IjO 



GL,.I::A^i:-t(^;s l:\ hx.i. <^l^'i li: 



Aug. 



iiiied up quite fa&t, Ihoiisli the honey season is about 

 over for (lie present. 



Have had two swarms since, and have led them a'.l 

 cappiags in the evening, they get the lioney all cleari- 

 od out before morning ; Icecp ilie liivc sliaded and 

 tliej' nse up Ironi one to two ounces every day. Tliey 

 Avill use it, if it is from old comb and quite dark. 



Last Saturday I opened the lower story of a hive in- 

 to wliich i had put two empty frames when I put on 

 the uj)por story, and found the two frames filled with 

 nearly all drone comb, and the comb nearly lillcd 

 with drone brood, most of which was capped over. 

 In the cvenii;g 1 uncapped one side of each fi-ame, 

 shavingitltjvel, drones and honey, and placed them 

 at the enlrancG of two hives. Next morning they 

 . Vtcre clean except the legs and wings of some of the 

 oldest. 



Vt'lietlier thisis of any advantage I do not know, 

 but suppose it is, as they are getting but little honey 

 now. 



To put foundation in frames ca^il}', take a Ji incii 

 board just wide enough for the frame to lit over, and 

 about an inch longer than the frame. Rabbet the ends 

 down so that the guide slrip will just lay flat on the 

 board, cut your foundation to fit, — have it quite 

 warm— put it in, and press it down at the edge of 

 the strip with the lingp.r. You can iiandle this much 

 better than a thin board fitted inside of the frame, and 

 your frame will not slip off at an angle of io degrees. 

 You can fasten the comb very quicklj^ by standing the 

 board on one corner, pouring a little melted wax on 

 tlie upper corner and letting it run down along the 

 frame. C. T. Smith. 



Trenton, Clinton Co., 111., July 17th, 187G. 



If the bees really use the cappings for mak- 

 iug new combs, as friend S. supposes, it is cer- 

 tainly quite a discovery. We have noticed the 

 same thing to some extent, but have been led 

 to believe they only used it as they do propo- 

 lis to stop up cracks and crannies in their 

 hives. Within the past few months our bees 

 have seemed more eager for propolis than ever 

 before, and at a time v^^hen comb honey might 

 remain untouched on top of the hives from 

 morning until night, they -woukl commence 

 carrying the propolis from an exposed qliijt 

 almost as soon as a hive -was opened. We have 

 seen them load up old comb (in their pollen 

 baskets) very rapidly during hot weather, but 

 as Jiearly as we could determine it was only 

 used as propolis. We have many times put 

 ■the cappings in the top of the hive, but Ave 

 never observed that they used any part except 

 the honey. If they took the cappings up from 

 the entrance, it Avould rather seem that they 

 .used them for comb. Will others please ex- 

 amine iuto the matter ; qneens have been oc- 

 casionally wintered iii nuclei, but there have 

 been many more failures than successes. Per- 

 haps chaff may aid us. 



BEKS-WAX. 



P^ S to whether bees make honey or simply 

 JtLk, collect it, may be a subject of discussion, 

 but we believe there is no question in regard 

 to wax, for bees do assuredlj' make it. Ifyou 

 have your doubts, just watch them closely du- 

 ring the height of the honey harvest, or what 

 is perhaps better, feed a colony heavily on 

 sugar syrup for about 3 days during warm 

 weather. At the end of the second or third 

 day, you will by looking closely see little 



pearly disks of wax, something resembling 

 llsh scales, protruding from between the rings 

 on the under side of the body of the bee, and 

 if you examine with a microscope, you will 

 find these .little wax cakes of rare beauty. 

 Sometimes, especially wiieu feeding heavily, 

 these wax scales will fall down on the bottom 

 board and may l)e scraped up in considerable 

 quantities, seeming for some reason to have 

 been nnv/anted. During the seasons of the 

 natural secretion of the v,-ax, if the colony 

 have a hive affording plenty of room for sur- 

 plus, we believe tlicse wax scales are seldom 

 wasted. At the swarming time there seems 

 to be an unusual num))er provided with these 

 wax- scales, for if they have remained cluster- 

 ed on a limb for only a few minutes, bits of 

 wax are found attached, as if they were going 

 to start comb. When they are domiciled in 

 their nev/ hive, comes the time — if the hive 

 pleases them, — lor them to show their as- 

 tonishing skill and dexterity in fabrica- 

 ting the honey comb. In the attempts that 

 have been made to supply material for artifi- 

 cial comb, we have hail a view of the won- 

 drous skill with which nature supplies just 

 what is needed for the i^afety and well being of 

 her creatures. Many substances seem at lirst 

 view to have all the requirements needed, but 

 when wc discover that ihe material must be 

 sufficiently soft to be readily molded at the 

 ordinary temperature of the hive, and yet be 

 in no danger of melting down during the in- 

 tense heat of midsummer, we. see that perhaps 

 no other material than just the wax they se-* 

 Crete can coiise any v,diere near answering the 

 purpose. Wax melts at about 145o in its nat- 

 ural yellow state, but becomes so soft that it 

 may be molded by pressure at a temperature of 

 about lOOo or less. When this yellow wax is 

 exposed to the sun and moisture in the shape 

 of thin ribbors, it gradually loses its yellow 

 color, and becomes white ; its melting point 

 is also raised by this change about 12'*, yet it 

 is still readily worked into comb if given to 

 the bees during hot weather, and when raised 

 up iuto cells, it has a most beautiful appear- 

 ance of snowy whiteness. This however, is 

 soon soiled and colored, if left in the hive, for 

 neat as bees are said to be, they have a habit 

 of running over the clean white combs with 

 muddy or at least dirty I'cet. With old and 

 dark combs this might be unnoticed, but in a 

 hive furnished with combs made from bleach- 

 ed foundations, it becomes very apparent. 

 Like other folks the bees seem more careful of 

 their best rooms, for the surplus honey boxes 

 are kept much cleaner than the ordinary work- 

 ing room, or brood apartment, though this 

 may not be intentional after all, for it is prin- 

 cipally the young bees that have never been 

 out in the field-;, that work at comb-building 

 and in the boxes. On this account clean yel- 

 low wax when used for foundations, will give 

 very nearly as fine box honey when filled and 

 capped over, as does the bleached. As the 

 latter is considerably harder than the yellow, 

 it is not worked into comb as rapidly. Wlieu 

 the bees are needing room they will frequent- 

 ly raice a v.'hole sheet of yellow into very fair 

 comb in a single night, while it would require 

 nearly double the time perhaps to do the sami' 

 with "the ble?.ched. 



