302 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



might be timed; but the difflculty would be to get 

 them up to full speed. When just starting, and 

 when nearing- home, thej' fly very slowly, as Is easily 

 seen. But a b^c slowly makinar its waj' to the en- 

 trance of the hive has a very different motion from 

 that of one with its anger aroused, and making for 

 its victim. A bee which has just made up its mind 

 to "make an opening" for itself, and flies to its 

 work, goes, we should think, at a rate which can 

 not fall far short of Doolittle's estimate. That very 

 few bees make ninety miles per hour in going from 

 their feeding-grounds, will, we think, be generally 

 conceded. John Phin. 



Cedar Brae, N. J., May 7, 1883. 



Now, friend P., I can't agree with yon, 

 that it is very dangerons tor those to write 

 on a snbject whose knowledge is incomplete, 

 as you express it. My knowledge is quite 

 incomplete in the matter; yet on another 

 column I have hazarded the opinion that 

 bees do not ordinarily fly over 10 or 1-5 miles 

 an hour. Perhaps I am mistaken, and may 

 be I am very badly mistaken ; but for all 

 that, I think it is a good thing for us to com- 

 pare ideas in the matter. You have given 

 us important facts, and so have others; and 

 I feel that some one will, ere long, give us 

 some accurate experiments that will settle 

 the matter about as conclusively as friend 

 March settled the matter in regard to how 

 far bees fly. 



REFINING BEESAVAX. 



SOME VALUABLE HINTS FRO.M A PRACTICAL WAX- 

 REFINER. 



MR. RICHARD MERKLE.of St. Louis, 

 Mo., has kindly given to the bee-folks 

 the following valuable facts in regard 



to cleansing and purifying the wax of com- 

 merce. We feel the more grateful to him, 

 because it is so unusual for practical work- 

 men in any branch of trade like this to com- 

 municate so thoroughly and so willingly the 

 secrets of the trade, as it were :— 



Yours of the 27th ult. is at hand. To rcflne, say 

 200 or 303 lbs., take an empty oil-barrel open on one 

 end as a stand, and a half-inch copper steam-pipe, to 

 reach within an inch of the bottom, is the appara- 

 tus. Set your stand in place; screw on the steam- 

 pipe; pour on one or two buckets of water, enough 

 to bring the mouth of the pipe into the water, and 

 put in about H lb. of sulphuric acid, enough to acid- 

 ify the water. Now let on steam, and till up with 

 wax. Let it on freely till melted, and the molten 

 wax is thrown up with foam, to bring it to boiling, 

 or 312". Then unscrew the pipe and let the wax rest 

 till perfectly settled and cooled off— say 3 hours; 

 dip out slowly till you come down to the sediment 

 and water, and let this cool off till next day, and take 

 out what is left, for next melting. The sulphuric 

 acid is what will cause the wax to settle well; but if 

 you have dark black wax, which you may retine by 

 itself, then after going through the operation as 

 above, while the steam is yet on, and the wax well 

 agitated, a few drops more of sulphuric acid, and 

 the colorwill change immediately. A little practice 

 will tell you how much acid is needed. In putting 

 acid into the boiling wax, the mass becomes rather 

 thick and milky, and if not liked it may be dipped 

 over into another stand, which also must have the 

 acidified water, as if commenclDg. 



I think I have made the explanation so that you 

 will easily understand it; sulphuric acid before melt- 

 ing, if only to make a clear melting, boiling, or 212° 

 heat, and settling for several hours. 



St. Louis, Mo., May 4, 1883. Richard Merkle. 



Our friends will observe that the above 

 plan is not very much different from the one 

 we have adopted for cleansing wax and ren- 

 dering combs, only that friend Merkle uses 

 sulphuric acid, while we use none. I would 

 suggest that the process be performed out 

 of doors, for the slop and spatter attending 

 it is not very pleasant inside of a building. 

 In melting wax as we do, by steam-pipes, 

 the impurities settle on the pipes and the 

 bottom of the cans. These are taken out 

 and put into a hogshead ; and when this 

 hogshead is filled we put them through the 

 same refining process as described above, 

 and therefore get quite a quantity of dark 

 wax. which we use, as you may have no- 

 ticed, for making the second grade of fdn., 

 to be used only in the brood-combs. We 

 will make a test of sulphuric acid, and re- 

 port when next we have some to render 

 over. 



^ H I m 



A GOOD REPORT FROM CANADA. 



JJ\FTEKall, there 

 ^ to have been 



was no reason for the beginner 

 been nervous, as he told you last 

 January. His bees were all in chaff hives, 

 with a kind of Hill device over the frames, a quilt, 

 then a chaff cushion, and two inches of sawdust. 

 Bees crowded on six or seven frames, with two di- 

 vision-boards, and empty space filled with buck- 

 wheat chaff. The winter was very cold, frequently 

 20^ below zero, and snow drifted six or seven feet 

 over the hives. Bees are all right now; plenty of 

 honey to last till fruit-bloom; they are carrying In 

 pollen, and lots of brood; they have not hart more 

 than a dollar's worth of food since this time last 

 year. You ought to see them swarming around the 

 crocuses and snowdrops, which bloomed almost as 

 soon as the snow was off. 



FROM 2 TO 7, AND 220 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I got seven colonies out of two, besides one in the 

 woods, and 220 lbs. of honey. Not so bad for a poor 

 year; and all wintered safely — that's the best of it. 

 There appears to have been considerable loss among 

 apiarists hereabout. The old-fashioned box-hive 

 men have mostly empty boxes of combs, as the re- 

 sult of not being up with the times. 



Prospects are excellent for this season. Clover 

 was protected by the deep snow, and not killed by 

 the frost, as often happens. 



WHY DOES A GOOD QUEEN LAY SEVERAL EGGS IN A 

 CELL ? 



What is the reason a young queen, hatched last 

 Jul}% lays two or three eggs in a cell? She has quit 

 such foolishness now, and settled down to straight 

 business. 



HOW TO USE FOUNDATION. 



How would you advise, so as to use a small supply 

 of fdn. to the best advantage? It is high and scarce 

 here, as elsewhere. I shall run principally for ex- 

 tracted honey. C. W. Young. 



Stratford, Ont., Can., Apr. lit, 1883. 



Your young queen laid several eggs in a 

 cell because the cluster of bees with her was 

 too small to prepare as many cells as she 

 was capable of filling, I presume she was 



