20 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



combs, sec'.ioiis not perfectly tilled, but yet having- 

 liut little unsealed honey. 



White honey, third grade, nii.ved with inferior 

 honey, includiuK buckwheat and fall ttowers, sliall 

 be graded by itself, and mark(<l"M." We desire 

 that combs so badly grained as to lia\'(' the appear- 

 ance of saffron be thrown into lliis grade. 



Buckwheat honey .shall be packed tiv itself and 

 shall be maiked "B." 



Tliose bte-ketpeis stnding lo market bo.xes 

 known as '■ pieces " sliall i>ut upon them a private 

 mark of their own. '1 his should also apply to hon- 

 ey-dew and any other kind not falling in regular 

 grades. 



1 was out when the report was read, and now 

 thai it is .sent in — well, it is not quite to my no- 

 tion. W. Z. Hutchinson e.xpresses liinisclfin a 

 private letter as being not quite satisfied. He 

 and I were both in hopes the Chicago grading 

 might t>e taken as the basis, and the munc of 

 the grades changed. But Albany and Chicago 

 are two very different localities, and it would 

 be hard for them to agree upon one system of 

 grading. 



RENDEKING \VA.\. 



A paper was read by R. F. Holtermann, on 

 some facts not generally known about render- 

 ing beeswa.x. By experiments which he had 

 made, he was perfectly salislicd that wax is oft- 

 en overheated, therefore injuring it to a great 

 extent for foundation. 



Dadant took the ground that it was not over- 

 heating, but steam, that did the mischief: that 

 it was the incorporation of water into the wax 

 that made the trouble. Mr. Cornell was not of 

 the opinion that overheating would hurt wax. 

 In fact, in some experiments in melting wax 

 in a double - walled solar wax - extractor, 

 he had maintained a temperature, on a num- 

 ber of successive days, of 320 degrees. It 

 might have injured it. but it was his opinion 

 that it did not. Mr. Dadant then showed us 

 samples of foundation, one in which too much 

 steam had entered into tlu^ wax. and one in 

 which it had not. The former had a milky color, 

 and the latter wasof a transparent beautiful am- 

 ber. The former he made transpai'ent by sub- 

 jecting it to the heat of a gas-jet. 



NEXT PI-ACE OF .MKETING. 



When we came to talk about the next place 

 of meeting, a number of points were considered. 

 We were very much undecided where to go un- 

 til Captain Hetherington urged the claims of 

 Washington. In a very neat and felicitous 

 speech he made, it was evident that he had 

 carried the day; and evei-ybody began to talk 

 and urge Washington. When it came to a vote 

 by ballot, the decision was almost unanimous 

 in favor of the city on the Potomac. 



Washington is the Mecca, it was urged, of all 

 true Americans; and every bee-keeper is a 

 loyal man, and desires some day to visit the 

 national capital. Some one else" said that it 

 would be a grand place to take the women- 

 folks and children, and that what might be 

 lacking in local attendance for the next meet- 

 ing would he more than made up by those who 

 had come to see the capital as well as to attend 

 the convention; that is, a double interest would 

 attract many, whereas the single interest of 

 the bee-convention might not. 



The election of officers resulted as follows: 

 President, Eugene Secor, of Iowa; Vice-presi- 

 dent, Captain J. E. Hetherington, of New York; 

 Secretary. W. Z. Hutchinson, of Michigan; 

 Treasurer. E. R. Hoot, of Ohio. 



ALBANY CONVENTION SIDELIGHTS. 



chats with this one and that one. During the 

 recesses tlun'e would Ijea lotof bee-keepers who 

 would rush to the room where bee-keeping im- 

 plements wei'e exhibited. There were lots of 

 hives and fixin"s there. A variety of double- 

 walled hives were shown, and other imple- 

 niiMits over which one bee-keeper would lie very 

 enthusiastic, and yet another one would not 

 have them as a gift. 



Several times some small bee-keeper would 

 explain some new lixing of his own. Why. he 

 had experienced lots of comfort with it during 

 the past season, and wished his bee-keeping 

 friends to know it. Some of the veterans — those 

 who nuinl)er their colonies by the several hun- 

 dreds, would look on and smile, and remark, 

 aside. •■(Jood enough for him, but (re can not 

 tolerate such a roundabout way of doing things." 



I had long wanted to see the extractor of 

 W. L. Coggshall. that West Groton bee-keeper 

 who produces so many tons of extracted honey, 

 and there it was, among the other exhibits. 

 He wouldn't have any of the commercial ma- 

 chines, as they are not made to suit him. He 

 uses a Langstroth frame, and wants it to hang 

 in the extractor just as it does in the hive. A 

 very little talk with him will convince you that 

 he has some very good reasons for such a pref- 

 erence. Of course, it makes the extractor large 

 and ungainly. Why. it is as large as the Stan- 

 ley automatic, and the combs are not reversible 

 either. It is a four-frame machine; and instead 

 of combs being put in the four sides of the 

 basket, they are put in in pairs, with a strip of 

 tin between. Of course, the two inside combs 

 are nearer the center-shaft; but he says that 

 makes no practical difference. The idea is not 

 so crude as it might be. 



Some one jokingly asked Mr. C. why he did 

 not make his extractor large enough to take in 

 a whole ui)pei' story, one on each side of the 

 basket. A number of prominent bee-men were 

 present: and as if it were a huge joke, tiiey be- 

 gan to outline the plan. "Why," said one, " all 

 you need is some sort of an tuicapping-machine 

 that will lull between the combs just as they 

 are in the hive. Then slip in a sheet of tin be- 

 tween each pair of combs. Put two supers of 

 this kind in the extractor, and let it whirl. The 

 honey will fly out and strike the sheets of tin, 

 and drain out below: then reverse the supers 

 the other side out. and start the machine, and, 

 presto I there would be two whole supers, each 

 containing ten Langstroth frames, with the 

 honey all extracted, without so much as a 

 frame being removed." I began to think of the 

 Heddon supers, and the thought came to me 

 that there were possiMfitJes in the line of un- 

 capping combs without removing a frame, es- 

 pecially with fixed frames. There was also a 

 possibility of having sheets of tin so fastened 

 that they would be held at equal distances; 

 and these sheets or rack of spaced sheets could 

 be dropped between the spaces between the 

 combs. We all had a big laugh over the big 

 invention, and it turned somewhat at friend 

 Coggshall's expense. "See here," I said, " gen- 

 tlemen, there may be a bigger thing in this 

 than you think, taken in connection with the 

 shallow extracting supers with fixed frames." 

 Nobody can patent this, because reliable wit- 

 nesses will testify that the invention was Iwrn at 

 Albany, even if it does seem now like a big joke. 

 Understand, I do not say it is practicable, but 

 some day somethiny might come of it. 



IN HETAVEE.N SKS.SION- 



To me, the best part of any convention is the 

 intermissions— the hand-shakings and the little 



I had a very pleasant visit with i aptaiu 

 Hetherington. The impression has. perhaps, 

 gone abroad that he is a recluse, and a man 

 who keeps all the good things to himself. 

 Nothing could be further from the truth. He 



