1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl.. 



23 



tion, and possibly give you just the least speck of help. If 

 about May 15 you change to lO-frame hives and give two 

 frames of foundation, your crop will be increast, providliuj 

 those two extra frames induce the bees not to swarm. I very 

 much doubt whether it would have that effect. I doubt wheth- 

 er it would be auy diflferent from what it would be if they 

 started out in the first place with 10-frame hives. For I sus- 

 pect that up to May 15 the bees would have all the room they 

 needed in an 8-frame hive, and just as much as they would 

 use in a 10-frame hive. But if you can get the bees to tell you 

 just when they are going to mal^e preparation for swarming, 

 and give them two or more frames of foundation just before 

 that preparation, you may do something to keep them from 

 swarming. Yes, it may safely be said you will do something 

 in that direction. If you take away enough frames of brood, 

 replacing them with empty frames, they will be pretty certain 

 not to swarm. Possibly, however, to jirevent entirely all no- 

 tion of swarming, it might be necessary in some cases to take 

 all the brood away. And then it would be a problem whether 

 .that would practically be any different from letting the bees 

 swarm. At any rate, if you attempt the plan at all, let the 

 change be made just as late as you possibly can without hav- 

 ing the bees actually start queen-cells. 



Giving two S-frame stories will be all right, and in some 

 cases alternating the brood with foundation will be all right, 

 but in most cases it will be all wrong. It will be all right if 

 the colony is very strong and the weather keeps warm enough 

 so no brood is chilled. The safe plan will be to do very little 

 spreading of brood at the time of giving the second story. Don't 

 .give it till it is needed, or rather don't put brood in it till room 

 is needed. Give the second story below, and don't do any 

 spreading, buf when the upper story is full, if the bees don't 

 seem inclined to occupy the lower story, take one frame out of 

 the upper story and put it below, taking this frame not out of 

 the center of the brood-nest, but take one of the side frames, 

 so there shall be no spreading in the upper story. For putting 

 that one frame below will be spreading the brood emphatically. 



2. I don't know, but I suppose you can get at it easily. 

 The width of the 8-frame is 123^ inches. If frames are spaced 

 IJfi inches, that makes 23| inches for two frames, which added 

 to 12;^ makes I'lJ^ as the right width for ten frames. 



o. I think I'd give both a trial, before deciding. My ex- 

 perience with the tall sections is so limited that I liave as yet 

 no intelligent opinion. 



3. I don't know. I've never tried the cleated separators, 

 or fence, but hope to give them a trial next season. 



5. I don't know. The fact that tl'u' is so commonly used 

 rather implies that such is the best depth, and perhaps it is, 

 and yet some prefer the greater depth, among them some of 

 our best men, so it leaves the question still an open one. 



Send on your questions. As long as the answers hold out 

 you're entitled to your share. 



Kcntleriiisr Bcesivax. 



How can I get the beeswax from the honey-comb ? This 

 is my first year with bees, therefore I do not know much about 

 them. Beginner. 



. Answkr. — There are different ways of getting beeswax 

 out of old combs, but there are some preliminary steps to be 

 taken that should be the same in either case. The cells of old 

 combs cortain cocoons left by successive generations of young 

 bees reared in them, and these cocoons act as a sort of sponge 

 in soaking up the wax when it is melted. To prevent this you 

 should get the cocoons soakt as full of water as they will hold, 

 so that they will have no room for any wax. This can be best 

 accomplisht by breaking the combs up fine. You can't do this 

 when the combs are warm, but the combs must be cold and 

 brittle. Good weather for that now, so break them up fine, 

 and then put them in water and let them soak perhaps two or 

 three days. If you have them in too cold a place the water 

 will not soak into the cocoons so rapidly, but you mustn't have 

 the water much above blood heat or the wax will melt and de- 

 feat your object. After being well soakt you can get out the 

 wax in different ways, one of the easiest being by means of a 

 cook-stove and an old dripping-pan. Tear open one corner of 

 the dripping-pan, put it in the oven of the cook-stove wiih the 

 door of the oven left open, the split corner of the pan project- 

 ing out and something under the corner of the pan on the floor 

 ready to catch the wax as it runs out. Put something in the 

 oven under the inside end of the pan so as to raise it half an 

 inch to an inch, thus allowing the wax to run down hill when 

 it melts. Now put your soakt combs in the dripping-pan, and 

 the heat of the stove will do the rest. It may be a good plan to 

 put a little water in the pan that sits on the floor, so the wax 



will more easily come out of the dish. If you melt it over again 

 to form it into a better-shaped cake, be sure not to heat it too 

 much. 



m I ^ — ■ 



Knowing a Laying Worker by Her Loolts. 



Please tell me how you can tell a laying worker by her 

 looks. On page 806, (189T) W. W McNeal says a laying 

 worker can be seen and told tjy her looks, and that anyone who 

 will take the trouble to open his eyes and look cannot fail to 

 pick them out, but I cannot find that he tells anywhere how 

 they look. S. G. 



Answer. — I hardly think Mr. McNeal meant you could 

 tell a laying worker by her looks, but that you could tell 

 her by her actions and by the actions of the bees toward her. 

 To be sure he says she has a " soakt " appearance, but he says 

 in the same connection that other bees look the same way. Mr. 

 McNeal is evidently an interested observer, and I hope he will 

 follow up the matter still more closely. I have seen a laying 

 worker in the act of laying, and she had no soakt appearance. 

 Of course I do not say others might not have such appearance, 

 butthe question might be raised whether there may be no pos- 

 sible mistake in Mr. McNeal's observations. It is now ascer- 

 tained that instead of a single laying worker, a good percent- 

 age of the workers in the hive are of that sort. I have seen 

 bees surrounding one of those soakt-looking workers, and was 

 at first of the opinion that they might be laying workers, but 

 soon found my mistake. I wish Mr. McNeal would watch 

 closely the next time he has a chance, and see whether it is not 

 the soakt-looking worker that is giving up honey to the bees 

 encircling it. 



White vs. Yclloiv Sweet Clover. 



What variety of sweet clover is the best adapted for low 

 land, rather wet for cultivation, and that cannot be under- 

 drained '? I want to sow red-top, Alsike and sweet clover. 

 Please don't say you "don't know." Indiana. 



Answer. — Now look here, what kind of fairness is there 

 in asking a question and then shutting a body off from the best 

 answer he can make ? The two kinds of sweet clover are the 

 white and yellow, and it seems rather a hard thing to get many 

 to tell much about the yellow. It is said to be earlier, per- 

 haps two weeks earlier, than the white. In places where white 

 clover is plenty, that would probably be a disadvantage, for in 

 a white clover country sweet clover is of no great value till the 

 close of the white clover harvest, and white sweet clover comes 

 plenty early for that. It is reported to be a better yielder than 

 the white sweet clover, but that report comes only from one or 

 two, and sometimes a plant does not act the same in all loca- 

 tions. The yellow seems to be a lower-growing kind than the 

 white. 



It would be a matter of benefit if some one who has tried 

 the two kinds side by side, say in New York State, where both 

 grow more or less plentifully, or indeed in any other State, 

 would make a full report as to the comparative merit of the 

 two, and in this there seems to be a chance for you to do the 

 brotherhood a real service by trying the two side by side. But 

 until you have fuller light ou the subject you may do well to 

 use mostly the white, for it is probably a settled thing that in 

 your state (Indiana) white sweet clover will succeed well and 

 give good results. Whether the yellow will grow as well, or 

 whether there is any difference whatever as to the growth on 

 the same or different soils, is a thing yet to be learned. 



A Ne'w Binder for holding a year's numbers of the 



American Bee Journal, we propose to mail, postpaid, to every 



subscriber who sends us 20 cents. It is called "The Wood 



Binder," is patented, and is an entirely new and very simple 



arrangement. Full printed directions accompany each Binder. 



Every reader should get it, and preserve the copies of the Bee 



Journal as fast as they are received. They are invaluable for 



reference, and at the low price of the Binder you, can afford to 



get it yearly. 



M-*-* 



The Alsike Clover L,eallet consists of 2 pages, 

 with illustrations, showing the value of Alsike clover, and 

 telling how to grow it. This Leaflet is just the thing to hand 

 to every farmer in your neighborhood. Send to the Bee Jour- 

 nal office for a quantity of tliem, and see that they are dis- 

 tributed where they will do the most good. Prices, postpaid, 

 are as follows : 50 for 20 cents ; 100 for 35 cents ; or 200 

 for 60 cents. 



