570 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



readable when facing the customer. 

 Large, highly-colored, flashy labels 

 which cover up nearly half of the 

 bottle or tin, are to be avoided. Any 

 saw or planing mill will furnish the 

 pieces for the above case and stand , 

 in the flat, and if the producer is pos- 

 sessed of ordinary mechanical ability, 

 he can put them together himself, 

 and not reckoning bis own time, the 

 total cost for wood, glass, nails, stain- 

 ing and varnish, all told, should not 

 exceed $1.2.') per stand. 



The use of tliis or a similar show- 

 case aids in the sale of the lioney 

 immensely, and when properly dressed 

 with comb and extracted honey, it 

 forms one of the most conspicuous 

 objects of the store wherein it is 

 placed, and rarely fails to attract the 

 immediate attention of every custo- 

 mer who has not seen it before. 



The choicest sections should be 

 placed next the glass inside the case, 

 and a row of pint Gem or Mason jars 

 filled with the clearest extracted 

 honey on the highest shelf outside ; 

 on the two shelves below, place quart- 

 jars, and on the co-unter surrounding 

 the whole stand, with the exception 

 of the back, place another row of 

 quarts ; there will thus be four rows 

 of bottles ascending one above the 

 other, and the case containing tlie 

 comb honey springing from the midst 

 of them, wliich is surmounted by a 

 miniature pyramid of pint-bottles and 

 cap-sheafed by a .5-pound bottle in the 

 centre. It would be advisable to 

 keep a tumbler of honey open behind 

 the stand, and then if any boniflde 

 inquirer should desire to know the 

 quality of the honey before purchas- 

 ing, hand him out a spoonful on a 

 small crystal kept for the purpose. 



Keep nothing but thoroughly rip- 

 ened honey on hand in the extracted 

 form, and seek to obtain your honey 

 in sections as thoroughly capped as 

 possible. If these methods are per- 

 severingly carried out, you will soon 

 find yourself the happy possessor of a 

 paying business, and one wherein you 

 can bid defiance to any opposition. 



Brussels, Ont. 



When a colony sends out a swarm, 

 I place a hive where I want them to 

 stay, and when the swarm is clus- 

 tered, fasten dovvn the top. put my 

 pole into place, take the swarmer and 

 smoker in hand, and go to the cluster 

 and place the swarmer directly over 

 or against it, and give them "a few 

 whiffs of smoke to start them, and 

 they cluster on the combs at once. I 

 then lower them so I can reach the 

 bail, remove the pole, carry the 

 swarmer and bees to the hive, put it 

 down in front of the hive, imhook and 

 raise the cover, lift the frames out 

 and place them in the hive, when I 

 usually get two-thirds of the bees 

 into the hive, and li 'nily ever fail to 

 get the queen in al-.o. The rest of 

 the bees will soon follow, and there is 

 no noise or commotion about it. 



If I have no empty combs. I take 

 out two frames from some hive, 

 shake tlie bees from them, and place 

 them in the swarmer. As I always 

 put a frame or two of fresh brood in 

 a new colony to help them, I have no 

 absconding. If I wish to economize 

 on the expense of the swarmer, I 

 omit the bail, and nail a 3-inch strip 

 of lumber on the bottom 1 inch thick; 

 I then bore a 1-inch hole through the 

 cover, and make a shoulder on tlie 

 pole so that I can run it up l)etween 

 the combs, and use the swarmer as 

 before. I try to guard against swarms 

 uniting, but if it was not for saving 

 valuable queens, that would give me 

 no trouble as the stronger the colonies 

 are the better. I have no use for a 

 pair of pruning shears, or a saw or 

 knife ; I can get them as w'ell from a 

 trunk or fork of a tree as in any other 

 place, if I can get the swarmer 

 against or directly over them, I 

 have no occasion to deface a tree. 



Ilillsboro, 111. 



For the American Bee Joiimal. 



Hiving Swarms of Bees. 



I. H. SHIJIER. 



Having read with interest the sev- 

 eral articles in the Bee Journal on 

 hiving swarms, I venture to give my 

 method of procedure, which is as fol- 

 lows : I make a two-frame nuclei 

 hive of the right size to hold the 

 brood frames, and in place of having 

 the sides and bottom tight, I nail 

 strips ^xj^ inches wide, and of the 

 length I desire, and % inch apart. 

 The top is solid, being made of y^- 

 inch lumber and fastened with a hook 

 on each end. I now make an. iron 

 bail and attach it one-fourth of the 

 way down on the ends. This bail is 

 long enough to pass under the bot- 

 tom, and having a socket in the cen- 

 tre to receive a pole or handle, I then 

 fit two empty brood-combs into the 

 swarmer having slots to hold them, so 

 thev cannot swing and mash bees. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



New Zealand Comb Foundation. 



One who signs himself as "Another 

 Xew Zealand Bee-Keeper," writes as 

 follows to the Bee Journal': 



In the See Journal of March -3. 

 page 1.5.5, there is a communication in 

 " What and How " columns which 

 escaped my notice until a few days 

 ago. from a " Bee-Keeper in Xevv Zea- 

 land." in which there are certain 

 quiries put as to the purity of the wax 

 in some samples of comb foundation 

 sent by that writer, for the purpose of 

 testing. Xow. as the principal part 

 of the comb foundation used in New 

 Zealand is made by one firm, and that 

 firm was accused by one party, of 

 adulterating the wax, without any 

 grounds for the accusation whatever, 

 it would appear that there is some in- 

 timate connection between the ac- 

 cuser and the quirist. I would, there- 

 fore, ask you, in the interest of " fair 

 play." to publish the following clipped 

 from the Nexo Zealand and Australian 

 Bee Journal of Feb. 1, 1884 : 



" Some few weeks bitek we received 

 a letter stating that a report was being 

 circulated that we were adulterating 

 the wax. from which we made our 

 comb foundation with paraftine or some 



composition. This, of course, was 

 tantamount to accusing us of roguery 

 in selling our customers an article 

 made from other material than what 

 we represented it to be. We at once 

 wrote a letter to the gentleman, who, 

 we were informed, had made state- 

 ments to the above effect, telling him 

 of what we had heard, and asking 

 him if it was correct ; after waitiuff 

 several weeks for a reply, we received 

 the following for publication : 



To the Editor A. and N. Z. Bee Jour- 

 (ui;.-— Having heard statements made 

 which caused me to think and believe 

 that the material used in the making 

 of your comb foundation was not pure 

 beeswax, but some kind of composi- 

 tion, I forwarded a sample of it to 

 Mr. Pond, analyst for Auckland 

 Province, for analysis, and I herewith 

 hand you a copy of his report, for 

 publication in the Journal. Tlie sam- 

 ple was taken from a box obtained 

 from Mr. Hayr, in the ordinary way 

 of trade, and' tliat gentleman had no 

 idea that any of the purchase was in- 

 tended for analysis. I have to con- 

 gratulate you on the result of the 

 test, which I may state was also made 

 without any klmwledge on your part, 

 and I trust tliat the publication of 

 Mr. Pond's report will have the effect 

 of causing all the bee-keepers in Aus- 

 tralia and Xew Zealand to do as I 

 have done, and recommended, viz : 

 using the foundation in full-sized 

 sheets, and not in starters only, the 

 latter practice lieiiig, in my opinion, a 

 "■penny wise and pound foolish" 

 economy. — J.\mk< Dalziel. 



Following is the report of analysis : 

 — •■ Dk. Dalzikl. Pukekohe.— I have 

 made an extended examination of the 

 sample of comb foundation submitted 

 by you on the 0th inst., with the re- 

 sult that I find it to be a fairly good 

 sample of beeswax, containing no 

 foreign substance. Melting point. 

 14-5° Fah. ; specific gravity"; 96.117 ; 

 ash, a trace. Substances not wax : 

 Fragments of bees' wings and legs, 

 pollen grains, and water. I have tne 

 honor to be, sir. your obedient servant. 

 — J. A. Pond, Colonial Analyst. Auck- 

 land, Dec. 12. l.SS;^. 



" Although Dr. Dalziel has done 

 what, of course, he had a right to do 

 to satisfy himself whether we were 

 practicing an imposition or not, i. e., 

 in getting an analytical test of the 

 comb ; still, we think he sliould have 

 done this in the first instance, as soon 

 as he suspected that it was adulter- 

 ated, or, at any rate, before he made 

 mention of it to iithers, and not have 

 left it till written to on the subject. 



" ^'ith regard to our comb founda- 

 tion, we may state that in making it, 

 we could not jiossibly be more par- 

 ticular in keeping it free from im- 

 purities than we are. The beeswax 

 of commerce is usually in a very dirty 

 state, especially on the outside of the 

 pieces ; these are all thoroughly 

 scraped, and every ounce is then put 

 through a double-refining process, in 

 special boiling water-biiths, before 

 being made into comb foundation. 

 We sometimes get. amongst the large 

 quantities of wax that we purchase, 

 pieces that have been adulterated ; 

 but having now handled some tons of 



