watery-ap- 

 pearing-comb line than the Italians; while the Syrio-Italian 

 bees, sent out by a prominent apiarist, were the worst I ever 

 saw — so much so that their honey was hardly salable at any 

 price, without explanation, as the people lookt upon it with 

 suspicion of adulteration, or that it was glucose capt by ma- 

 chinery, according to the "fake" that was then abroad in the 

 land. 



Had it not been for the many good qualities of the Italian 

 bee, this quality of poor-looking comb honey, that was noticed 

 at the start, would have doomed them just as surely as the 

 stinging propensity did the Cyprians. But the Italian bee is 

 in this country for its many good qualities, and it is here to 

 stay for all time, and in time the objection spoken of by our 

 questioner will be a thing entirely of the past. — Gleanings. 



Making Bee and Honey Exhibits at Fairs. 



BV .1. C. WALLKXMETER. 

 [Continued from page 451.') 

 I believe St. Louis has the finest exhibits, and I remember 

 being over-awed by a display of E. T. Flanagan (I believe in 

 1890), that was simply immense, and he was right in with 

 the pumpkins and cabbages. To show what can be done in 

 this line if the apiarist be an enthusiast, I will say that altho 

 not one cent was offered in premiums by the managers of the 

 St. Joseph (Mo.) Exposition, a very large and fine display was 

 arranged by local apiarists. This proved such a great attrac- 

 tion that the officers the next year offered S120 in premiums, 



