778 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



lific queens are given one section of a hive, 

 additional, at the bottom. Many times the 

 queen does not use it, but it gives them ad- 

 ditional clustering-room, and once in a while 

 a queen will use it. The moderately strong 

 colonies, not needing additional room for 

 brood-rearing, are given an extracting-super 

 on top, first putting on a queen-excluder, as 

 we do not want any brood raised in our nice 

 white combs that we use with our comb- 

 honey system. 



The weak swarms are put on one set of 

 combs to be united at the approach of the 

 honey season. We get the bodies to give to 

 the strong colonies, mentioned above, in this 

 way, by taking them from weak colonies 

 and from colonies that did not live through 

 the winter. The majority of the dead colo- 

 nies are those that went into winter quarters 

 queenless, or that, for some reason or other, 

 were not in a normal condition when put 

 into winter quarters. Many of these came 

 out with their hives heavy with honey. All 

 such are distributed according to the amount 

 of honey they contain; that is, the heaviest 

 are given to those colonies having the least 

 honey. This plan not only keeps the bees in 

 good condition, and free from the swarming 

 fever, but gives them an additional amount 

 of honey just at the time when they would 

 be most likely to need it. 



Those familiar with this location will re- 

 member that May 20th or 25th is two or 

 three weeks previous to our main honey- 

 flow in June. This period is the critical 

 time; for, should we allow our bees to feel 

 just a little bit crowded for clustering room 

 during this period, we should be quite likely 

 to have those crowded colonies in the same 

 condition as the one I mentioned that pro- 

 duced the 25 lbs. of honey. 



This management, in connection with the 

 two drawn combs at the outside of our su- 

 per, will keep down swarming and produce 

 a larger per cent of fancy comb honey than 

 any other system we ever tried. 



Remus, Mich. 



To be continued. 



WAX-RENDERING. 



Steam and Hot-water Presses for Further 



Treating the Refuse from the 



Solar Extractor. 



BY R. C. AlKIN. 



In the first two articles we discussed solar 

 extractors. We will now take up the treat- 

 ment of the refuse fi'om the solar in steam 

 and hot water presses. 1 have mentioned 

 pressing out wax between boards many years 

 ago, using my own weight as the power. I 

 also experimented years ago with twisting 

 the slumgum in a bag, thus obtaining pres- 

 sure. _ A few years ago, when the new steam- 

 machines came out and were highly spoken 

 of, I read eagerly what was said, but always 

 with a keen sense of disappointment. They 

 gave little but what I had gone over years 

 before. Then the machines were so little and 



puttering, altogether I could not get muc'li 

 interested in them. 



Next came out the Root-German press 

 with screw pressure. This machine embodied 

 exactly the principles I had used over 20 

 years before, but with the screw-pressure 

 feature added. I soon possessed one of these 

 machines, and have put hundx'eds of pounds 

 of wax through it — have the machine yet, but 

 it was always a source of worriment to me 

 becavise of its inconvenience in getting into to 

 "paw over the slumgum," and also because 

 it was so frail I was always in fear of burst- 

 ing it. It did break occasionally, and finally 

 broke So badly it was past repairing when I 

 bought new insides for it. Let me say right 

 here to the Root Co. that their Root-German 

 press is not the machine we are looking for 

 and must have. Reasons will appear later. 



In the mean time the Rauchfuss Brothers, 

 of Denver, were pressing out wax from slum- 

 gum such as most of us were burning, and 

 seemed to think it paid. Some others were 

 following suit. Jn my neighboring town of 

 Longmont, Mr. J. B. Adams was using a big 

 lard-press (I think he was at it before the 

 Rauchfuss Brothers), cooking the combs, etc., 

 in a big tank and dipping it out to press in 

 the open. I took a lot of slumgum to his 

 place and worked it with his press. It seem- 

 ed fully as effective as the Root machine, and 

 much more rapid, but I did not like press- 

 ing away from the water or steam. Apple 

 pomace can be worked in the cold; but wax 

 (that hardens so quickly) is not a suitable 

 article to handle except under great heat. I 

 was thoi'oughly convinced several years ago 

 that it should be pressed while immersed in 

 hot water. 



THE HERSHISER IDEA. 



The plan of washing out the wax, as so 

 nicely illustrated by our Buffalo friend, is 

 the very idea I have been studying on for 

 some eight or ten years, but I did not expect 

 to get it accomplished the way he goes at it, 

 nor do I think his machine is by any means 

 perfection, though I believe it to be the best 

 out. I must say that I have not perfected 

 any plan or machine, but it can be done. 

 There is a way that will leave the Hershiser 

 mill as far behind as the old wash-boiler and 

 bag method is behind his invention. Mr. H., 

 nevertheless, is worthy of honor and fame 

 for the stride he has made. 



As above stated I did for several years use 

 a Root-German machine, but all the time 

 with disgust, because, to make a 50-pound 

 run of wax from slumgum from the solar 

 that still held half its wax, was a "whalin' 

 big day's work." I used to run the thing 

 from 5 A.M. to 10 p.m., and would average 

 about 50 pounds of wax. I think my best 

 run was 70 pounds; from 30 to 40 was the 

 usual run. Lots of men get their $5 to $10 a 

 day, and not work half so long or hard. I 

 object to having to do such work simply for 

 wages. 



I then bought a big cheese-press screw, 

 second-hand — paid 75 cents for it; remodel- 

 ed it and built a press for myseli. I could 

 have used a bench-screw, but wanted some- 



