THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



79 



cases for four years ; and at present I have 

 over a hundred colonies protected in this 

 way. In fact, with the exception of a few in 

 your chaff hives, every colony that I am 

 wintering out of doors is siiuyly [)acked in 

 leaves or shavings held in place by an outer 

 case. Besides this, there is a great stack of 

 them waiting to be put over the bees now in 

 the cellar when they are brought outdoors. 



"What," you say. "do you go to the 

 trouble of packing bees that have passed 

 through the winter safely in the cellar ? " 

 Yes, that is just what I am going to do. I 

 believe that it pays to protect bees, and I 

 think there is no time when they need pro- 

 tection more than in the spring, when we 

 want them to rear as much brood as possi- 

 ble. Thin-walled hives are too easily affect- 

 ed by changes of temperature at this time, 

 and brood-rearing suffers in consequence. 



To make my packing cases I use ordinary 

 lath cut into two pieces, 20 and 28 inches 

 long. These are nailed to three-inch corner 

 strips to form the ends and sides of a box 

 without top or bottom. It is made of such 

 height that, when set over the hive on its 

 stand, the outer case resting directly on the 

 ground, it will be five or six inches higher 

 than the hive. The end pieces should be 

 nailed to the flat side of the uprights, and 

 two or three left off at one end for the en- 

 trance. Now put a " bridge " over the en- 

 trance, set the packing-case over the hive so 

 that the front rests on the bridge, holding it 

 firmly in place, and put in your packing 

 material. This may be whatever is conveni- 

 ent. I generally use leaves. Soft leaves, 

 such as those of the soft maple, are excel- 

 lent. Planer shavings or sawdust are more 

 easily handled, and better. 



We now want a roof over it. Above all 

 other qualities it must be water-tight. Wet 

 packing is worse than none at all. I have 

 given considerable thoucrht to the matter of 

 making a roof that would be cheap, durable, 

 and effective. All these qualities are hard to 

 combine. A very good and cheap roof may 

 be nlade by nailing barrel-staves crosswise 

 to a three-inch strip a little longer than the 

 packing-case, putting over them a sheet of 

 roofing-paper, then nailing on another layer 

 of staves so as to break joints with the first 

 ones. ' ,The most satisfactory covering, 

 though, and the best, all things considered, 

 is a sheet of corrugated iron, large enough 

 to cover the whole. An ordinary sheet (96 

 in. long) makes three pieces just right. 

 Nothing further is required. .Just lay the 

 sheet of iron on top. and lay a stone on it to 

 keep it from blowing away ; or, better, lay a 

 short piece of board across the top. and the 

 stone on that. This makes a roof that can- 

 not leak ; and with ordinary care it is prac- 

 tically indestructilile. With a coat of paint 

 occasionally, it will last as long as the 

 owner. When not in use thev can he stored 

 in a very small space, as they nest into one 

 another. They make the best of shade- 

 boards for summer, if any are desired. Cut 

 the corners off rounding, so clothing will 

 not get torn on them. 



These corrugated iron covers cost me a 

 trifle less than 20 cents each. A bunch of 

 lath, costing 15 cents or less, will make two 



packing-cases. I think these are practically 

 as good as if made of more expensive lum- 

 ber. If you desire, you can turn them into 

 excellent chicken-coops for summer use. If 

 you want them more ornamental, paint them 

 with a mixture of skim milk and hydraulic 

 cement, or other cheap paint. Really, 

 though, I don't think they look very bad un- 

 painted. They ought to be of a dark color, 

 so as to absorb as much of the sun's heat as 

 possible whenever it shines. This helps 

 brood-rearing in the spring wonderfully. 

 One of the principal arguments in favor of 

 unpainted hives is, that bees build up in 

 them better in the spring. I think this is 

 mostly due to the dark color. With a dark 

 outer case you have all this advantage, and 

 more, as the packing retains the heat." 



Rendering Combs with Sulphuric Acid. 



When rendering wax with a steam wax ex- 

 tractor, or with the sun extractor, it is well 

 known that all of the wax will not run out of 

 the refuse of cocoons and pollen. Two 

 things not usually employed are needed to 

 extract the wax from this refuse. One is an 

 acid to " cut " or disintegrate the cocoons so 

 as to free the wax, and the other is a press 

 to squeeze out the wax. Mr. F. A. Salisbury 

 contributes to Gleanings so valuable an arti- 

 cle on these two points that I think best to 

 copy it entire, together with the editor's 

 comments : 



" After reading E. France's article on 

 rendering old combs into wax, on page 1.5. I 

 thought I could give you a better plan, and 

 one which would take that dark-colored wax 

 and make it into as nice wax as any you 

 ever saw. It will be so clear, that, when 

 melted, you can see to the bottom of a dip- 

 perful, looking like wine. By this plan you 

 can take the refuse of cakes of wax, that 

 which is scrBped off the bottom after cool- 

 ing, and looks like sand, and make it into as 

 nice wax as can be made. This last season 

 we had a barrel of this dark stuff, which 

 looked like dirt, and you would have said it 

 was not worth the trouble : but I put it 

 through the process, and got from it GO lbs. 

 of yellow wax, worth at least $!,'>. 



I know that iron or tralvanized iron will 

 turn wax a dark color. I went to quite a lit- 

 tle expense rigging up steam-pipes, and 

 tanks of galvanized iron for my foundation 

 business. The first melting did not show 

 much, but aft-r melting the scraps over 

 three times I stopped making and tried to 

 find out what was the matter. I knew the 

 wax at first was all right, and concluded, 

 after a while, it was either the galvanized 

 iron or steam of too high pressure. I then 

 went to work, tore down all the fixtures, and 

 went back to melting in a large wooden tub. 

 This wax. which was almost a dark green. I 

 put through my process of melting, and had 

 yellow wax again. My plan, whereby I can 

 render 100 lbs of wax from old combs in 

 ^ three hours, is as follows ; Get a barrel that 



