492 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



James Fry, Leslie, Mich., made a 

 display of fancy cases filled with comb 

 honey, one colony of bees, and a 

 pyramid of wax. 



August Koeppen, Flint, Mich., had 

 on exiiibitlon a mammoth extractor 

 capable of receiving six combs, or, if 

 only three combs were used, an auto- 

 matic arrangement can be brought 

 into requisition, and the combs turned 

 by a simple touch of the finger. He 

 also had a hive, the walls and bottom 

 board of which were stuffed with tow. 



C. M. Weed, of the Agricultural 

 College, Lansing, Mich., made a 

 magnificent display of honey-produc- 

 ing plants pressed and mounted. 

 There were more than 50 varieties, 

 and so weW was the work done that 

 the natural colors were entirely pre- 

 served. 



W. O. Burk, Crystal, Mich., had on 

 exhibition a complicated hive called 

 the " queen home winter protector," 

 and, strange as it may seem, it re- 

 ceived the first premium. 



The exhibit that had the most 

 " shine " and " show " and glitter " 

 was that made by M. H. Hunt, Belle 

 Branch, Mich. This exhibit occupied 

 one-fourth of the building, and con- 

 sisted of hives, extractors, comb 

 foundation machine, and other apiar- 

 ian implements. His honey was put 

 up in almost every conceivable shape, 

 in glass jars, glass pails, glass bottles, 

 tin pails, tin cans, all labeled with 

 showy labels, and arranged in rows 

 and piled in pyramids ; one pyramid, 

 arranged upon a large stand of circu- 

 lar shelves, was especially fine. The 

 comb was built in fancy sections of 

 wood, glass and mica; some with 

 openings in the centre for placing 

 bouquets. His three pyramids of wax 

 were molded in very fancy shapes, 

 and surmounted with flowers. He 

 also had 2 colonies of bees out-of- 

 doors. 



Your humble servant ( W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson) also occupied one-fourth of the 

 building, and made the largest and 

 finest display of comb honey, which 

 was piled up in the shape of a pyra- 

 mid until it actually reached the roof. 

 The base of the pyramid was 20 feet. 

 He also received the first premiums 

 on the specimen of 10 pounds or 

 more of comb honey ; this specimen 

 being arranged under a glass case, 

 which was lettered in gilt letters, 

 " Gilt Edge Honey." He also exhib- 

 ited 3 colonies of bees in an observa- 

 tory hive, so arranged that visitors 

 could place their noses right against 

 the glass, and this part of the exhibit 

 was surrounded by a crowd from 

 morning till night. His pyramid of 

 wax was surmounted by an old-fash- 

 ioned straw hive formed of wax. It 

 received the firstpremium. Hisexhibit 

 of pressed honey-producing plants 

 were bound in an Emerson binder, 

 and placed where the crowd could ex- 

 amine it, and I guess he will have to 

 make a new collection. He received 

 premiums to the amount of about $80. 

 Mr. Hunt's premiums " figured up " 

 to somewhere between $50 and $60 ; 

 Mr. Cutting's to $33 ; other exhibitors 

 received from $2 to $8. 



The city papers gave up excellent 

 notices, and spoke of it as a " new 



and novel feature." The Governor 

 gave us a call, and was introduced to 

 the exhibitors. The public said, 

 " Why, this is the most interesting 

 thing I have seen." 

 Rogersville, Mich., Sept. 23, 1883, 



Grange Bulletin. 



Beeswax and its Production. 



J. M. HICKS. 



Wax is a vegetable product deriv- 

 ing its origin from the saccarine prin- 

 ciples existing abundantly in the 

 products of nature. It is found upon 

 the surface of the leaves of many 

 trees in the form of varnish, and 

 possessing all the qualities of bees- 

 wax. The wax bearing myrtle (My- 

 rieau Ceriferi) a shrub which grows 

 abundantly in Louisiana and other 

 parts of the United States, produces 

 wax in large quantities ; and there 

 are also in many parts of the East and 

 West India Islands shrubs that pro- 

 duce wax in great abundance. The 

 myrtle bears a small berry, of which 

 wax forms its outer coating, and 

 when exposed to a flame burns with 

 an agreeable aromatic odor. 



Dr. Darwin supposes that the de- 

 sign of the waxen varnish which 

 covers the flowers is " to glaze over 

 the fecundating dust of the anthers 

 and prevent its premature explosion 

 from excess of moisture, and ascribes 

 to an unseasonable diffusion of anther 

 dust, the failure of orchard and corn 

 crops in summers of extreme humid- 

 ity. The quantity of wax found in 

 this form is small compared with that 

 which is produced by the honey bee, 

 and also of inferior quality. When 

 pure it is of a whitish color and des- 

 titute of taste, with scarcely any 

 smell ; it grows brown and even black 

 with age. After manipulation it has 

 an aromatic smell, which, however, 

 disappears on exposure to the atmos- 

 phere. The dust of flowers, called 

 pollen or farina, was long supposed to 

 be the element of wax, and it is a 

 curious instance of the tardy pro- 

 gress of the knowledge of natural 

 history, that though the mode in 

 which wax is produced by the bees 

 was ascertained beyond all doubt by 

 Huber over 60 years ago, this fact is 

 yet but little known, and farina con- 

 tinues to have the credit of being 

 what is called " crude wax." Buffon 

 was of this opinion, and, in an edition 

 of his work published as late as 1821, 

 no notice is taken of the recent dis- 

 coveries on the subject, which prove 

 his opinions to be erroneous. Reau- 

 mer was inclined to believe that pollen, 

 by receiving some peculiar elabora- 

 tion from the bees, was converted, in 

 the stomach, to real wax, and dis- 

 gorged under the appearance of paste. 

 Later observers, however, denied 

 that wax was disgorged by the mouth; 

 they affirmed tliat it exuded from the 

 rings of the abdomen in the form of 

 small scales, and that pollen was used 

 for very different purposes. That 

 this last mentioned substance is not 

 the prime constitutent of wax, was a 

 conclusion drawn by repeated and 

 accurate observations by our most 

 celebrated apiarjsts. 



It has been observed, for instance, 

 that pollen is carried into the hives in 

 great abundance, that were already 

 filled with comb; that it is often of 

 various shades, while new combs are 

 always of pure white ; that new 

 swarms for a few days carry in 

 no pollen, although their first work 

 to be done after being hived, is 

 the building of new combs, 

 which progresses with unremitting 

 rapidity ; and while it has been stated 

 that 100 pounds of pollen have been 

 carried into a hive during one season, 

 the whole weight of the comb in the 

 hive, when separated from the honey 

 and farina,weighs something less than 

 2 pounds. 



Huber lodged a young swarm in a 

 straw hive, furnished them with 

 honey and water, and after five days 

 confinement he perceived that they 

 had consumed the whole of their pro- 

 visions, and had constructed several 

 combs of beautiful wax. These combs 

 were removed and more honey given 

 them, and the result was the same. 

 This removal was made five times 

 successfully, and on each occasion 

 being supplied exclusively with honey, 

 they produced new comb, thus put- 

 ting it beyond dispute that this sub- 

 stance effected the secretion of wax 

 in the body of the bee. 



And, further, to ascertain whether 

 the saccarine principle was the real 

 source of wax, he supplied the captive 

 bees with sugar in the form of syrup, 

 and the result was still the same, wax 

 was produced, and that in a shorter 

 and in greater abundance than from 

 honey, as the reverse of this experi- 

 ment would prove whether pollen had 

 the same property, instead of supply- 

 ing the bees with honey or sugar, he 

 fed them only on fruit or farina. 

 They were kept captives eight days 

 under a glass bell, with comb having 

 only farina in the cells ; yet they 

 neither made wax nor were there any 

 scales of wax on their abdomen, as 

 was the case when honey and sugar 

 were used. 



It is but justice to the Scotch bee 

 master, Bonner, to remark that 

 amidst the errors that prevailed on 

 this subject during his day, he had a 

 strong impression of the real source 

 of wax and the manner of its secre- 

 tion. In this, as in other parts of bee 

 science, his natural aciiteness and 

 shrewdness of observation led him to 

 the very verge of some of the most 

 important of those facts in the natural 

 history of bees which we owe to the 

 more scientific researches of Huber. 

 " I have sometimes," says he, " been 

 inclined to think that wax might be 

 an excrescent exudation, or produc- 

 tion from the abdomen of the bee, 

 and that the queen can lay eggs 

 whenever she pleases ; so, if required, 

 the worker bees can produce wax 

 from the substance of their own 

 bodies." 



If this conjecture be right, it will 

 follow of course that all the food 

 which a bee takes contributes to the 

 formation of wax in the same man- 

 ner as all the food a cow eats contri- 

 butes to the nourishment of her body 

 and the production of milk ; (bees 

 consume much more honey or sugar 



