i'HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



501 



Explauators'.— The dgures uefork the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those aftf.r, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 preTious spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named; 

 6 north of the center; 9 south; O east; 

 ♦O west: and this d northeast; ^3 northwest: 

 o~ southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State meutioned. 



For tbe Amencan Bee Jouruau 



Experience aiifl Emerimeiit, 



G. W. DEMAKEK. 



The honey crop will be short again 

 this year in Kentucky, and perhaps 

 in all the Middle States as a general 

 thing. Our bees in this State came 

 through the winter in a weakened 

 condition ; never were my colonies so 

 weak in the spring as they were early 

 last spring. But favorable weather 

 brought them forward rapidly, and 

 swarming commenced as early as 

 usual. The honey season was really 

 good until about half way through 

 the usual period of time in which 

 black locust and white clover yield 

 nectar in quantity to furnish surplus, 

 and then unfavorable weather set in 

 with prevailing north and east winds, 

 and the honey-flow was at an end. 



Early in July we had a few morn- 

 ings that gave our bees a lively time 

 gathering the so-ca/tecf honey-dew, the 

 first thing of the kind that I have 

 observed for several years. The in- 

 sects producing this sweet liquid sub- 

 stance were not the ordinary scale or 

 bark-lice which produce the black, 

 filthy stuff, so appropriately called 

 "bug-juice"' by a number of writers 

 in the bee-papers, but is a lively little 

 insect of a pale yellow color, has six 

 well-formed legs, large compound 

 eyes, between which are located the 

 long, slender antennaj that are nearly 

 always in motion. A beautiful pair 

 of gauze-like wings extending beyond 

 the extremity of the abdomen com- 

 pletes the external appearance of this 

 strange little honey anhis. They are 

 so very small that it requires a glass 

 of considerable power to exhibit the 

 insect to good advantage. Frequently 

 while I had a specimen under a Cod- 

 dington lens it would spread its gauzy 

 wings and fly away, or walk grace- 

 fully out of the range of the glass. 



I saw them nowhere but on the 

 leaves of the black walnut. They 

 were found on the under side of the 

 leaves, while the tops of the leaves, 

 many of thera, had a glazed, shiny 

 appearance lo the unaided eye, but 

 when put under the glass they pre- 

 sented the appearance of being 

 sprayed with a transparent liquid as 

 clear as water, and sweet to the touch 

 of the tnii^jiif. 



While the dew was on in the morn- 

 ing, the bees would hurry over the 

 leaves licking up this dew-like sub- 

 stance with the greatest eagerness. 

 1 should have no fear of this aphis 

 honey injuring my bees, though it 

 was ever so abnndsint. 



1 have discovered some things this 

 season that I do not remember of see- 

 ing in print or of hearing them men- 

 tioned by any one. One of which is 

 the fact that young queens sometimes, 

 perhaps 8 per cent, of them, have 

 their heads turned the wrong way in 

 the cells, and being unable to cut 

 through the base of the cells they 

 perish in the cells. In case of re- 

 tarded hatching I discovered by open- 

 ing a cell that a well-formed and per- 

 fectly-developed queen was in this 

 predicament. I rescued her from her 

 entombment and set her at liberty. 

 This circumstance led me to making 

 close observations, and I have since 

 found two more queens reversed in 

 the cells. 



THE STJN WAX-EXTRACTOR. 



This is the third season that I have 

 operated a sun, or solar wax-extrac- 

 tor, and when properly made I know 

 of no device that will do its work so 

 cheaply and so well as the sun wax- 

 extractor. Of all the methods that I 

 have tried the sun wax-exliactor is 

 the only device that will separate the 

 wax cleanly from old, and pollen- 

 filled combs, scrapings, etc. It would 

 surprise any one to see how much 

 honey can be extracted from the cap- 

 pings after they have been well 

 drained in the uncapping-can, by 

 subjecting them to the heat of the 

 sun in the sun wax-extractor. 



To make the device work well the 

 pan that holds the combs, cappings. 

 etc., must be made in the form of a 

 half-cylinder, with the back end 

 closed while the front or drip end is 

 left open. This circular shape of the 

 pan or bottom of the extractor per- 

 mits the wax to drain from the refuse 

 of the combs much more readily and 

 cleanly than can be the case when a 

 flat pan with elevated rim is used. 



A sash that will just take three 

 panes of glass 12x20 inches will furnish 

 heat suflicient to render all the wax 

 that is ordinarily produced in an 

 apiary of 100 colonies. The glass 

 should have nothing between them to 

 cast a shadow ; just let the edges of 

 the glasses fit close together. The 

 sash to my sun wax-extractor is made 

 of %x2 inch stuff, so made as to stand 

 on the frame-work like a shallow box 

 2 inches deep. It has a shallow rab- 

 bet at the top to receive the glass, 

 which are secured in place by tin 

 points. The sash is made to slide 

 between guides, so that it can be 

 shoved backwards and forwards. The 

 frame-work is simply a box with four 

 legs like an old-style bee-hive. The 

 proper pitch of the draining pan is 

 obtained by blocking up or letting 

 down the back end of the frame-work. 



It would astonish any one who had 

 never tried it, to see how much heat 

 will be generated by this device on a 

 clear, hot day. My apparatus will 

 melt and run down a cake of wax 3 or 

 4 inches thick in a few hours ; and if 



robber bees rush in when the sash is 

 slid back for any purpose, a few 

 feeble struggles ends their existence. 

 I am quite sure that when bee- 

 keepers learn how to make and use 

 the sun wax-extractor it will take the 

 place of all other devices for common 

 purposes. 



THE TIERED BKOOD-CHAMBER. 



I have again this season employed 

 a limited number of my shallow ex- 

 tracting-cases for brood-chambers, 

 using two of them, tiering one on the 

 other. My extracting-cases are 5)4 

 inches deep, taking frames 4% inches. 

 The top and bottom bars of the 

 frame are made to project % of an 

 inch beyond the end-bars, and are 

 held in a central position in the case 

 by means of folded strips of tin in- 

 serted in saw-cuts 8- Hiot an inch from 

 the top and bottom of the case, thus 

 leaving a shallow bee-space at the 

 top and bottom of the frames. The 

 strips of tin at the bottom of the case 

 are nailed fast, while the two top 

 strips are movable. This makes the 

 frames movable, and the case rever- 

 sible. 



The idea of a shallow bee-space at 

 the top and bottom of the frames and 

 section-boxes originated with myself, 

 though I notice that this idea is 

 prominent in Mr. J. M. Shuck's 

 patent hive, a sample of which I have 

 in my apiary ; but I suppose that Mr. 

 Shuck does not claim this as his 

 property, as it would be impossible to 

 define what a " bee-space " is, in 

 actual measurement. 



After trying the double-brood- 

 chamber hive pretty thoroughly, I 

 feel sure that it will never come into 

 general use. Those who wish to 

 manipulate all the honey out of the 

 brooel-nest into the surplus depart- 

 ment, with the view of feeding 

 cheaper food than honey to their 

 bees for winter stores, and have no 

 qualms of conscience if some of the 

 "cheaper food " does go into the sur- 



Elus at the beginning of the early 

 oney harvest, will probably hold on 

 to the tiered brood-chamber for some- 

 time to come, or until the honey 

 business is well nigh ruined. It costs 

 more to make a hive in two parts. It 

 requires more time and labor to 

 manipulate a double-brood-chamber, 

 for double the number of frames must 

 be handled, if the frames are to be 

 handled at all, and if not, then the 

 movable frame is a useless expense. 



There are some serious defects 

 about the double brood-chamber that 

 seems not to have attracted attention 

 at this early stage of its use. If you 

 wish to have queen-cells built, or wish 

 to save the cells after a swarm issues, 

 you will generally find the best cells 

 built from the lower edge of the 

 upper tier of combs and extending 

 down through the bee-space and at- 

 tached to the top-bars of the lower 

 tier of combs, so that when the two 

 divisions are separated the cells are 

 torn to pieces. The same is true of 

 the worker brood ; bees are most 

 likely to build bits of comb between 

 shallow departments, and as the 

 worker brood reared in shallow frames 

 — especially in the lower tier is usually 



