THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW, 



IS 



largest possible yield of comb honey from a 

 single hive, I would have another colony 

 draw out all its foundation. This would 

 perhaps be hardly fair, as it would put the 

 colony a long way toward the position of 

 one storing honey in empty combs for ex- 

 tracting. Do you say, " Why not have the 

 foundation drawn out in advance of the 

 regular harvest by feeding, or during dull 

 times in the summer and kept over?" 

 Well, jast because the process needs to be a 

 continuous one to secure anything like the 

 best results with it. If there is an interval 

 of only a week or two between the drawing 

 out and filling with honey these starters are 

 little if any better than fresh foundation, 

 and if they are kept for several mouths they 

 are not nearly as good. It is possible that 

 the system can be made profitable just in 

 advance of the honej harvest, but the man 

 with his hundreds of colonies would find it a 

 gigantic undertaking to attempt to supply 

 all with such starters, though a few for 

 " baits " in the first super would not be very 

 hard to supply, and they are the best things 

 for the purpose. 



In regard to Alley's " fact " on which you 

 comment in "Extracted," isn't he the one 

 that claims that there is no danger of races 

 intermixing if they are kept half a mile 

 (perhaps he said a mile) apart? See? Of 

 course under such conditions Italians will 

 turn black in a black neighborhood and 

 Carniolans yellow in an Italian neighbor- 

 hood. Perhaps I haven't given the subject 

 the "study and serious thought" that the 

 editor of the .4pi. has, but I know that the 

 races will intermix if kept four miles apart. 



Dayton. 111., Dec. 4, 1890. 



Criticisms of Mr. Hasty's Experiment.— How 

 and When Wax is Secreted. 



CHAS. DADANT. 



^HEN, in 1885, I read in Glean- 

 ings the article of Mr. Hasty, in 

 which he tried to prove that a 

 pound of beeswax cost the bees less than 

 three pounds of honey, my first thought was 

 to demonstrate the flaw in his experiments ; 

 but, after reflection, I was hindered by the 

 idea that, as I am in the foundation business 

 some would think that my answer was dic- 

 tated by selfishness. Our revision of the 

 Langstroth book had not been published yet. 

 But now, as in this book, page 4;^1, para- 

 graphs 753 to 75G, we advise the beginners to 



produce extracted honey instead of comb 

 honey, and, as this advice is opposed to our 

 own interests, since the combs used to pro- 

 duce extracted honey can be used indefinite- 

 ly, while the wax of comb honey is destroyed 

 and must be replaced, I feel free to criticize 

 these experiments without incurring the ac- 

 cusation of supporting " a venerable false- 

 hood " for our " self interest." 



I desire to say to Mr. Hasty that I am not 

 one of the "' wise men " who wrote in the 

 American bee books that beeswax costs the 

 bees twenty pounds of honey, since he can 

 read in our Langstroth revised, page 101, 

 paragraph 223, that, from the experiments 

 made by Mr. Viallon, in the U. S., and Mr. 

 DeLayens, in France, it seems that, in good 

 circumstances, bees use only seven pounds 

 of honey to produce a pound of wax. 



Mr. Hasty says : " In fact I am not sure 

 that thick honey declines in weight any more 

 in being transformed into wax than molasses 

 in being transformed into candy. Why 

 should it ?" 



Such a sentence shows in my opponent 

 very little knowledge of the science of chem- 

 istry, for, while such candy is but dried 

 molasses, beeswax is no more honey than 

 the fat of a hog is corn ; both having been 

 chemically transformed by the digestion. 



Honey is not as dry as corn, yet Mr. Hasty 

 has never seen the weight of a pig increased 

 100 lbs. after the pig had eaten 100 or even 

 300 lbs. of corn ; the chemical transforma- 

 tion performed in the stomach being impos- 

 sible without waste. 



Now I will examine the experiments, which 

 seem to you, Mr. Editor, the most satisfac- 

 tory. 



Mr. Hasty weighed the hive containing a 

 swarm every morning before the exit of bees, 

 and every night after their return from the 

 field. It was in July, when the days last 

 sixteen hours and the nights eight hours only, 

 and he concludes that the difference in 

 weight gives the weight of the honey used in 

 building combs. 



But he forgets to notice that a bee that 

 starts from the hive in the morning, and 

 comes back as soon as her sack is filled, 

 being unable to find empty cells in the 

 empty hive, remained idle for twelve or 

 fifteen hours, digesting her honey, getting 

 rid of the water contained in it and of the 

 excrements after digestion. 



Then, if bees consume 2J-2 ozs. of honey 

 during the eight hours of a July night, as 



