FEBRUARY 1, 1916 



thus be possible to eliminate much of the 

 present uncertainty in the general use of 

 the " smoke-in," and so make it available 

 for everybodj'. 



So many reports of failure with the 

 " smoke-in " queen-introducing method con- 

 tain, in substance, the statement, " I re- 

 moved the old queen in the morning", and 

 waited until evening to give the colony a 

 chance to quiet down, and then smoked-in 

 the new queen." One may feel justified if 

 some imjiortance be attached to those par- 

 ticular times of removal and introduction as 

 affecting the result. 



The morning removal aud the evening 

 introduction appear to be favorite practice, 

 and during' the past season I proceeded 

 that way with three queens and lost the 

 three. This set me thinking. 



It seems perfectly logical to " give th? 

 colony time to quiet down ;" but from 

 observation and exjierience I conclude that 

 in such circumstances the colony doesn't 

 quiet down, and the result seems to bear out 

 tliis conclusion. I desire to call attention to 



thes? observations, and to suggest for study 

 and exi^eriment that bees really '' quiet 

 down" only at night (taking no account at 

 this time of cold and wet days), which 

 should suggest that the logical time for 

 removing the old queen would be toward 

 evening. Some time toward noon the next 

 day, when the old bees are away on busi- 

 ness, would be the best time for introducing 

 the new queen. This plan would probably 

 not influence results with any cage methods, 

 but it " looks good " in relation to any run- 

 in method. 



The "smoke-in" ai)pears to me as the 

 simplest introduction method yet jiroposed ; 

 but it needs to be better understood, so that 

 it will be practicable in the hands of any 

 one, whether he knows or doss not know 

 why he is to do this or that. I have been 

 giving considerable thought to this matter, 

 and I am giving my observatiors and con- 

 clusions to set others to thinking, and in 

 the coming season to experimenting, I hope, 

 in order that some helpful knowledge may 

 be developed. 



Hoboken, N. J. 



HANDY DEVICE FOR MELTING BEESWAX 



EY J. H. TODD 



I have just finished fixing sheets of foun- 

 dation Avith melted wax, using a little device 

 I have made for this purpose, and it works 

 perfectly. I never could get on at all with 

 the Vandeusen tube fixer; but m}^ device is 

 a pleasure to work with, and can be made 

 by any one who can use a soldering-iron. 



The first tiling required is a wide shallow 

 tea-kettle. Mine is 2^/2 inches deep and 8 

 inches in diameter. AYith a file, cut the han- 



dle off so that it projects only a little way 

 over the lid of the kettle. This is done 

 because the steam, condenses on the under 

 side of the handle and drips into tlie wax. 



It also gives more room for })utting the 

 wax-container in and out of the kettle. 

 Now for a descrii^tion of the wax-container. 



Get a small round cocoa or similar tin. 

 about 4 inches deep and 2^/2 inches in diam- 

 eter, or slightly smaller than the lid-hole of 

 the kettle. Now there are two things to 

 solder on — a spout and a handle. In the 

 spout cut a piece of tin 11/2 inches long and 

 % inch wide. Now in a vise or with a pair 

 of pliers bend this lengiliAvise to a V shape 

 or angle of 60° ; then at one end cut up the 

 bottom of the V for a distance of Yi inch 

 and bend the cut ends as in A. 



Now take the tin and bend the top like 

 the spout of a cream- jug, as in B, and here 

 solder on the spout, pointing slightly up so 

 that its delivei-y end is Yo incli above the 

 level of the top of the tin. 



Now for the handle. Get a piece of 

 galvanized spring steel wiie and a piece of 

 1/4-inch round iron (a bolt or something of 

 that kind) ; put the round iron in a vise, 

 and neatly and tightly coil the wire around 

 it till the length of the coil is about 2 

 inclies. Leave IVz inches of straight wire at 

 both the ends of the coil, and slip the coil 

 from the bolt or round iron. Stretch it out 

 a little so that light will show between the 

 coils of wire. With a hammer flatten out 



