886 
WEIGHT OF BEES 
only 5 per cent is tested it may float or 
gradually settle to the bottom of the jar, 
perhaps standing upon a single point. The 
degree of adulteration in a suspected sam¬ 
ple is determined by its ability to float, 
whether it “floats high” or barely floats. 
For all practical purposes this float test 
is reliable; that is, it has so far shown 
every adulterated sample. A large ship¬ 
ment of beeswax was sent in. It was very 
beautiful, and the cakes were all of a uni¬ 
form size; but the price was very low. It 
was suspicious, and accordingly it was sub¬ 
jected to the float test. Sure enough, a 
small piece of wax stayed on top of the 
test liquid. It was then put into a liquid 
that would let a 25 per cent ceresin adul¬ 
teration sink. After hovering near the sur¬ 
face it gradually sank, and acted like the 
piece of wax that was known to contain 25 
per cent of ceresin. 
The shipper was advised that he would 
have to take the stuff back. He did it very 
promptly, without even trying to defend 
himself, any more than to say that he 
thought we were not very particular. He 
knew better, but thought he could unload 
the stuff. 
CLEANING WAX FROM UTENSILS. 
Perhaps the readiest means is to im¬ 
merse the utensils in boiling water until all 
the wax is thoroly melted off, then drain, 
while hot. They can then be wiped off 
with soft newspaper. Where the article 
cannot be easily immersed, high-test gaso¬ 
line or a solution of salsoda will readily 
dissolve the wax so it can be cleaned off 
with a cloth. Gasoline dissolves wax almost 
as readily as water dissolves sugar. 
WAX WORMS. —See Moth Miller. 
WEIGHT OF BEES.— Some very in¬ 
teresting experiments were conducted by 
Prof. B. F. Koons, of the Agricultural 
College, Storrs, Ct., to determine the 
weight of bees and the amount of honey 
they can carry. The results of these ex¬ 
periments were printed in Gleanings in Bee 
Culture; and the article is given here: 
Some two years ago, in a leisure hour I 
went to my apiary and captured one outgo¬ 
ing bee from every hive and subjected them 
to fumes of cyanide of potassium for a few 
moments to render them inactive, and then 
weighed each bee upon our chemical bal¬ 
ances—a pair of scales so delicately ad¬ 
justed that it is an easy matter to weigh 
the one-millionth part of a pound or the 
one-thousandth part of a bee. From the 
weight of each separate bee it was a very 
simple problem in arithmetic to compute the 
number of bees in a pound. The results 
showed that mine, which perhaps are a fair 
average in size and weight, ran from 4,141 
to 5,669 in a pound. These results you pub¬ 
lished in Gleanings, and there expressed a 
yvish that I would also determine the 
amount of honey carried by a homing bee. 
In my research for the weight of bees I took 
those just leaving the hive, which naturally 
would represent the normal weight, without 
extra honey or pollen. 
During the present summer (when the 
bees were very active) I have undertaken 
to carry out your request as to the amount 
of honey carried by a bee. My method was 
this: From the chemical laboratory I se¬ 
cured a couple of delicate glass flasks with 
corks, marking them A and B. Each was 
very carefully weighed, and the weight re¬ 
corded. I then went to a hive, and, with 
the aid of a pair of delicate pliers, or pin¬ 
cers, I captured a number of incoming bees 
and dropped them in flask A. I then se¬ 
cured about an equal number of outgoing 
bees in flask B. These were then taken to 
the laboratory immediately, and each flask 
again weighed, after which the bees were 
carefully counted and released. This op¬ 
eration was repeated quite a number of 
times, not on the same day, but as oppor¬ 
tunity offered, and when the bees were 
bringing in an abundance of honey. I cap¬ 
tured from 20 to 45 bees for each flask at 
each trip, aiming to have, as nearly as 
might be, the same number in each flask on 
any particular trip. I always weighed the 
flasks before starting out, lest some little 
bit of soil or stain, or even moisture on the 
glass, would render the results less accur¬ 
ate; I also always allowed any moisture con¬ 
densed upon the inside of the flasks, while 
the bees were confined, to evaporate before 
weighing for another trip. I then treated 
my results as follows: From the weight of 
flask and bees I deducted the weight of the 
flask; the remainder I divided by the num¬ 
ber of bees confined on that trip. This gave 
me the average weight of the bees captured 
at that time. The average weight of the 
bees in flask A, or loaded bees, was always 
greater, as it should be, than the average 
weight of the bees in flask B, or unloaded 
bees. The difference between these two 
weights gave me the average amount of 
honey carried by that lot of bees. 
Mine are Italian and hybrid bees, but I 
made no attempt to determine the difference 
in the amount carried by the different 
swarms or breeds. I kept no record of the 
swarms except that I guarded against go¬ 
ing to the same hive for a second lot of 
