210 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Artificial Comb Honey, Beeswax, etc. 



Mr. H. S. Hackman, of Peru, 111., 

 propounds below a few questions re- 

 lating to tlie beeswax production of 

 the United States. Sliort and pointed 

 as are tlie questions, but sliglit rejec- 

 tion will be required to convince the 

 reader of their importance : 



I liave received a letter from Mr. R. 

 A. Burnett, commission merchant in 

 Chicago, in which lie says: "Hap- 

 pening to pick up the Bee JouiiNAr, 

 of this city, I noticed your communi- 

 cation on comb honey. It is true that 

 many people think ail the nice comb 

 honey that they see in my store is 

 manufactured and tell me so daily ; I 

 am often so weary of the effort to con- 

 vince them of the impossibility of its 

 being mauufactnred, that many are 

 allowed to deceive themselves. Per- 

 haps that is better than that they 

 should think I lied about it." This 

 corroborates my last article on artifi- 

 cial comb iioney. Will you or some of 

 your contributors please write an 

 article on beeswax, and answer the 

 following questions : 1. What is the 

 wax product of the United States an- 

 niuillyV 2. What is the principal 

 use wax is employed in or I'orV 3. 

 Can anv other product or substance be 

 substituted for beeswax V 4. What 

 will l)e the commercial value of wax, 

 as scientific bee-keeping advances V 

 5. Can a progressive bee-keeper afford 

 to sell wax at 20 cents a pound V 



1. There are no data for arriving at 

 the wax product of the United States 

 with anything like precision. Several 

 years ago, with the information then 

 at hand, we estimated the beeswax 

 product of the country to be about 

 3,000,000 pounds, which, at 20c. per 

 pound, would amount to $600,000. 



2. For wax candles, artificial flowers, 

 medicinal uses, varnislies, and many 

 other purposes. The most of it, till 

 quite recently, has found a foreign 

 market, since wliich there lias been a 

 ready market at home for nearly all 

 the beeswax produced. 



3. Yes, in many ways ; it is largely 

 mixed with cerasine, parafTine, and 

 perhaps other substances, for various 

 purposes. Much of the bleached l>ees- 

 wax of commerce, and white wax, is 

 composed principally of cerasine or 

 parathne, and in many cases tliey have 

 entirely supplanted beeswax. We do 

 not believe, liowever, any substitute 

 for it can be used in the apiary, or any 

 adulteration practiced with economy, 

 for purposes in which it is to be 

 brought into contact with the bees. 

 Several attempts of this kind have 

 been made, but they always resulted 

 in failure so far as we have been in- 

 formed. 



4. It is impossible to foretell. Per- 



haps its value will not advance pro- 

 portionately with the decrease in pro- 

 duction, owing to the employment of 

 cheap substitutes for it. 



•5. No, as compared with the price 

 of honey, and the ready market being 

 establislied for the latter. Probably, 

 in the near future, the majority of the 

 wax production of America will be 

 consumed in the manufacture of comb 

 foundation, and many progressive 

 apiarists will themselves become buy- 

 ers in the market instead of sellers, 

 as the tendency of progress appears 

 to be to prevent production tatlier 

 than to encourage it. If twenty pounds 

 of honey, or the time of the bees 

 equivalent to that amount, be required 

 in the making of one pound of comb, 

 certainly no thouglitful bee-keeper 

 will encourage or allow its production 

 if he can profitably prevent it. 



Artificial Swarming. 



The season is rapidly approaching 

 when the bee-keeper will wish to take 

 every advantage to secure the early 

 flow of honey. Many may have bees 

 in box liives whicli tliey do not wish 

 to transfer, either from want of time 

 or timidity, or, perhaps, they may 

 prefer to keep them in the boxes, and 

 to run tlie swarms into frame hives. 

 For this purpose we suggest the fol- 

 lowing methods of artificial swarm- 

 ing, wiiich will be found preferable, 

 we think, to natural swarming, as 

 they are attended with no risk, but 

 little loss of time to the bee-keeper, 

 and scarcely no interruption of work 

 with the bees, as is always the case 

 with natural swarming, occurring as 

 it does just at the time when time is 

 most valuable with them : Select 

 some bright, clear day, when the 

 workers are busily engaged in the 

 helds, remove the hive 10 to 20 feet 

 from the stand, and put in its stead 

 a frame hive, witli half or two-thirds 

 its complement of frames filled with 

 bright, clean combs, or good founda- 

 tion and division boards at the sides; 

 turn the old hive bottom up, and in- 

 vert an empty box over the open end ; 

 now blow in a. little smoke from the 

 lower end of the hive, and commence 

 a series of sharp drumming or rap- 

 ping on the sides of the hive with a 

 small hammer or stick ; do not drum 

 hard enough to loosen the combs or 

 start tliem to dripping ; after rapping 

 4 or 5 minutes, cease for a minute, 

 then resume again, and keep it up for 

 five minutes longer, or until the bees 

 liave deserted the hive and clustered 



in the box, whicli is a pretty sure in- 

 dication the queen is with them. Now 

 cover a sheet over the old hive, and 

 empty the bees from the box on a 

 sheet in front of the new hive on the 

 old stand ; watch them as they crawl 

 up, to discover the queen ; if slie goes- 

 in, place the old box on a new stand, 

 and your work is accomplished. 



If the bees to be operated with are 

 in frame hives, remove the old hive to 

 a distance, and place a new or empty 

 one on tlie old stand, when the bees 

 are working busiest ; lift tlie comb on 

 which you find the queen from the 

 old hive, destroy queen cells on it, if 

 any, and place in the center of the new 

 one, with the queen ; Hll in frames 

 each side filled with clean combs or 

 foundation, proportionate to the 

 strength of the colony, and confine to 

 the center of tlie hive with division 

 boards; put on the blanket and hive 

 cover ; now take tlie frames one at a 

 time from the old hive, and shake 

 most of the bees off in front of the 

 nev^f hive, destroy all the queen cells 

 in the old hive but the two best, or 

 give them a laying queen after de- 

 stroying or removing all the cells ; put 

 in an empty comb or frame of founda- 

 tion in place of the one removed to 

 the new hive, spread tlie blanket over, 

 or put on second story with sections 

 or extracting combs, and place the 

 hive on a new stand well removed 

 from the old one. The above metliods 

 are usually an effectual cure for 

 " swarming fever," and interferes but 

 a few hours with work. 



Another method which can be prac- 

 ticed with good results, is to examine 

 the colony threatening to swarm, re- 

 move all queen cells started, tlien re- 

 move the hive to the stand occupied 

 by a very weak colony, and remove 

 the weak colony to the stand formerly 

 occupied by the strong colony. In 

 strengthening and depleting in this 

 manner, liowever, it is much safer to 

 confine each queen on the surface of a 

 comb in her respective hive for 

 twenty-four hours, to protect her from 

 the returning bees, whicli sometimes 

 regard her as an intruder. For this 

 purpose a cup from a Harris introdu- 

 cing cage will be found best. 



In all cases where foundation or 

 empty combs and division boards are 

 used in dividing or artificial swarm- 

 ing, care must be used to spread the 

 brood chamber and give additional 

 combs or foundation as fast as the 

 bees are ready for it. Use good founda- 

 tion in preference to doubtf id combs. 



