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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 16. 



Carefully constructed experimeuts by that able and inde. 

 fatigable English bee-master, Mr. Samuel SImmins, have 

 demoDStrsfted beyond doubt that — to quote his own words — 

 " probably less than five pounds of honey are consumed in 

 actually producing one pound of wax." Now, seeing that be- 

 fore the combs are perfected the bees have had to add about 

 the same amount of wax as is contained in the bought founda- 

 tion, the actual loss in honey, by allowing them to be their 

 own masons, is a trumpery 2}i pounds of honey, worth say 

 12 cents, to a whole brood-box of comb ! For Simmins has 

 workt out that about eight frames (14 inches by 8J^ inches) 

 of new comb will give one pound of refined wax. 



I am ready to admit that there may be an advantage in 

 using full sheets of extra-thin surplus foundation in sections, 

 tho considering the extraordinary rapidity with which comb is 

 built during a strong honey-flow, even that is open to doubt. 



" But," I hear some one say, " what an advantage does it 

 not give us with wired foundation for extracting ?" Yes, 

 granted. But supposing the bees are given wired frames and 

 starters, and the wires are, as a precaution, waxt, won't the 

 bees build, as it were, the wire themselves into the comb ? I 

 have never tried it, but I rather think so. 



The two following paragraphs— the first from the price- 

 list of a bee-appliance purveyor in Nebraska, and the other 

 from page 93 of Simmins' work, "A Modern Bee-Farm" — 

 suggest the question, "flow can a man farm his bees and 

 keep sane ?" 



" For the brood-combs," says the Nebraskan, " we prefer 

 that of about five or six feet to the pound, it having wax 

 enough in the partly-raised walls to enable the bees to finish 

 the comb without any additional wax." 



Rubbish! and he knows it. If we a7-e in the "bug-busi- 

 ness" we are not necessarily idiots. 



Now, for the opinion of Mr. Samuel Simmins : 



"There is no advantage in having high sidewalls in super 

 foundation, as I find the same nearly all scraped off to the base 

 before actual building is commenced by the bees. Indeed, 

 what I should consider perfect super foundation would have 

 nothing whatever but the bare base of the cells." 



This has a more common-sense ring; and if Mr. S. is 

 right, as I believe him to be, these sidewalls on foundation, 

 instead of proving an advantage, are positively a drawback — 

 a hindrance to speedy '■' drawimj out" or perfecting of the 

 combs. 



What on earth are your Taylors, your Hutchinsons, your 

 Doolittles, and your bee-periodicals doing, to allow at this 

 time o' day such ridiculously erroneous opinions to obtain con- 

 cerning such simple matters as this ? Verily, you seem to be 

 all straining at gnats and swallowing whole caravans of 

 camels — endeavoring in your State apiaries at great cost of 

 labor, money and time, to solve intricate problems, more in- 

 teresting to the scientific man than to the practical honey- 

 producer, and allowing the latter to remain in ignorance con- 

 cerning such rudimentary facts in his calling as that I have 

 herein ventured to comment upon ? 



Let me ask you, Mr. Editor, to be good enough to con- 

 clude these hastily written observations, by appending to 

 them the paragraph on " Comparative Cost of Foundation," 

 to be found on page 208, of Mr. Simmins' work, "A Modern 

 Bee-Farm." I think it will open tho eyes of many whose 

 annual outlay for " foundation " is no mean item on the debtor 

 side of their books. South Africa. 



|The paragraph requested by Mr. Deacon, from Mr. Sim- 

 rains' book, reads thus: — Editor.] 



COMrARATIVE CO.ST OF COMB FOUNDATION. 



In the course of the experiment I found that about eight 

 standard frames (14 Inches by 8J-i inches) of new comb will 

 give one pound of refined wax. It Is surprising what a large 

 amount of refuse is left after melting the most beautifully 

 white combs, so that the actual weight of wax obtained Is 

 much less than that of the orignal combs. Observe this : one 



pound of wax, costing the producer less than Is. 6cZ., fills 

 eight frames with finisht comb. To do this with foundation 

 l}i pounds of that article is required, costing in hard cash at 

 the least 2s. 6(7. for the base only; to this the bees add con- 

 siderable of their own production before the combs can be 

 completed; making the total cost much over 3s. Facts are 

 stubborn things, and cannot be ignored. 



Who Shall Keep Bees?— Will it Pay? 



BY HON. GEO. E. HILTON. 



In all Industries a great deal depends upon adaptability, 

 but I question whether we should lay too much stress upon 

 adaptability. 



The things that we need, to bring the best results to our 

 homes and our business, we should adapt ourselves to. 



I once listened to a lecture given by Prof. Pattengill, en- 

 titled " Gumption with a big G," and I thought even bee-keep- 

 ers could learn a lesson from that talk. 



Now I believe the most the average farmer needs, to keep 

 bees, is a little "gumption." We would hardly think we 

 could get along without a few hens, that we might " lay our 

 own eggs," or a cow, that we could make our own butter, and 

 I am sure it requires no more tact or natural ability to attend 

 to a few colonies of bees that we may produce our own honey, 

 and not half the work. 



And then suppose the weather should be favorable and we 

 should produce more than we cared for in the family, or cared 

 to give our friends. I never knew a fair quality of comb 

 honey to sell for less than 10 cents a pound. What have you 

 on your farm that would pay a larger profit than that of 

 honey ? I contend there is nothing. 



But aside from the honey they produce, I contend that 

 every farmer should keep a few colonies of bees for the pur- 

 pose of fertilizing the early spring bloom. 



Later in the season when the insect kingdom has become 

 more numerous, it does not matter so much. Take, for in- 

 stance, seed clover. We get no seed from the first crop be- 

 cause the bumble-bee has not developt in sufficient numbers 

 to fertilize the blossoms, while the Alsike, which is visited by 

 the honey-bee in large numbers, produces an abundance of 

 seed from the first crop ; and whai holds good with the clover 

 is equally true with other seed and fruit-producing vines, 

 shrubs and trees. 



Years ago those men in the vicinity of New York and 

 Boston who made a specialty of raising cucumbers under glass 

 for the winter market, fertilized all their vines by hand. This 

 was done by transferring the pollen from one blossom to 

 another upon a little stick ; something like a toothpick, and 

 if they succeeded in fertilizing 40 or 50 per cent, of the blos- 

 soms they thought they were doing remarkably well. Finally 

 one of them, with a little- more "gumption" than the rest, 

 and being somewhat familiar with the functions of the bee as 

 designed by the Creator, placed a colony of bees in one of his 

 greenhouses, and, as many of the " I told you so " class of peo- 

 ple would say, sacrificed that greenhouse upon the altar of 

 ^experiment. The result was marvelous, and to-day, or dur- 

 ing any of the winter months, you can find a colony of bees in 

 every greenhouse, doing the work of many hands, and Instead 

 of from 40 to 50 per cent, of the blossoms being fertilized as 

 by hand, the bees now fertilize from SO to 85 per cent. Then 

 as to the question, who should keep bees? I answer, every 

 one who depends upon a blossom-producing product, and who 

 depends upon that product for a livelihood or sustenance, 

 whether he cares for tho honey they produce or not. 



Another question that is frequently askt Is, Will bee- 

 keeping as a business pay ? In fact, about the first question 

 that arises in the mind of a person about to embark in a now 

 business enterprise is. Will . it pay ? 



