204 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



said, They must have it full by this 

 time. I saw^ what she had done, and 

 I naturally sliced their heads off and 

 put them back in there, and they car- 

 ried them through the queen excluder 

 down through the hive and when I 

 came back two weeks later it was all 

 full of honey. 



Dr. Bohrer — Mr. France struck the 

 key-note when he said. Keep the 

 young brood all down below. If you 

 do that you won't have to bother with 

 queen cells above. The least drone 

 comb you have the least trouble you 

 will have with drones either below or 

 above. I find that there is a disposi- 

 tion on the part of queens when there 

 is drone comb in the top of the hive, 

 to slip up there and fill it with eggs. 

 Dr. Miller, I believe, has taken the 

 position that probably the queen Bets 

 tired of laying worker eggs. It is 

 supposed by some it requires an effort 

 on the part of the queen to fertilize 

 that egg. I would say: Have just as 

 little drone comb about your apiary 

 as possible; three or four inches 

 square is plenty. "With that kind of 

 manipulation I have some very large 

 hives, and I have tested that more 

 effectually. I have 14 -frame hives, 

 and it takes a powerful colony to fill 

 a 14-frame hive. I take out some 

 combs for fear they will swarm, when 

 it is pretty well capped over, and go 

 and hive them in the upper story of 

 a hive that is not so strong. The 

 bees will take better care of it than 

 I can anywhere else. Put in an empty 

 comb for them to fill up, or a sheet 

 of foundation, and let them have that, 

 and I believe, in that way, you can 

 manage a large swarm of bees and 

 have no swarming. They won't al- 

 ways swarm in big hives when you 

 allow them to develop queen cells. 

 The mother and daughter will live on 

 terms of peace, both laying eggs for a 

 term of weeks. Mr. Alexander tried 

 to make that effectual, but he was 

 trying to do something he couldn't 

 do. 



The President — The next paper is 

 "The Saving of Wax," by E. G. Brown, 

 of Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. 



Mr. Brown presented his paper as 

 follows: 



"THE SAVING OF WAX." 



Wax is a secre-tion from the glands 

 of the abdomen of the bee, and, while 

 its production is largely voluntary, it 



requires the consumption of a large 

 quantity of honey to produce it. Va- 

 rious estimates range from six to six- 

 teen pounds of honey being required 

 to produce a pound of wax. The 

 large amount of honey consumed in 

 its production, combined with its va- 

 ried uses, makes it one of the valuable 

 products of the apiary. It is used in 

 many places where xvo other mate- 

 rials can be substituted. For apicul- 

 tural purposes there can be no 

 substitute, and many of the large 

 cathedrals use it exclusively for can- 

 dles, as other wax or lighting material 

 cause a sediment to accumulate on oil 

 paintings, which is very injurious to 

 their beauty and durability, and wax 

 also burns with a much steadier and 

 clearer light. 



It is also used extensively for den- 

 tal and medical purposes, and in shoe 

 polish and floor wax, and in polishing 

 fine woodwork and stone. 



It has nearly a steady market, at a 

 price of about 30 cents per pound, and 

 if a bee-keeper is careful of his scraps 

 of comb and hive scrapings, he will 

 find it will accumulate very rapidly. 



The cappings from extracted honey 

 are, perhaps, the greatest source of 

 production, as they are nearly pure 

 wax, and, when carefully rendered, 

 produce the purest and best quality of 

 wax. Old combs that for one reason 

 or another have become undesirable 

 for further use and patches of drone 

 comb cut from the corners of the 

 regular brood comb furnish a large 

 amount of wax. 



Ten Langstroth frames will, when 

 properly rendered, produce from two 

 and a half to three and a half pounds 

 of wax, or equal to 20 or 25 full 

 sheets of medium brood foundation, 

 and a chemical analysis would show 

 there ought to be nearly four pounds. 

 For this reason, there is no economy 

 in using old, crooked or broken 

 combs, and it will generally be found 

 advisable to change one's supply of 

 combs every eight to ten years, dis- 

 carding one out of every eight or 

 ten every year, as the wax will pay 

 for the rendering and the new founda- 

 tion, and he will be able to produce a 

 better, clearer grade of honey, and, in 

 an infected locality, will be less subject 

 to disease. 



Another source of accumulation is 

 from the scrapings from the hives 

 and frames, as the bees almost al- 

 ways seem, to have a little extra wax 



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