Vol. XII. 



FEB. 15, 1884. 



No. 4. 



I 



lOormore, 75 cts. each. SineleNumber. I I U. S. and Canadas. To all othe 



5 ctL Additions to clubrmTy to ^^^^^^ published semi monthly by > t.-igg of the UniversalPostal Union, 18e 



atclubrates. Above are all to be sent . j r>rv/\'T' ATT^TlTXT A OTTTr-'k I pery'^'""^''*™- To all countries NOT of 

 to ONB POSTOFFICE. J A. 1. ±vUU 1 , M-CiUiJN i\., UlilU. [theU. p. U. ,42c per year extra. 



A TimELY ARTIC1.E. 



AN EXPERIMENT IN PRODUCING WAX. 



!iAX Is higher, and threatens to go higber yet. 

 The question forces itself into prominence, 

 Can we produce wax with tees kept espe- 

 cially for the purpose? and what does it cost, if pro- 

 duced that way? I ran one of my best colonies ex- 

 clusively for wax last year, and herewith make re- 

 turns of the result. 



The colony selected was one of a family of colo- 

 nies that had attracted my attention by rapid and 

 excellent comb-building. Started them off May 4th 

 with 12 Gallup frames in a chaff hive. Three of the 

 frames were empty, except narrow starters of foun- 

 dation, and these were m<cr.<per8ed with the frames 

 of comb, the middle one dividing the brood-nest. 

 Whatever comb was made in these three frames 

 was cut out regularly, before eggs had time to hatch 

 in it. Three days later I made my first cutting of 

 wax. There were four pieces, one of them drone 

 and the rest worker, eggs in both, no honey, one 

 cell only of pollen. The weight of this cutting was 

 somewhat less than V2 oz. The colony on the scales 

 was bringing in from 2 to 4 ounces of honey and 

 pollen per day. I soon learned that once in four 

 days was often enough to cut. The amount obtain- 

 ed at a cutting increased until it Rometimes amount- 

 ed to a whole ounce. The largest amount built, up 

 to that date, was ivhiJc the luitimdij snownf Ma)j 21.st 

 ^ ay on the ground. Not enough honey came in dur- 

 ing May to have them put any in the new comb; and 

 the pieces would have been nice for starters, and to 

 fill sections with, had I not wanted to melt them up 



so as to be precise about the amount of wax. May 

 291 h the amount of comb harvested was very small, 

 and they were building queen-cups. June 1st they 

 had built nothing but queen-cells on the starters. 

 Several subsequent examinations showed the same 

 results. June llth I fed them 3 lbs. of broken honey 

 at the entrance, to induce them to build again. 

 They still refused to build, and, nine days after, 

 swarmed. 



The operations of Mny furnished me with four 

 items of information. 1. Cold weather does not 

 necessarily stop the building of comb. 2. A desire 

 to swarm docs stop it. 2. The maintenance of three 

 empty spaces through the hive does not, even in 

 connection with short supplies of honey in the fields, 

 prevent swarming (the total runs of the scale hive 

 for the whole month of May aggregated only 7 lbs. 

 9 oz.). 4. Feeding docs not always eventuate in 

 wax. When they won't build, they won't. At the 

 outset I had put In something over six pounds of 

 honey in the frames of comb. 



Comb-building recommenced shortly before the col- 

 ony swarmed. 1 suppose they wanted some wax to 

 commence with in their new home; and having got 

 it secreted, they used some of it in their old quar- 

 ters. The bees that remained at the old stand also 

 built a little before the second swarm emerged. 

 The fccond swarm was lost — not lost to the apiary, 

 but lost to the experiment, by mixing up with other 

 bees. The aggregate runs of honey in June, as 

 shown by the scale hive, figured up 22 lbs., or nearly 

 three times the jield of May; and yet 1 got less wax. 

 This was owing to swarming on the brain, I sup- 

 pose. The old stand continued rather remiss In 



