44 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15. 



of travel-stain. Near the top it is of quite a 

 light color, but gradually becomes darker, 

 until at the bottom it is a yellowish brown. 

 If we take the point of a knife and carefully 

 lift a cap from a cell near the bottom of the 

 comb we shall be surprised to find the inside 

 of the cap, or the side next to the honey, 

 nearly or quite as dark as the outside. We 

 lift another and another, and find the inside 

 corresponds very closely to the outside in 

 color, constantly changing with the outside. 

 How strange! Can it be that the dirt the bees 

 have left on the surface of the combs is of 

 such a nature as to strike clear through the 

 cappings? Sulphuric acid would hardly do 

 that. Now take a glass of moderate power 

 and look at the cappings, both inside and out- 

 side, and we soon get a fair idea of the trouble. 

 We shall find, either mixed with the new 

 white wax, darker wax, or welded to the 

 white wax, little particles of darker wax or 

 propolis, or other substance not easily seen 

 without the aid of a glass. 



During the past season some interesting 

 facts came to hand, throwing some light on 

 this subject. Upon top of one super was an 

 old cloth, to make it tight, with a blue lining 

 next to the sections. When I took off the 

 super I noticed the blue lining had been 

 gnawed away to some extent by the bees. 

 When I came to pack my honey I found these 

 sections with the combs tinged with blue, 

 some of them on one side only, while others 

 were stained on both sides. Some were stain- 

 ed but slightly, while others were very blue. 

 Except for this blue the combs would have 

 been very white. Had the color been the 

 same as the so-called travel-stain, I think no 

 one would have thought it any thing else. So 

 thoroughly was the cloth torn into atoms that 

 it appeared as a stain on the combs. 



Another case occurred where the bees tore 

 coating from enameled cloth or other black 

 cloth, and stained the combs black. 



I have sometimes been troubled with yellow 

 cappings of crude wax on my surplus honey, 

 caused by raising up a nearly filled super and 

 placing under it another with thin foundation 

 that was of rather high color. The bees would 

 thin it, or sometimes tear it down and carry it 

 above, and use for capping off the nearly fin- 

 ished combs, giving them an untidy appear- 

 ance. 



Bees often use considerable propolis for 

 capping late in the season when wax is scarce 

 — sometimes in such quantities as to be easily 

 seen by the naked eye. Where do they get 

 the dark wax with which to produce travel- 

 stain ? Doubtless from the brood-chamber. 

 Perhaps the cappings of hatching brood fur- 

 nish the largest share of it. The colors cor- 

 respond quite closely. Here is a colony that 

 is strong, filling and capping its first or second 

 super. It casts a swarm. The queen's wing 

 is clipped, and the scientific (?) bee-keeper 

 removes her, letting the swarm return so as to 

 secure the largest yield of honey. The hive 

 is full of brood, and hatching at the rate of 

 1000 or 1500 each 24 hours. All goes well so 

 long as there is plenty of young or matured 

 brood to seal ; but after eight or nine days the 



brood is all sealed, and yet the hatching bees 

 are throwing off from 1000 to 1500 cell- caps 

 daily. There is but little honey in the brood- 

 chamber to seal, or little use in the brood- 

 chamber for the cappings. These cappings 

 are largely pure wax discolored by long use, 

 and it is not at all surprising that more or less 

 finds its way to the super, and produces travel- 

 stain, especially when honey is scarce and but 

 little wax produced in the hive. Doubtless 

 more or less of the wax is taken from the old 

 combs, and mixed with pure wax for capping. 

 There is reason to believe there is a good deal 

 of wax shifted from one comb to another dur- 

 ing the warm season when the wax is soft. 



It should be noticed in this connection, that, 

 in a hive filled with foundation on which a 

 strong colony was placed in July, and has re- 

 mained queenless, the combs were built out 

 and sealed in July; and now, after more than 

 four months, the combs have remained free 



TRAVEI, -STAIN ON A SECTION HONEJY-BOX. 



from travel-stain, even in the brood-chamber, 

 and to-day are as white as the most fastidious 

 dealer could desire. A good deal of pollen 

 has been stored in the lower part of the combs; 

 but the pollen has produced but little stain. 



So far as I remember I had less of travel- 

 s'.ain when my bees were allowed to swarm 

 and increase by natural swarming than when 

 I try to keep every swarm strong whether it 

 has a laying queen or not. 



Again, it seems to me that my combs were 

 whiter when honey was stored in large surplus 

 boxes than in small sections. I remember very 

 distinctly that, in changing from 2-lb. sections 

 to lib., the combs seemed to have more 

 travel-stain — that is, were not as white as the 

 2-lb. sections had been. It may have been 

 something in the season, although I feel quite 

 sure it was not. 



Now, from the foregoing it would appear 

 that we are likely to secure our whitest combs 

 from hives having new combs, even if such 



