870 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1899. 
In answer to this, it was stated that the nitrogenous matter was deposited 
by the bees and protected with honey, with a cap over it. 
Admitting that the bees had no access to pollen, would they not do better 
in honey than on cane sugar? ‘The concensus of opinion was that they would 
do better on honey. : 
Another question raised at the meeting was whether it was profitable to 
save propolis to extract wax from. The general opinion was that there was no 
object gained in saving propolis and that to get wax from it there must be 
small quantities of wax on the frames. When wax was to be extracted from 
it, it was put into the “ solar extractor’’; the propolis stayed on the tin of the 
extractor and the sun melted the wax, which ran away and caked. 
Section honey was next considered, and on this subject a member said:— 
“When we commenced taking comb honey first we had no bee space in our 
sections, and we had no separators between our sections. We had no comb 
foundation to put in them, and we used to get some fat sections and some lean 
sections and the fat ones looked very nice; everyone wanted a fat section, and 
when we crated them and supplied them to the retailer that was where the 
difficulty largely came in, which will come in with these new sections. We, as 
beekeepers, can handle them without making them bleed, but we put them 
into the hands of the storekeeper who does not know auything about bees, and 
who handles a package of honey as he would a package of coffee, and he makes 
them bleed. I found that with no separators, although I thinkitis nicer myself, 
it gave a good deal of trouble to those I sold it to, and when I went to sell them 
honey, they said: ‘I don’t want to touch the stuff, it dirties up everyone, and 
I wouldn’t have it around.’ What are you to do in this case? We have got 
to guard against that and that is why we have separators, so that our honey - 
stands back from the wood and when you pull out one from the other, there is 
x5; of an inch between the surface of one comb and the surface of the other; 
and that assists these very clumsy or ignorant people who do not care about 
bursting the celis of the comb in keeping it clean.” 
The conversion of honey into vinegar met with adverse criticism. Honey 
vinegar was the best of all vinegars, but it did not pay to make it. It had to 
be made by the addition of alcohol. As one facetious member put ib: “Tf 
you are going to make it for fun, it is all right; but if you are going to make a 
profit out of it, you had better quit. It will cost more than it is worth.” 
Mr. Shutt read a paper on “Foundation Comb.” Briefly, in supplying 
foundation to the bees, the object is to save much of the expenditure of food 
and tissue in the formation of wax, allowing the bees more time and energy 
and material for the production of honey. 
“T argued,” says Mr. Shutt, “that that foundation would be the most 
profitable to use which the bees could utilise to the greatest extent in this way- 
That was my deduction. In other words, those foundations to which the least 
wax was added by the bees in building comb would be the most economical. 
“ Now, it will be necessary for me to explain somewhat the method of our 
procedure. A certain number of foundations were submitted to us. I 
ascertained accurately the weight of a 2-inch square piece of each. We did 
this by means of a stamp or die made exactly 2 inches square, stamping out of 
each of the foundations a piece or several pieces—ten pieces. From the weight 
of these the average weight of 2 inches square of the several brands of 
foundation was obtained. At the close of the season the caps of the cells were 
carefully removed, the honey was extracted by an extractor, and the combs 
soaked in water to remove the last traces of honey. They were allowed to dry 
spontaneously, just by exposure to the atmosphere. In that way we got rid 
of the last traces of honey found in the comb. ‘Then we took this very same 
dye and stamped out from the empty comb 2 inches square and weighed it, 
The results I will now read in detail; they are tabulated and show the weight 
of the foundation and resulting comb in grammes. 
“ The tables show the original weight of 2 inches square of foundation, and 
also give the weight of the same area of empty comb at the close of the season. 
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