176 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



that our bees are all right. Have you any more 

 questions to ask nie?" 



Jane replied, "Please tell us something about 

 comb foundation. I have been reading about it iu 

 the magazines, but I do not understand exactly 

 what it is." 



Mr. Meek then gave a description of comb foun- 

 dation. He said, " Wa.v is notsomothing bees gather, 

 but it is something manufactured in their bodies. 

 It is much more costly than houeJ^ It is thought 

 that a colony may eat tweuty pounds of honey to 

 .secure one pound of wax. Be(!-men tried many 

 ways to enable bees to use a second time the wax 

 they had once made. The only way they could do 

 this was by curefuily pi-cserving the old combs, and 

 lifting them into frames. Even the small frag- 

 ments were carefully fitted into frames. These the 

 bees mended, making nice strong combs; but if 

 these were once melted down into wax, the bees 

 would not make any further use of that wa.v. At 

 length comb foundation was invented, and by its 

 use bees are led to accept old wax, and work it over. 

 Comb foundation is made in this way: You take a 

 nice smooth board, the size you want your sheets 

 of foundation. Soak it full of water, then have a 

 can of melted beeswax, into which dip this wet 

 board, and a thin sheet of wax will adhere to the 

 board, which, when cool, will slip off. In this way 

 you obtain your thin sheets of wa.x. The commence- 

 ments of the cells are then made on these sheets of 

 wax, by machines invented for that purpose. 

 Comb foundation, then, is merely wax sheets on 

 which are the commencements of the cells. Bee- 

 men think it pays to use foundation. The founda- 

 tion used iu the boxes must be very thin." 



Tommy asked if it would be necessary to buy a 

 machine and wax, and make this foundation. His 

 father replied, " No, you can buy the foundation 

 already made; and I advise you to buy some thin 

 foundation for your honey -boxes; and, speaking of 

 bo.xes, leads me to ask what kind of boxes you will 

 use. This is an important matter. You know Mr. 

 Brown obtains his surplus honey in all kinds of 

 boxes. When he sells any honey he takes one or 

 two of these large boxes to a store. Customers sel- 

 dom want to buy at once as much honey as th'»y 

 (;ontain, therefore the storekeeper cuts out chunks 

 to suit them. This involves waste from the honey 

 that leaks out, and makes such a muss in handling 

 it that the storekeeper does not care to buy when 

 Mr. Brown comes with another l^rge bo.x. It was 

 ihoiight. What an advantage it would be if surplus 

 honey could be built iu frames, like the combs in 

 the lower story! hence the section box has been in- 

 vented; that is, a box not all fastened together, but 

 in sections. Suppose I take some lath and make 

 six frames from it, say Ave by si.x inches in size. If 

 they are neatly made, and of exactly the same size, 

 they can be-pressed together, Avith two end-boards, 

 and will make a bo.x' that can easily be taken into six 

 pieces. Now, if I could have each little frame fill- 

 ed with a comb of honey, they could be handled 

 without any trouble. At present these little frames 

 or section bo.xes are used by all bee-keepers who 

 make a success of raising comb honey. These little 

 frames do not cost much; and as they sell by weight 

 with the honey, they do not really cost any thing. 

 You must also purchasp some little boxes or frames 

 to hold these section bo.xes in place in the hives; 

 and if you want straight nice combs in the little 

 J'>-ame_s you \yi|l hf^vg to j7urchase strips of tjn, call- 



ed separators, to us; between the sections. These 

 section boxes are of different sizes. The most com- 

 mon sizes are those holding one and two pounds." 



By talks such as these, the children were daily 

 learning more and more about bee culture, besides 

 what they learned from reading on the subject. 

 But about this time their school opened for the 

 winter term; and as they both attended, their minds 

 were occupied about their studies and plays, and 

 for a time bee culture did not receive so much at- 

 tention from them. Still, thej' and their father 

 frequently talked on the subject. When it became 

 evident that winter had set in, Mr. Meek carried the 

 hive into the cellar, and, placing it in a dark corner, 

 inverted an empty barrel over it, so the light might 

 not arouse them when Mrs. Meek or any of the 

 family entered the cellar with a lamp. The cellar 

 in winter was very dark and quite warm, being fit- 

 ted for keeping vegetables. The bees could not 

 sulfer from colil. and it was hoped that all other 

 conilitions would prove favorable to their winter- 

 ing successfully. 



To he cdntinueil April I. 



CARNIOLAWS: HOW THEY PLEASE 

 OVER IN IRELAND. 



.V ( liOSS (JK TIIKSE UKES WITH BLACKS, NOT 

 "CROSS." 



T"^ .\KJA' in 1884 I ordered two Carniolan queens 

 p'^i from Messrs. George Neighbour & Sons, of 

 l^i' London, England, to be delivered about the 

 ■^^ end of May; but the first did not come to 

 hand until .Uine 19th. She was large, and of 

 a mahogany- red color, and arrived in splendid con- 

 dition. Her attendants were very much more nu- 

 merous than I had ever seen with foreign (jueens, 

 and there were only two dead bees in the box. Im- 

 mediately on her arrival she was introduced to a 

 strong stock (from which the former queen had 

 just been removed), by caging her on one of the 

 combs, and her bees were united to those in the 

 hive. Next day she was released, and the day after 

 she began to lay; but what struck me as very 

 unusual was her remaining on the comb on which 

 she had been caged for ten days after her release. 

 I say this because I opened the hive daily, and al- 

 ways found her on the same comb, even after she 

 had deposited an egg in every vacant cell on it, and 

 ] could not find any trace of eggs in any of the oth- 

 er combs, most of which had, in the meantime, be- 

 come pretty well filled with honey. Becoming im- 

 patient at her want of attention to business, I took 

 her by the wings and placed her on a comb at the 

 end of the hive, after which her conduct was every 

 thing that could be desired. As the honey-How was 

 over for the season before the Carniolan bees were 

 out, I could not speak of them as honey-gatherers; 

 but the queen bred rapidly, and the stock went into 

 winter quarters very strong in bees. 



The second queen did not arrive for several days 

 after the first one; and when she did come I was 

 not so well pleased with her. Although she was 

 very large, and light in color, she was out of condi- 

 tion. I got her safely introduced to a strong stock, 

 in which she did very well for a time; but about a 

 month after her introduction I was standing in 

 front of her hive when I saw her crawl out and fall 

 to the ground in a dying state. I opened the hive 

 and foun4 fiiitnei-ous que^ri-cellg, fron; oqe of 



