1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEECuLtUM. 



li>7 



A NOVEL WAX-EXTHACTOR. 



AN INVERTKD FRUIT-JAR WITHOUT BOTTOM BEING 

 USED FOR THE PURPOSE. 



J^JEADING the article on p. 855, on the above 

 O5 subject, caused lue to smile over an experi- 

 'Ck ence of several jears ago. 1 wanted some- 

 \ thing to put bits of conili in, and scrapings, 

 to save them (I was not lionie). so 1 asked for 

 a pan, hut soon found out " any thing waS good 

 enoiigh;" and, chancing to see an old two-quart 

 fruit-jar without bottom, and with the top on, I 

 took that and set it bottom up. It being a warm 

 sunshiny location, the more I put in the jar the 

 more it settled, and soon began to melt; and in 

 three or four hours there was perhaps a pint of as 

 nice melted wax as ever ran out of comb. The jar- 

 top being metal, a steel point soon made several 

 holes In it. This I placed over a pan on a board with 

 a hole in, and it soon gave a cake of wax. The iruit- 

 jar extractor made quite a laugh bn me, and stop- 

 ped the women-folks from sputtering about the 

 " nasty muss of wax-making." There have been 

 more than 20 of those little wax-extractors made in 

 the last seven or eight years. The fli-st one gave 

 birth to more improvements, so That now some are 

 being used thus: Take a piece of coarse wire cloth, 

 crowd It down the can; on top of that some fine 

 wire cloth like queen-cage cloth, then another piece 

 cut a little large and put in so as to bulge upward, 

 and your jar is ready. For the stand, cut two 

 boards 14 in. wide and 

 24 inches long ; two 

 boards, 14 in. square, 

 and a triangular piece 12 

 in. on two sides. These 

 sides meet and form a 

 right angle. Bore a hole 

 in the center of the tri- 

 angular piece, large 

 enough to let the top of 

 your fruit-jar in, or two 

 holes for two jars. Nail 

 the two long pieces to- 

 gether, and to the ends 

 nail the two pieces 14 in. 

 square, as shown in the 

 cut. Now, 10 in. from 

 \ the bottom, nail the tri- 

 angular piece. The ad- 

 joining cut will make 

 the matter all plain. 

 THE FRUIT -CAN WAX- I^to these jais I have 

 EXTRACTOR. put bits Of comb honey, 



and even old brood comb will clean up In tiptop 

 shape. As old bottomless fruit-jars are generally 

 handy, or even large glass bottles or demijohns, 

 the time, making, and expense of the woodwork is 

 small. As a preventive of worms infesting the 

 wax, it is a saving over keeping the bits till enough 

 to pay for melting, and 1 think more wax is actual- 

 ly obtained. The amount of honey run through is 

 not going to make robbing, because it is always in 

 that place, and the bees will look for some every 

 time work is being done. The bees are always 

 peaceable about it. 



The extracting is not all it is good for. A few 

 bits of smoker wood can be kept dry in the back 

 corner under the three-cornered piece. It is a 

 stand upon which to put queen-cages, a smoker, or 

 dozens of other things. Two fruit-jara, mounted 



as I have described, will keep every thing in the 

 shape of comb and broken honey itll melted up, 

 from an apiary of 20 tO 50 colonies. One of the ex- 

 tractors will run off from 5 lbs. to 25 lbs. per day. 1 

 have seen 4 lbs. run through two of the 2-qt. cans in 

 one hour, all from the bits of new comb, drone 

 brood, scrapings of boxes, etc. So you see tliey ai-e 

 not so Slow after Kll. 



DISTURBINCI BEES IN WINTER, NOT ADVISABLE 

 FOI{ THE NOVICE. 



In your foot-note to G. M. Doolittle's aiticle, p. 

 Shf), you say, " Bees can, perhaps, be handled suc- 

 cessfully;" in other words, examinations 'can be 

 made during winter upon the bees for scientific 

 purposes. Well, 1 can tell you, beyond doubt, that 

 it has been done without any apparent harm, and, 

 like Mr. U.'s case, seemed beneficial in result. In 

 the winter bf 1883 one hive wtis examined almost 

 daily, regardless of the weather; and from 1874 to 

 1880 there were perhaps a dozen hives experimented 

 with without loss, to ascertain the heat of the bees 

 during various changes, and how far the hoar 

 frost would reach between the ends of the combs; 

 the comparison of differently constructed hives, 

 thick and thin lumber, and in various exposures, 

 and how much more honey & swarm being often 

 disturbed would consume than one let entirely and 

 severely alone. Successfully examining hives for 

 various purposes, forces myself and others to say 

 to all but the expert, " Let them alone from the 

 time of packing till the cleaning-out in the spring, 

 during good flying weather, because, so far as I can 

 learn, there are more queens spoiled, and more 

 stocks made quesnless, by the Improper handling 

 of the bees in the spring, than from any other 

 cause, and yet every man knows what he is doing, 

 in his own mind (I find many such among novices), 

 because Yankee ingenuity is, in very many cases, 

 conceit." 



ABSORBENTS IN WINTER. 



Mr. Heddon, on page 8.54, referring to moisture, re- 

 minds me of experiments relative to the use of wet 

 cloths, and that the amount of seemingly air-tight 

 sealing can be successful, and under what condi- 

 tions. In 1878 I repeatedly took out and exchanged 

 many of my top cushions, to dry them, and I always 

 found them wet on the upper side. This induced 

 the experiment of melting sugar into a solid block, 

 made by pouring the liquid into a frame, and plac- 

 ing over the cluster; give no other food, and con- 

 tract the space of the bees to the lowest point. 

 Then envelope the whole in a non-porous material, 

 to prevent the escape of any moisture. The hive is 

 in this manner thoroughly packed and protected 

 every way, and gives only a small entrance, thus 

 causing a condensing of moisture on the slab of 

 sugar. This furnished abundant liquidation for the 

 winter supply, without an apparent cause of the 

 bees going for water; but for this purpose, hermet- 

 ical sealing of the division-board spaces is necessa- 

 ry as all others, or the side packing will take up 

 what would pass out at the crack at the ends of 

 them. This proves that, without close attention to 

 minute details, success turns into failure. 



New Milford, Conn., Dec..33, 1885. 



I would suggest, as an improvement to 

 your trough, that the inside oe lined with 

 tin. This doubtless would add very materi- 

 ally to its working power. It is not all of.us 

 who have jars lying around and broken off 



