1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



775 



very easy matter to overlook the bees and give up in disgnst. 

 I will give an experience of mine during the last of Sep- 

 tember. .1 had a colony working in the box carrying off syrup 

 at a great rate, and as I had cross lines from three positions, 

 nothing remained but the hunting part. But look as I pleased, 

 I could not see the tree. Now, it happened that the woods 

 was full of a small burr, and rather than follow the path I 

 started to return to the box through a dense thicket of hazel 

 bush, among which there were several heaps of other limbs 

 and rubbish. As I got down on my knees to crawl through, I 

 saw a small log just ahead, and made for it to walk on, when 

 I was brought to a stop by what I thought then were yellow 

 jackets, but what I soon found to be just what I was looking 

 for — my bees. Some one had sawed the log off within 10 

 inches of the comb, and swung the end around to make a road 

 past, during the last winter. There I could lie and look right 

 in and see the colony and the combs capped to the edge with 

 fine white honey. 1 have the log now standing in my yard, 

 cut about 5 feet long, and filled 3J^ feet with comb, making 

 quite an ornament. This is the second colony of bees I have 

 found on the ground. 



I find much amusement in looking for wild bees, and great 

 enjoyment in roaming in the woods, especially in the fall. 

 Often I locate two colonies in one day, and at one place I 

 located four trees that were not 20 rods apart. 



I have 12 colonies to go into the winter with, several 

 being swarms I found in the woods, and cut down the tree, 

 transferred the honey to a hive, and put the bees on it again. 

 I hope to get a start in the bee-business in this way. 



Weston, Ohio, Oct. 30. 



Separating the Wax from the Houey in Cap- 

 pings or in Broken Combs. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



In the Question-Box, on page 755, I see, by the answers 

 to the question asked, that most bee-keepers do not consider it 

 of any importance to thoroughly separate the wax from the 

 honey in rendering the cappings. There is quite a loss in- 

 curred in rendering the wax from driined cappings which 

 have been thoroughly washed, and the fact that we often re- 

 ceive shipments of beeswax, which is sticky with honey, and 

 attracts the bees to the wax-room, induces me to give our 

 methods more fully than in the brief answer on the above- 

 mentioned page. 



We leave our cappings, after the extracting is over, as 

 long as possible, in the capping-can. In the summer, honey 

 will drain out of these cappings for weeks, and when drained 

 in this way, the honey is of very good quality. But what re- 

 mains sticking to the cappings, or to the few pieces of broken 

 combs, which may happen to have fallen in with the mass of 

 the cappings, may not drain out easily, and if pressed, or 

 rendered out by heat, the honey obtained would be thick and 

 diity, resembling very much the cheap "strained" honey of 

 Noah's time. To save the honey, we wash it out, by slightly 

 heating the cappings in a large boiler, with water, over a slow 

 fire. When all is warm, we put the cappings in a sack, dip- 

 ping them out with a scoop, and press the sweetened water 

 out of them till they are about dry. This sweetened water is 

 then used for vinegar, by mixing it with cider or wine, which 

 has already soured. 



MAKING AND SELLING HONErVINtGAR. 



To make first-class vinegar out of the cappings' water, 

 the quantity used should be small enough that an egg will 

 float at the top, showing a spot, the size of a dime, out of the 

 water. If neither wine nor cider is at hand, the sweet water 

 alone may be made into vinegar by keeping it in a warm place 

 in an open vessel or in a barrel, the barrel to be filled only to 

 about half or two-thirds, so the air may have a chance to act 

 upon the liquid. A few crushed fruits, ripe fruits of any 

 kind, even apple-parings, will help the fermentation. 



Grape-juice, of course, will give it the best flavor. Much 

 care must be used to have a clean vessel. Barrels must not 

 have a musty smell. An empty barrel, in a farmer's cellar, is 

 very often subject to suspicion, and it is better to throw it 

 away than to spoil your vinegar. 



Let the taste be free of all taint, and there is no reason why 

 you should not sell this vinegar for a good price. We make, 

 every year, from two to eight barrels of choice vinesar with 

 the cappings' water, and a few unripe grapes. While the 

 stores retail a vile stuff, made of who-knows-what, at 1 2 to 15 

 cents per gallon, we find no trouble in selling all that we pro- 

 duce at 30 cents per gallon, at retail, or 20 cents at whole- 

 sale. Our vinegar made in this way is so strong that most 



house-keepers " cut it in two " with water, so that it may not 

 eat up their pickles. 



This vinegar, wo figure, costs us in the vicinity of 10 

 cents per gallon, or, in other words, wo get about 10 cents 

 per pound for honey that could not be sold in any other way. 

 If there was an unlimited sale for choice vinegar, it would pay 

 to make more of it. Hamilton, III. 



Bees Working on Alfalfa- 

 Wings. 



-Clipping Queens' 



BY A. NORTON. 



Regarding Dr. Miller's note in answer to question of H. 

 P., about alfalfa, on page 667, I would say that perhaps the 

 amount of alfalfa growing has much to do with the question 

 of whether the bees work thereon. In California, wherever 

 only stray and limited growths of it occur, so far as my own 

 individual observation goes, bees are never seen working on 

 it; but wherever it is grown extensively, as in other parts of 

 the State, and portions of neighboring States, the bees work 

 freely on it. I remember a statement I saw some years ago, 

 by an Arizona bee-keeper, that even a field of alfalfa did not 

 tempt the bees; but that, where it was grown on large tracts, 

 it became their favorite. 



I was glad to see Dr. Miller's attitude upon the question. 

 Will clipping queens' wings ultimately cause the elimination 

 of the power of flight? It hardly seems worth serious consid- 

 eration, at least any reasons for thinking affirmatively on the 

 question seem to me far-fetched. The eyeless fishes of caves, 

 etc., h^ve been there for thousands of years. Even if clip- 

 ping could cause the breeding out of wing-power, it would 

 doubtless ta'ne as long. In addition to the excellent reasons 

 advanced by Dr. M., for thinking it cannot make any differ- 

 ence, this occurs to me : 



Among certain species of ants, when the females fly out 

 to meet the winged males, they often, after mating, drop near 

 the homes of other ants, when they are seized by the workers 

 and carried home. Workers are often out on the lookout for 

 females at such time that they may, by kidnapping, increase 

 their own prosperity. The females, after capture, are de- 

 nuded of their wings. More than this, the females, after 

 mating, have been observed to divest themselves of their 

 wings. If this natural instinct is found in ants, it certainly 

 has been there for thousands of years; and it is certainly 

 shown that the complete loss of wings after some use of them 

 cannot cause the elimination of wing-power. 



Moreover, if we assume that such might be the case to 

 any extent, any young queens that might be too deficient in 

 wing-power would fail to mate, and would not perpetuate 

 their kind. Only those queens whose wing-power was pre- 

 served could always propagate, and therefore flying queens in- 

 stead of crawling will always be the characteristic. No doubt 

 in the case of eyeless fish, etc., the organs were not merely 

 useless, but became actually disadvantageous. 



Monterey, Calif. 



The Farmers' Institutes and Bee-Keeping. 



BY J. W. KOU9E. 



By the request of the committee, I attended the first of 

 the series of Farmers' Institutes of Missouri, under the aus- 

 pices of the State Board of Agi iculture, held at Laddonia. 

 This meeting was a good one, ar.d very successful, having a 

 large attendance, and good interest manifested. As there 

 had been some prizes offered for the best display of corn, oats, 

 pumpkins, potatoes, apples, butter, chickens, honey, etc., 

 there was a very large display — something near 200 entries; 

 and while the entries had to be necessarily in small quantities, 

 on account of limited room to display them, they were of a 

 character to do credit to any community or country. 



I will not speak of every thing displayed, but wish to say 

 that among the very fine display of apples there were .norae 

 that weighed 2 1 ounces ; five ears of corn that weighed 7 

 pounds and 1 ounce; beans a foot long; pumpkins that 

 weighed 98 pounds, and watermelons that tipped the beam at 

 76 pounds. 



The Institute at Laddonia was voted to be an annual 

 affair. The writer did not arrive until after the meeting was 

 already in progress some time, but was greeted with hearty 

 hand-shakes. The speaker just then on the floor — Mr. T. B. 

 Terry, of Hudson, Ohio— stopped his speech long enough to 

 give me a cordial greeting. 'This made me feel very much at 



