568 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 5, 



" Dividing Colonies for Increase." 



BV W. D. FRENCH. 



Dr. Miller, on page 422, says : " I would like to ask 

 whether the plan proposed by W. D. French, on page 392, 

 that is, keeping bees on five frames through most of the sea- 

 son, has been followed for a series of years, and has produced 

 good results. The general teaching has been that such 

 ' swarms ' would bo rather small and undesirable." 



Well, Doctor, I am of the opinion that to continue the 

 method as described, for a series of years, would have a down- 

 ward tendency, which, of course, I would not advocate ; 

 although (lueens produced in the manner described, limiting 

 the number of colls, are superior to those of after-swarms, 

 that might issue in the natural, go-as-you-please way. 



Do not understand me as practicing increase as suggested, 

 for I am a practitioner of a large hive, and should I desire to 

 breed for increase, I do so by the introduction of mature cells, 

 bred from my best stock. 



I use the Langstroth frame, and, for extracting, operate 

 as in the production of comb honey, namely, tiering up, using 

 33 frames to the hive, 9 in the brood-nest, and 8 in the upper 

 apartments, beginning the season with one story, and ending 

 iufthe same way. 



I do not begin extracting as early in the season as those 

 who operate by "skinning" their bees on the first round, but 

 take off my honey at a time when the fact is not discovered 

 by the inmates of the hive, thus encouraging them on to vic- 

 tory, as it were. 



A person with eyes somewhat impaired, passing through 

 my apiary in the heart of the season, would, if not reminded 

 of the fact by the bees, think he was passing through a ceme- 

 tery of monuments to dead heroes. Foster, Calif. 



Getting the Wax Out of Old Comb. 



BY .TOHN CI.AKK. 



Bee-keepers have found the work of rendering old combs 

 Into good, salable' wax troublesome, discouraging, and some- 

 times too slow and too expensive an operation to "fool with " 

 to any great extent. I have been keeping bees for a great 

 many years, and such has been my experience. But recently, 

 while experimenting, I discovered a plan which obviates the 

 many difBcluties which face a novice, or even an " old hand," 

 to get the best results with the least work, and at the least 

 expense ; and for the benefit of the readers of the American 

 Bee Journal, I will here give the plan I now use to get wax 

 from my old comb. 



I took an old feed basket — one that would go inside of the 

 can, which I mention further on ; gathered all the comb I 

 wished to dispose of at one time, threw it into the basket, and 

 carried it to the steam escape-pipe of our water-works. Here 

 I provided myself with an old lard-can, holding five gallons or 

 more, and cut a round hole the size of the escape pipe in one 

 side of the can about three inches from the bottom. Then I 

 placed about two inches of water in the bottom of the can, put 

 the end of the escape-pipe through the hole in the can, set the 

 basket containing the comb in the can, covered the top of the 

 can with an old piece of carpet, turned on the steam, and in 

 from three to five minutes the work was complete. 



Then I lifted out the basket, after giving it several vigor- 

 ous shakes, and threw away the debris with every bit of the 

 wax removed, and lying on the water in the can. I let it lie 

 there until cool, and then took it out in one solid cake of 

 comparatively clean, pure wax. 



Any one trying this plan as I have outlined it, will find no 

 wax remaining in the slumgum or refuse, and but very little 

 dirt or trash in the wax — not enough to injure its sale. 



I have tried the sun-extracting plan, and, in fact, a great 



many other ways, but have never yet found anything that 

 will begin to equal this for speed, convenience and good work. 

 There is scarcely any one keeping bees but can have access to 

 a steam escape-pipe in some shop, mill, or at some thresher 

 where steam is used. By this process, one could load a wagon 

 with comb, a basket, can and carpet, go to some escape-pipe, 

 and extract the whole load alone in much less than a day. 



I can truthfully say to any one wishing to get the wax 

 from old comb, that this is the best, the cheapest and easiest 

 way discovered, andean be readily utilized by any one at no 

 cost. By following the method I have outlined above, every 

 bee-keeper and honey-seller will find it saving in time and 

 trouble, and the work a pleasure instead of laborious; and the 

 work, when done, will be as nearly perfect as it is possible to 

 get it. Liberty, Ind. 



Something About Mental Pigeon-Holes. 



BY WILDER GRAHAME. 



" There are papers and papers galore. Hints in profu- 

 sion, and books in confusion. But where, oh where, in all 

 this mass of undigested food is an ignorant amateur to turn 

 for a good old-fashioned meal without trimmings ; in other 

 words, a start ? The whole thing is a complete jumble to me, 

 and I am like a waif turned loose in some great city without 

 the least knowledge of right and wrong. Where can I go to 

 get enlightened ; to start right '?" 



So writes a friend, and I am more than half inclined to 

 think his plaint has origin in something more substantial than 

 a passing fancy. One may avoid ever being confused in the 

 midst of confusion only when entire master of the situation. 

 In fact, I really have known instances where old bee-men be- 

 came somewhat "rattled" in the midst of conflicting theories. 

 The amateur, we will suppose, sits down with a late copy of 

 some reliable bee-periodical, and opens the page to a leading 

 article. It is about some subject of which he knows abso- 

 lutely nothing ; that is why he is reading it. He expects by 

 a careful study of that article to fully understand one subject 

 in the business. True, he finds a good deal depending upon 

 the possession of a previous knowledge that he has not. 

 Never mind. He will read the article and absorb what he 

 can of it. He does, and then, congratulating himself on his 

 accumulating stock, he turns the page and reads a second 

 article, not only flatly contradicting the first, but bringing out 

 such wholly different principles of natural history that he in- 

 stinctively turns back to see if the first sketch might not have 

 been written about pigs instead of bees. Do you wonder he 

 gets discouraged ? 



To such letters as the above sample, I usually reply some- 

 what as follows : 



"From out this discouraging assortment of disorder select 

 some one book. If it is the best one, so much the better ; if 

 not, better than so much. Only see that he has some sort of 

 chronological, ornithological, or almost any other kind of 

 order; for a little jumble is sometimes worse than a big one. 

 It is just as indigestible, and does not contain half so much 

 truth. Now study this book and learn it, whether you be- 

 lieve it or not. Only, mind you, unless you intend to profit 

 by it as I shall herein direct, all previous engagements shall 

 be, and the same are hereby declared canceled. You are not 

 by any means to use this single volume, good or bad, as your 

 sole' guide ; only as a sort of pigeon-hole case in which to file 

 away the results of future study. Once provided with the 

 necessary pigeon-holes, one can sit down and sort out as much 

 of the original mass as he sees fit, and then out of the contents 

 of any one of his mental pigeon-holes, deduce a theory of his 

 own and go ahead." 



Seriously, the confusion does not arise so much from the 

 supply of matter as from a proper knowledge of systemizing 

 and applying it. And, come to think of it, the difference be- 

 tween the professional and the amateur is not so much in what 

 they know as in how they know it ; whether their knowledge 

 is part of a system or of a jumble. 



