792 



Tmm mwMmmi^mm mmm jO'WmMm%,. 



trees, delightfully described by Evans, 

 thus : 



*' Wttb merry hum the willow's copse they scale. 

 The Firs dark pyramid, or Poplar pale ; 



Scoop from the Alder's leaf its oozy flood. 

 Or strip the chestnut's resin-coated bud ; 



Sbitn the lif;lit tear that tips Narcissus' ray, 

 Ar<»und the hoUy-liocka hoar frasrance play ; 



That forms a fretwork for the future comb. 

 Caulk every chink, where rushing winds may roar. 



And seal their circling ramparts to the floor," 



The drone bees are the males of the 

 hive, and, like many people, are in- 

 veterate loungers. They have no 

 stinger, the shortness of their proboscis 

 disqualifies them for gathering honey, 

 their thighs are destitute of baskets 

 for holding bee-bread, and no pouches 

 are found on the abdomen for secret- 

 ing ■wax. 



Like the Indian to the sqnaw. the 

 drones live off of the workers until 

 those little creatures tind there is no 

 further use for the gormandizing 

 arone» when they seize him by the 

 neck or any other part of the body, 

 pull.him out, sting him to death, and 

 hurling him over the alighting-board, 

 Mr. Drone is ?^07^ est. 



Dr. Evans very appropriately de- 

 scribes drones thus : ' 



" Their short protioscis sips 

 No luscious nectar from the wiM thyme's lips. 

 From the lime's leaves no amber drops they steal, 

 Nor bear their emoveless thiphs the fooUiul meal : 

 On other's toil in pampered leisure thrive 

 They, lazy fathers, of the industrious hive." 



Thus we see many peculiarities of 

 people are found in the bee. There 

 are the wild bees as there are the wikl 

 people ; the cultivated bees as there 

 are cultivated people ; the qeens with 

 their royal retinues, the robbei's ply- 

 ing their nefarious tricks, idle loungers, 

 etc. So Shakespeare, recognizing 

 this, said : 



" So work the honey-bees. 

 Creatures that by a rule in Nature teach 

 The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 

 They have a king and offl. era of sorts. 

 Where some like maKistraies, correct at home, 

 Others like soldiers, armed in their etinas. 

 Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds ; 

 Which pillaae. they with merry march, bring home 

 To the tentniyal of their emperor, 

 Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 

 The singing masons building roots of gold ; 

 The civil citizens kneading up the honey ; 

 The poor mechanic porters crowding in 

 Their heavy burdens at his mansion gate ; 

 The sad-eyed Justice, with his Burly hum. 

 Delivering o'er to executors fate 

 The lazying, yawning drone." 



Pleasant Ridge, Ohio. 



BEE-^WORK. 



Melliods and Implements I'sed 

 in tlic Apiary. 



Written for the. American Bee Journal 



BY G. P. HACIIENBERG, M. D. 



In my article on page 519, I advo- 

 cated tlie superiority of a simplicity 

 bee-smoker, but neglected to mention 

 the kind of fuel I use with it. It is an 

 excellent smoker with rotten wood, 

 but the best fuel to give the best re- 

 sults is corn-stalks cut up in short 

 pieces. The way I do is to fill the can 



with cut corn-stalks, with a few chips 

 of wood to hold the fire. 



I ignite it with a little kerosene oil, 

 and afterwards modify the blaze with 

 the metallic fan. Soon a smoldering 

 Are is established, and the smoker is 

 tit for use. It will do any bee-man 

 good, that has any faith in smoke for 

 tlie subjugation of bees, to see the 

 gushing volume of smoke coming from 

 that can — not in short intervals, as in 

 the ordinary bellows-smoker, but in a 

 ceaseless, continued flow sufiicient to 

 last for any ordinary work on a hive. 



There is another important item in 

 the use of this smoker. A wire rack 



J, Handle. 2. Place to bold the Bmoker. 3, 

 Hooks 10 hold it. 



Each for Holding the Smoker. 



is used to hold the can, so that the 

 upper edge is level with the top of the 

 hive. This rack, illustrated here, with 

 its hooks, usually is adjusted, leaving 

 the hive on the lee side. 



Holding tlie Comb wben Extracting. 



Another subject that may demand 

 an explanation is the management of 



"3^ 

 I 



O 



■O 



1, I, Two llda of equal size, made of light galvan- 

 ized wire-nettinp. 2,2. The outside bound by tin. 

 3. A wire to hoKl the lids together, and hkewise 

 serve as a hinue between the two. The two stems 

 f3) are aitout an inch apart and connected. Where 

 inside cloth of the wire is used, different hinges 

 must be used, such as 4, to be placed at 5. 



Comb Siqjportcr for Extracting. 



natural comb in the process of capping 

 and extracting, so as to keep them 

 from going to pieces. I mean comb 

 not supported by wire, or made on 

 foundation. To meet the dilKcuItj- I 

 made a pair of wire-netting clasps to 

 receive the comb in a way to give sup- 



port to both sides, both in capping as 

 well as extracting. 



The illustration will show how this 

 comb supporter is made. 



Although I am the originator of this 

 implement, I have good reason to be 

 very proud of it ; for it is a good thing 

 in an apiar}-. With it I meet with no 

 vexations by injuring in the least the 

 frailest comb. There is another use 

 to which it can be applied. Slip it 

 into a tin frame with a close bottom. 

 This gives' a receptacle for cappings, 

 which in a minute can be thoroughly 

 drained of its honey by the extractor. 



Reversing Combs iu Extracting. 



Allow me here to suggest an im- 

 provement that could be made, in the 

 extractor itself. In this age of light- 

 ning haste, it is a tedious operation to 

 handle a comb twice, or oftener, in 

 passing it through the extractor. To 

 do good work a comb should go 

 through a double process of extracting. 

 This, however, is not always done for 

 want of time. But if the drum of the 

 extractor was a little larger in diame- 

 ter, and the comb worked on pivots, 

 so as to reverse the sides, simply by 

 reversing the action of the crank, ex- 

 tracting honey could be greatly ex- 

 pedited. Sucli an extractor could be 

 easily made, and would be cheap al- 

 most at any price. 



Rendering or BeesiTax. 



I have tried difl'ereut methods of 

 rendering wax, and some that cost me 

 a good deal of monej'. I must humblj' 

 confess that this wax business has been 

 the " sand in my bread." Finally I 

 made a sun wa.x-extractor, and was 

 pleased with the purity of the wax it 

 atiorded me. But for an extensive 

 apiary it is a process too slow and un- 

 certain. The fault with a sun-extrac- 

 tor is that the solar heat may be sufii- 

 cient to melt away surface wax, but it 

 lacks penetration (as wax is a poor 

 conductor of heat), and unfortunately 

 a heavy body of it will not melt away 

 before the rajs of the sun, as would a 

 cake of ice. And another defect is the 

 loss of heat by conduction. 



To meet in a measure the above 

 difficulties, I took a good-sized store- 

 box and knocked out two connecting 

 sides of it ; these I covered with two 

 glass windows. Inside of this box I 

 placed a large hotel tin-tray, that I 

 happened to have, with a sufficient in- 

 cline for the melted wax to run of. 

 The wax enclosed was exposed to the 

 direct rays of the sun, and as it melted 

 (liy a process too slow for me) it was 

 received in a tin basin. 



To improve tilings I placed a kero- 

 sene lamp, burning rather low, within 

 the large vacant space of the box — not 

 to heat the tray as much as to com- 



