1440 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



the stores until it reaches the back end. 

 While I state this as a general condition, 

 there are exceptions. Sometimes the cluster 

 wiih the same-sized entrance will be at the 

 back of the hive in the beginning of winter, 

 and move forward; but of hundreds of colo- 

 nies that I have looked over in our own api- 

 aries I find the cluster almost invariably 

 clear up against the front of the hive, and 

 directly over the entrance. As we make it a 

 rule to make an entrance |X8 inches wide in 

 the case of an average colony, the cluster as 

 a rule is on the center set of frames. 



ADULTERATIONS IN AVAX. 



A Curious Adulterant. 



BY E. R. ROOT. 



As I have before explained in these col- 

 umns, our foundation department has to be 

 constantly on the alert to detect adulterations 

 in wax, especially a promiscuous lot gather- 

 ed from many different sources, and sold by 

 one party. Some little time ago I showed 

 how a stone had been neatly imbedded in a 

 cake of wax. 



i 



A CAKE OF "adulterated" WAX SENT TO MEDINA. 



These facts, together with those related by 

 Mr. Latham, go to show that a cluster of 

 bees seeks the point of greatest ventilation. 

 Temperature does not seem to play as impor- 

 tant a part as fresh air in this matter of selec- 

 tion. 



We lost only a few colonies, comparative- 

 ly, last winter, and nearly all of those had an 

 entrance clear over to one side. The trouble 

 was we shifted the entrance to one side after 

 the cluster had formed for the winter nap, 

 with the result as stated. Mr. Latham's point, 

 ot to shift the entrance away from the clus- 

 ter after it has once formed, is well taken. 



In the first paragraph I stated that the 

 bees, in loca*^ing their cluster, seemed to seek 

 ventilation. Perhaps some will raise the 

 question, "Why would it not be a good 

 practice to enlarge the entrance an inch or 

 an inch and a half by the full width of the 

 hive?" We have tried it several winters, 

 and always to our sorrow, and find that most 

 colonies will die before the coming of spring. 

 Even a small entrance placed in such a posi- 

 tion that the piercing winds of winter will 

 enter it is quite lial)le to result in the loss of 

 the bees. Outdoor-wintered hives should 

 have the entrances protec^ted by a barn or 

 other out-building, fences, thick shrubbery, 

 any thing and every thing that will break 

 the force of the piercing blasts of air from 

 any direction. — Ed.] 



This time I present a very curious form of 

 adulteration, the adulterant being five wire 

 nails driven down into the center of the cake. 

 The cake weighed only one pound. Ap- 

 parently the person who prepared it scooped 

 out from the center of the cake a depression. 

 Into this he drove five nails, then covered it 

 with a nice soft ball of wax which he molded 

 to fit the cavity. But the "filler" was of 

 different color, and naturally attracted the 

 attention of our men when it came up for 

 inspection. A knife was inserted under what 

 seemed to be a scab, with the result that the 

 nails showed beneath. 



This illustrates the old truth that some 

 people actually work harder to practice de- 

 ception and methods of dishonesty, and get 

 less for it, than they would if they attempted 

 to deal on the square. This person must 

 have spent a good deal more time in fixing 

 up this small cake of wax in oi'der to make 

 it weigh heavier in the extra weight se- 

 cured, than the wax was worth, five times 

 over. Actual computation shows he gained 

 If cents in added weight to the cake of wax, 

 but prol:)alily wasted ten cents' worth of time 

 in making a bungling deception. The man 

 who would sell himself so cheaply as this 

 must be a very poor specimen of manhood, 

 to say the least. It is just such fellows as 

 this who would sell their vote for a drink of 

 beer. 



