106 



THK BEE-KEEPERS' HE VIEW. 



peculiarly enriched character — intensity, I 

 should say. These are some of the condi- 

 tions that impel bees to swarm out — a sort 

 of hydraulic pressure." 



Mr. Robbius then takes the ground that 

 large hives alone will not prevent swarming, 

 but it is the giving of empty comb that ac- 

 complishes this object. He says : — 



" Now, don't you see where the value of 

 empty combs comes in ? Why, there is a 

 vast system of storehouses above, already 

 built, ready to garner the inflowing riches. 

 And what can make a field-bee happier than 

 a copious flow of nectar and plenty of room 

 to receive it ? It is not tlie disposition of 

 bees to hamper the queen. That bees, when 

 given combs above at a time when they are 

 crowding the brood-nest with honey, will re- 

 move it and store it above, even much of 

 that which they have already sealed, I have 

 ample proofs. Hence the queen is allowed 

 her full capacity ; and to feed the larvae, 

 carry the honey above, ripen and seal it, 

 seems to give the house bees sufficient em- 

 ployment. Thus the swarming fever is al- 

 layed, or prevented altogether. Does it not 

 all look reasonable, probable, all but cer- 

 tain ? This system, over a small brood- 

 chamber, might not prevail to prevent 

 swarming ; but I am very certain that a 

 large hive, and working for comb honey, 

 would not do it." 



A "Wooden Wax Boiler With a Tin Bottom. 

 Here is a description of an inexpensive 

 wax boiler, that will not discolor wax. The 

 description is from Gleaninrjs : 



" After reading E. France's experience in 

 melting beeswax I feel inclined to give your 

 readers an account of a much cheaper boiler 

 that answers the purpose very well. I have 

 been using for some years, for a wax-render- 

 ing boiler, a wooden box about two feet 

 square and one foot deep, with a tin bottom. 

 The box was made several years ago, as part 

 of an outfit for making foundation on plas- 

 ter-of-Paris casts. It is made of pine lum- 

 ber ; and in order to get the corners water- 

 tight, the end pieces are let into gains or 

 grooves, across near the ends of the side 

 pieces, and well nailed.' The tin bottom 

 should be about an inch larger all around 

 than the outside of the box. To put the bot- 

 tom on so that it will not leak, paint the 

 bottom edge of the box heavily with thick 

 white lead and oil, before nailing on the tin. 

 Then turn up the projecting margin of tin 

 and tack it securely to the wood, having pre- 

 viously used a liberal supply of white lead 

 in this joint also. 



The box, or boiler, is used on an old cook 

 stove in the shop. The combs and cappings 

 are put into a sack of strainer cloth. And I 

 may remark here, that a large bulk of combs 

 can be put into a moderate-sized sack when 

 the lower part of the later is immersed in 

 boiling water. After the comb is all in and 

 much of it melted, the sack should be tied 

 up, and a slatted honey-board placed over it. 

 This can be kept down under water, and a 



strong pressure brought to bear on the sack 

 of comb by the use of a small pole or prop 

 cut just long enough so that, when one end 

 is pressed down firmly on the honey-board, 

 the other end will rest against the ceiling 

 above. At this stage of the proceedings, if 

 the water is boiling, I remove the fire from 

 the stove, as a precaution against the wax 

 boiling over, and leave it to cool. The wax 

 can be re-melted in more clean water — the 

 more water the better — and allowed to cool 

 slowly, if a very light color is desired. 

 Farina, III., Jan. 6. T. P, Andrews. 



[We used to employ the same method of 

 melting wax in a common second-rate wash- 

 boiler. A boiler could be made in the way 

 you describe, and such a receptacle would be 

 a capital thing in which to scald foul-broody 

 hives. A boiler made entirely of tin, and 

 large enough for the purpose, would be 

 rather too expensive.] " 



Queeu-Excluders and Bee-Escapes. 



In a paper written by J. H. Martin, and 

 read at the Vermont convention, I extract 

 the following : — 



" When I wish the storing of honey to 

 commence, I remove the upper cases, put on 

 the queen-excluders and the extracting 

 supers, and get solid combs of honey. From 

 actual experience I know that the bees will 

 store at least one-quarter more honey than 

 where the queen has free access to all the 

 cases. 



If I have reduced the queen to only one 

 case, I enlarge the brood chamber by insert- 

 ing another case below the queen-excluder 

 at any time, preferably, toward the close of 

 the harvest of white honey. The queen- 

 excluder is kept below my extracting supers 

 until I wish to remove them. I then remove 

 the queen-excluding board, and insert a 

 board with a bee- escape, and the next morn- 

 ing walk out with my wheelbarrow and 

 wheel in the full cases, with scarcely a bee 

 in them ; and here I wish to say that the 

 best escape I have thus far found is the in- 

 vention of E. C. Porter, of Lewistown, Ills. 



The Heddon hive, the queen-excluder, and 

 the bee-escape, enable me to conduct an 

 out-apiary with much less labor than with 

 old methods." 



Dr. Mason says that he has secured more 

 extracted honey when using queen-excluders. 

 I think the explanation is that the queen- 

 excluder curtails the amount of brood-rear- 

 ing during the harvest, and the amount of 

 surplus is thereby increased. 



Does Foundation Ever Contain Live Spores 

 of Foul Brood ? 

 From the reading of a well-prepared arti- 

 cle, written by S. Cornell and published in 

 the C. B. J., one would be led to fear that 

 there might he danger of introducing foul 

 brood into the apiary from the use of 



