1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



565 



outside on the bottom of the oven ; shut the door and ro about 

 your work. 



Take a look at it occasionally to see that all is going well. 

 The temperature of the oven should be moderate. If the 

 water boils, it is too hot. Regulate the fire or dampers, or 

 leave the door open a little way. The heat should not be 

 great enough to scorch the sticks or cloth. 



When the wax seems to be all dript into the pan, remove 

 the sticks and cloth. If possible, let the fire die out, shut the 

 oven and leave the pan of wax to cool in the oven. This will 

 insure a slow and even cooling of the wax, and will allow the 

 dirt that may have filtered through the cloth to settle into the 

 water in the bottom of the pan. But if the lire is used for 

 other purposes, remove the pan carefully and steadily, cover 

 with a tin pot-cover, a board, or anything that will lie closely 

 over it, but will not touch the wax ; then place over all an 

 old blanket or quilt, folded several times, and tuckt closely 

 around the pan, to prevent the heat from escaping too fast. 



On this, more than any one thing, depends the quality and 

 appearance of your wax. If It cools loo rapidly, the particles 

 of dirt, propolis, and honey will be caught in the mass, giving 

 it a sticky feeling and a mottled appearance. If the surface 

 hardens too quickly, it will crack open as the inside cools. 



Do not uncover until the pan is no warmer than your 

 hand. When the cake is thoroughly cooled, it will loosen 

 from the pan easily, but if you attempt to get it out before, 

 even iho the wax seems hardened, you will not only have your 

 trouble for your pains, but you will realize as never before, 

 what it means to "stick as tight as beeswax." Scrape off 

 with a caseknife whatever settlings are on the bottom of the 

 cake, and you should have a clean, clear, smooth cake, that 

 will bring the highest price in the market. 



If, for any reason, the wax is not satisfactory, the cake 

 can be broken up, tied in a clean cloth, and put larough the 

 same process again. 



If it is desired to make small cakes, pour from the pan, 

 while hot, into cups or metal molds and cover closely. 



Here are a few don'ts to hang on the walls of your mem- 

 ory when rendering wax : 



Don't allow the wax to come in contact with iron, as it 

 will blacken the wax. 



Dou't grease the molds. It is not necessary, and injures 

 the appearance of the wax. 



Don't move the molds before the wax cools. The wax 

 that slops on the sides will harden there and give the cakes a 

 ragged look on the edges. 



Dou't let the wax boil. This tends to make it brittle and 

 crumbly. 



Djn'l spill any melted wax on the floor. If you do, you 

 will be sorry. 



Dou't spend precious time trying to scrape and scour off 

 any wax that may stick to the pan, but take it out-doors, 

 away from the tire, and apply a little gasoline. It acts as a 

 certain brand of pills are said to act on a weak stomach — like 



magic. 



Don't rush off to town and sell your wax to the first bid- 

 der. Begin now to watch the market reports. The price of 

 wax fluctuates with the change of seasons, and you can soon 

 learn what time of the year it is highest. Then sell. 



These directions are for those who have only a few pounds 

 of wax to be rendered. A large quantity would, of course, 

 have to be handled differently, but for small lots I prefer this 

 method to any I have ever tried. — The Busy Bee. 



% 



The JYIcEvoy Foul Brood Treatment is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet ou "Foul Brood; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, aud should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 'Ih cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for $1.10. 



Some Things Learned in the Apiary. 



BV B. F. LKWH. 



I see the Editor's invitation on page 232 to his readers 

 to relate, or rather, contribute their experience that they may 

 have with their bees this season and report what they have 

 learned. To begin with, very few people down here in Mississ- 

 ippi keep bees except in box or gum hives, and about my only 

 way of keeping up with the times is reading the bee-papers, 

 which are very interesting to me. 



We winter our bees here on the summer stands, and I 

 think as good a way as any to take care of the comos Is to 

 leave them on the hives, and let the bees take care of them. 

 When I run for extracted honey, the hives being 2 stories high, 

 through the v<lnter the queen would almost invariably begin 

 laying in the topstory, and about one week before the honey- 

 flow — which is about the first of May— the upper story would 

 be well filled with brood and honey, and the lower combs 

 would be empty. I then go to work and run the queen down 

 in the lower story, and put a zinc honey-board above her, and 

 set the body with the brood above the zinc honey-board. The 

 queen is then separated from the brood, and has plenty of 

 laying room, and as the brood hatches out above, the bees will 

 fill the combs with honey. 



Sometimes it is necessary to put on the third or even the 

 fourth body to give the bees room to store the honey. If I 

 find the queen is crowding the combs in the lower body with 

 brood, I move some of it above, and give her more empty 

 combs. By this means 1 prevent swarming, and have rousing 

 strong colonies of bees to harvest the honey. 



If I want to increase my bees about the end of the honey 

 harvest, I divide them, or, as some term it, "swarm them 

 artificially." I tried the above plan with one hive a few years 

 ago ; the next year I tried a few more, and this year I workt 

 quite a lot of them this way. I don't think I ever had a col- 

 ony swarm that was managed as above, and I have always 

 got more honey from those colonies than any others in my 

 yard. 



F.\S1ENING DOWN THE BF,B VEIL. 



Another thing I have learned that I like very much, and 

 that is the way I fasten the lower end of my bee-veil to keep 

 the bees out. I found an old spring about my place that lookt 

 like a clock spring. I cut a piece of it off about long enough 

 to go around my neck. So I just put on my beehat with the 

 veil on it, and pull down the tail of the veil, then open the 

 spring collar, and let it go around the veil around my neck. 

 The spring holds the veil so close that no bee can get under it ; 

 and if I should want to spit, or blow my nose, all I have to do 

 is to catch hold of each end of the spring and lift it off, raise 

 my veil, and spit or blow, as the case may be, and put the 

 spring back. I consider the spring to hold my veil in place a 

 big help, and a great convenience — by far the most conven- 

 ient way that I have ever tried. All are at liberty to try it, as 

 I claim no patent on it. 



AN EXPERIENCE WITH HOFF.\IAN FRAMES. 



The last thing that I shall speak of this time, but by no 

 means the least, is the Hoffman frame. When 1 began using 

 the improved hives, some six or seven years ago, I bought 41 

 dovetailed hives. At that time the frames had thiu top-bars 

 and comb guide, and we wired the foundation in by putting 

 two diagonal wires running from the center of the bottom-bar 

 of the frame to the upper corners of the frame, then put per- 

 pendicular wires about two inches apart across the frame, 

 and fastened the foundation to it. The last two lots of hives 

 that I bought, the Hoffman frames came with them, and I 

 wired and put in the foundation according to the directions, 

 running the wires horizontally. I would draw the wire as 

 tight as it and the wood would bear, then stick the founda- 

 tion to the top-bar and imbed the wire as directed. 



I put them into the hives and hived the bees on them, and 



