1S92 



(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



851 



sonHMiiio (1 do not ronu'Hil)or jusi wlicic). ilial 

 in conilis stoivd iiway witjumi honey in thcni. 

 tho poll<M\ hocomcs so dry lliat tlu' bees will not. 

 uso it. If tliiit ho tiic case, it won Id be to lli(> 

 dotrinuMit of tiiP beo-Uccpcr. 

 (Jnnn Cily. Mo. .l.\s. A. Ad.vms. 



[Tln> hi>st nso you can make of tlic |)oll(>n- 

 stoivd ooinbs is to liold tlicni over till next 

 spring. thiMi sivo tliom to the l)r'os to stiinulato 

 brood-ivarinsi. It is a difTirnlt niattor to get 

 polliMi out of tb(^ combs artificially. It lias 

 bt'cn I't'coninicndod tosonk siicb comix in watci' 

 fofatimc and tluMi, with a stream from a liv- 

 drant or tiri'-punip. wash out llic pollen. We 

 have never tried it but the plan is said to work.) 



BAHCOClv's SKCTION-I'HKSS. 



I inclose berewirli a pencil sketch of a section- 

 press of my invention. It is not patented. and 

 can be built for .50 cts. It is. a free gift to all 

 bee-keep(M's. Please pass it around. 



The dotted lines are a rack to Iiold the open 

 sections. Prepare a bundle and place them at 

 your right. Put them on the rack, a handful 

 at a time. H. C. Babcock. 



Lemoore. Cal., May 6. 



THE AM.-WOOD FRAMES; .SETTLING POOR 

 QUEKN.S. 



I am thoroughly converted to the all-wood 

 old-style frame, but I am not prepared to ac- 

 cept the extra wide and thick top-bars and the 

 Hoffman frame. I want the old-style all-wood 

 frames. but'I want the top-bars an even inch 

 wide, and the same thickness as now, ^^'. That 

 width will give us a % bee-space between the 

 frames when combs are spaced \% fi-om center 

 to center. I hope Mr. Koot can be induced to 

 make this change, and make it a standai'd for 

 all-wood old-stjie frames, end-bars one inch, 

 bottom-bars Js. the same as now. 



I have no sympathy with the practice of sell- 

 ing a poor quality of queens to other people. 

 Selling to others stock that we know to be 

 worthless is very poor morals. 1 favor breed- 

 ing to the highest possible standard. vSome 

 bees are good comb-builders, others are not. I 

 once bought a liigh-pric* d select tested queen. 

 She was all she was represented to be; but her 

 bees would never build an ounce of comb in the 

 upper story. They would swarm as .soon as 

 the brood-chamber was full. Iler daughters 

 and granddaughters were the same. Other 

 bees in the same yard, w-ith the same treat- 

 ment, built surplus com!) right along with but 

 little or no swarming: therefore I have adopted 

 a rule, that any queen that swarms out from 

 under empty sections meets a violent death as 

 soon as I can replace her. The same rule 

 should apply to queens that will not winter a 



cohpnylhai went inin winter in good condition. 

 1 have im sympathy for kind-hearted people 

 doctoring uit a sick colony in the spring, to 

 savr' a worthless (pieen. Some people seem to 

 regard a queen as so much cash. So she is. if 

 she i.>. a good one: but if worthless, slie is no 

 better that) any other bee; in fact, she is worse, 

 for she will raise a lot of drones to mat*- with 

 and spoil some good queen. Good wintering 

 should be a strong point in selecting breeding- 

 queens. 



In my yard, some colonies will pile in the 

 liurr-comhs. while others will leave the frames 

 comparatively clean. If all other conditions 

 and qualilications are equal. I supersede the 

 biui'-comb queens; the same way with queens 

 whose bees are vicious. They are supersed- 

 ed as soon as it can be done witliout loss. I 

 am one who thinks a careful selection, from 

 generation to gi'iieration, of the bee-life, will 

 make great improvement in the stock. Do not 

 sell inferior queens. Kill them. 



PlIII>0 S. DiLWOHTH. 



Ingram, Pa., Nov. .3, 189:.'. 



SLUMGUM FROM THE SOI.AR WAX-EXTKACTOR; 



W. H. SOMERFORD SAYS THERE IS VAI,- 



lAUI-E WAX IX IT. 



Friend E. R. Root: — After carefully reading 

 II. R. Boardman's report on page 771, Oct. 1.5. in 

 regard to the slumgnm. or residue, from a solar 

 wax-extractor having no wax left in it, I will 

 back your assertion by giving my experience 

 concerning solar wax-extractors, for I used a 

 large one in Cuba, where the sun does shine 

 even hotter tlian here. Th(> size of it was ;i(ix44 

 in.; and for melting cappings it was good 

 enough; but when it came to melting up old 

 foul-brood combs, or any other comb that had 

 been used in the brood -chamber, it was not 

 what I wanted, for it would always leave from 

 25 to 40 per cent of the wax in the slumgum, or 

 so much that a hired man did all, or nearly all, 

 of his cooking with it while it was in constant 

 use. And some piles of the same slumgum 

 from the solar extractor had been thrown out, 

 and luid been in the weather for perhaps as 

 long as thre(! or four years, until it liad been 

 burrowed through by aiits, and soaked by rain, 

 and heated by sunshine until the time I took it 

 up and cooked it in a 300-gallon brass sugar- 

 kettle: and. to b(^ sure, I secured a fine lot of 

 very good dark wax that the solar extractor 

 had lost in slumgum. In fact, I consider, after 

 using a ?.00-gallon brass kettle to render over a 

 ton of wax in, that any solar extractor is very 

 wasteful, except in cappings: for experience 

 has taught me that, to get wax out of old 

 combs, they must be soaked thoroughly, thiui 

 boiled, and stirred and skimmed of all tloating 

 wax, then stiired and left to simmer down and 

 cool. When cool, and soaked on top, take the 

 cake out and set it up edgewise; then with a 

 sharp hatchet or ax peel oif or divide the cake 

 as near the top as you tind little round shotlike 

 lumps of wax. When divided, break up. re- 

 soak, and again boil the half containing wax, 

 wiiYiacid; and what is lost I'll guarantee will 

 not be sufticient to run a thrasher-boiler, as Mr. 

 Boardman did, in place of coal. 



W. W. SOMEKFORD. 



Navasota, Texas, Oct. 33. 



TREGO'S FIVE-BANDED BEES; THEIK GOOD TEM- 

 PER UNDER AGGRAVATING CIKCUM- 

 STANCES. 



I notice in a copy ot the American Apiciil- 

 tiirist (p. 124), Alley's comment on your de- 

 scription of the behavior of your Punic colony, 

 where he says, in the fifth sentence. "'There is 

 not a colony of any race of bees that would not 



