THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



Januaiy 



17 years experience, in which, I have 

 sold thousands of queens guaranteed 

 against this eomphiint with never a 

 failure. 



Whatever may be said in favor of 

 "Nature." it is the only plan I know 

 of in which queens can be reared arti- 

 ficially direct from the egg. and it cer- 

 tainly" produces better queens than 

 when left to natural development. 



Of course, there will be plenty 

 of queen breeders who will swear by 

 ■their own methods, but where is there 

 one who will guarantee his queens to 

 produce bees proof against spring 

 dwindling or winter dysentery like I 

 have been doing ever since 1889? If I 

 could not produce such bees, how is 

 it people send to me for all their 

 queens, and I have yet to receive the 

 iirst report of such a lot of bees? 



I don't wish readers to infer that 

 I use artificial cell cups in every in- 

 stance, because I don't, for the bees 

 will start cells of their own, which 

 instead of removing, I remove the in- 

 cluded larvae and put in one just 



hatched from the e^ 



Another fact 



some queen breeders will not swallow, 

 is. the large number of queens I pro- 

 duce on my system— 500 per week 

 from one hive is nothing to wonder 

 at, while anything under 100 leads me 

 to' suspect something is wrong and 

 more than this. I never cut a cell out, 

 all being hatched in the stocks they 

 are reared in, being naturally protect- 

 ed and fed by the bees in their ceils 

 for two days at least. 

 Sheffield, England. 



BEESWAX. 



Something of Its Use in tlie Arts and Sciences'of 

 Ancienl'and IModernJImes. 

 By Dickson D. Alley. 



THE OTHI-m DAY, while looking 

 at a beautiful piece of honey- 

 comb and admiring the wonder- 

 ful work of the bees, I began wonder- 

 ing if the average bee-keeper knew 

 what uses beeswax was put to, aftir 

 he had disposed of it to the dealer. 

 The apiarist is familiar with the man- 

 ner in which his wife uses it to rub 

 on her flat-iron or to draw her thread 

 through, when engaged in heavy sew- 

 ing. While he receives part of it 

 back in the shape of foundation. 



Among the ancients it was an ex- 

 tensive article of commerce. They 

 used it largely in all their religious 

 ceremonies, embalming their dead, and 

 as an ingredient in precious ointments 

 and salves. The Roman used it for 

 coating his writing tablets on which 

 he indicted his thoughts with the sty- 

 lus, an instrument the prototype of our 

 lead pencil. Combined with other re- 

 sins the ancients calked the seams 

 of their galleys to render them water- 

 tight. The Romans bronze workers and 

 silversmiths used beeswax extensively 

 in their art. First making the model 

 in beeswax and forming a mould over 

 it of moulding sand. Then applying 

 heat and melting out the wax, leav- 

 ing the impression of the original in 

 the mould, into which they poured the 

 molten bronze. The Chinese also use 

 this process in their bronze castings, 

 it being applicable to the most com- 

 plicated forms of the original model: 

 such as the foliage of trees, etc. The 

 whole casting being made in one piece; 

 whereas, in modern bronze founding 

 the original is covered with a mould 

 which may consist of many pieces fit- 

 ting together. In large castings neces- 

 sitating the cutting of the model into 

 several pieces to be cast separately 

 and afterward braze<l together in the 

 finishied product. 



The beautiful vases and other ob- 

 jects of the silversmith's art. are all 

 modeled in beeswax, to which has 

 been added some fatty substance and 

 powdered sulphur to keep it pliable. 

 A great many of our public statues 

 have been modeled in this material. 



I>angstroth says: "Wax candles were 

 earlv introduced— with symbolical sig- 

 nification—into Christian worship, and 

 are still so employed in the Roman 

 Catholic church." The Episcopal 

 church also uses wax candles to .some 

 extent. For this purpose the wax is 

 bleached as white as snow. 



Wax is used by engravers for cov- 

 ering copper plates with a thin coat, 

 through which they scratch the design 

 down to the copper; this is afterward 

 submitted to an etching bath of weak 

 acid which eats th/e exposed copper, 

 leaving that part of the plate coated 

 by the wax untouched. 



Who has not heard of Mr. Jarley's 

 wax works? life-size and realistic fig- 

 ures made famous by Mr. Dickens in 



