384 



GI.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



the combs on these shelves so that the sun- 

 light will strike them. Dark combs will re- 

 quire several hours. This plan will whiten 

 dark combs here in California. If you fumi- 

 gate a few combs, then place them on a win 

 dow-sill where the sun will shine on them, you 

 will be convinced. 



In placing the sections on shelves in the 

 morning, I find the following plan good : On 

 the shelves at the east and west end of the 

 room I place sections end to end lengthwise 

 of the shelves, two rows on each shelf, one 

 row on the outer and the other on the inner 

 edge. The morning sun strikes one side, and 

 the afternoon sun the other side. On the 

 front shelves I set them crosswise of the shelf, 

 far enough apart so as not to shade each other. 



I pack them away every evening ; all not 

 white I put out again next morning. Some of 

 them will bleach quite slowl';, but I have been 

 able to whiten the worst ones by perseverance. 



HOW TO MAKE The sulphur-box. 



Perhaps your readers would like to have a 



handy arrangement for fumigating honey or 



combs. I make a box like a watering-trough, 



the bottom as wide as my hive is long. I place 



WHITE'S SULPHUR-BOX FOR BLEACHING. 



this bottom side up where I want to use it. 

 In one end I put a door to allow me to put in 

 an iron dish holding the sulphur. About two 

 feet from this end I bore a two-inch hole ; 

 measure off the width of my hive, and bore 

 holes on down the box. I place the supers 

 over these holes ; tier up, and cover the top 

 one. If my combs are stained I sulphur 

 thoroughly, keeping them in the furnace two 

 or three hours. If this box is placed in some 

 building, hives filled with combs may be kept 

 free of moths by fumigating once in a while. 

 Pala, Cal., Mar. 27. 



[I will explain to our readers that I sent the 

 manuscript to our artist, requesting him to 

 make drawings, and submit the same to Mr. 

 White. These were approved after some slight 

 changes had been made, and we now submit 

 them showing Mr. White's idea. 



When I visited Mr. Walker's place in Chica- 

 go, I learned, as I have already explained in 

 these columns, that Mr. W. could bleach only 

 one kind of soiled cappings, and that was the 

 kind made yellow by propolis or pollen stains. 

 But he makes use of the sun's rays only. Mr. 

 White does not state whether there are some 

 kinds of travel-stained, pollen-stained, or dirt- 

 stained sections that he can not bleach. In 

 the absence of any statement to that effect, 

 we are led to believe that he is able to bleach 



all kinds of soiled-faced comb honey. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Walker's experience he bleaches 

 by sunlight alone, and that only one kind of 

 discolored section ; but as Mr. White makes 

 use of sulphur, a well-known active bleaching 

 agent used in the arts, we may assume that 

 the sulphur is a part of the process ; and what 

 is not accomplished by this agent is complet- 

 ed by the direct rays of old Sol. I am sure 

 our readers would like to hear from Mr. White 

 as to whether he is successful in bleaching all 

 kinds of discolored sections. 



If he is, he is the first to announce the fact. 

 To be able to bleach any kind of section 

 would sometimes make all the difference be- 

 tween profit and loss in the net earnings of 

 an apiary. In extreme cases 75 per cent of 

 the crop is stained, and only 25 per cent would 

 sell at the top of the market. The difference 

 between discolored goods and pure white is 

 anywhere from one to five cents — suppose we 

 say three ; and let us imagine, for instance, 

 that the crop of honey was 10,000 lbs., 'i/i of 

 which is stained. If all of it were pure white, 

 and brought 15 cents, the crop would net us 

 somewhere about |1000 after deducting com- 

 mission, cartage, freight, breakage, leakage, 

 etc. But only % will bring the 10 cents net, 

 or which would mean $250. The balance at 

 8 cents would net only ?600, or a total of $850. 

 Now, then, //"the 7500 lbs. could be bleached 

 so as to bring the same price as the 2500 lbs., 

 the process would save us a clean §150, less 

 the cost of handling and bleaching, which 

 would be small. 



In the foregoing figures I am taking the ba- 

 sis that when comb honey is quoted at 15 cts., 

 the bee-keeper is supposed to get net (after 

 taking out commission, freight, cartage, break- 

 age, leakage), 10 cts. Several expert honey- 

 salesmen once figured this out in Chicago at 

 one of the meetings, basing their figures on 

 actual experience ; and we were all surprised 

 to find that '( of the actual market price was 

 absorbed in commissions, freight, drayage, 

 and I might say occasional pieces of rascality 

 on the part of unscrupulous commission men. 

 —Ed.] 



WIDE AND DEEP ENTRANCES. 



How Honey-laden Bees Alight at the Entrances 

 of the Hives ; Pettit's Reply to Doolittle. 



BY S. T. PETTIT. 



]\Ir. Root: — Will you kindly allow me to 

 make a short reply to Mr. Doolittle's criti- 

 cisms of my method of taking comb honey ? 



First of all, in order to make a valid criti- 

 cism it is necessary that the critic should pos- 

 sess accurate knowledge, and be free from 

 prejudice. In that little imaginary talk with 

 the bees of which he has told us, he did not 

 seem to know that his sprawling posture right 

 at the very door of their peaceful dwelling 

 would frighten and confuse the workers as 

 they were coming home with their loads, and 

 cause them to make a great effort to fly clear 

 inside the hive, and to act differently from 

 what they do under normal conditions. 



