BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
When diseased combs are rendered, every precaution should be taken to prevent bees from robbing. If the building can not be made be-tight, the work should be done at night, and every tool and utensil used should be thoroughly sealed again before daylight. The refuse from diseased combs should be burned or bur.ed immediately, and the water that was used should be poured where the bees can not possibly get access to it.
How to render wax with home-made artificial-axes.
The unheated press is not difficult to construct, as there are no materials used that could not be obtained easily. If one should have on hand an old hard-press he can make few changes and get along quite well by using it for rendering wax. See Fig. 18. Usually, however, the threads of the screw used in a hard-press are rather too course to give the pressure needed without making it necessary to exert a very great amount of strength in turning the screw. There are many erroneous ideas concerning the pressure which can be exerted by a screw. For instance, it is not the diameter of the screw that determines the pressure, but the pitch of the thread. Screws which can be lowered as much as half an inch in a single complete revolution will hardly be powerful enough for pressing out wax to the best advantage. It is better to have finer threads, so that less exertion is needed to do the work properly. If one wishes to construct a good wavness with as little trouble as possible he had better follow quite closely the design shown in Fig. 19. There are many things that must be taken into consideration in designing a wax-press; and we know that the one shown will be satisfactory, although, of course, it will not be quite so convenient as one made when the proper castings, etc, can be obtained.
A bench-vise screw will answer the purpose if the thread is not too coarse. Two half-inch rods threaded on each end 1.oldIn a home-made press, since it is hardly practicable to construct any thing without too much expense that will keep the follower always at right angles with the screw, it is necessary to place the old comb evenly in the box so that the follower shall go down in fact, this home-made press is very similar to that one, except that it is simpler, stronger, and easier to construct.
It must be borne in mind that, since there is no way to fill the pressing-box with boiling hot water and allow it to remain full until thoroughly heated, when starting work, boiling water must be poured over the box and contents until they are thoroughly heated; and then if the work is continuous the parts will not become cold enough to chill the wax.
A plain square box would burst if the corners were not strengthened, hence it is necessary to bind them by nailing on pieces of very heavy tin or galvanized iron as shown. Thus reinforced the box is amply strong.
screw pressure vs. level.
\(\Lambda\) long heavy lever may be preferred in place of a screw, and in some places it may be easier to construct and operate. The same plan can be followed as that shown in Fig. 6. It is very necessary to guide the lever in some way in order to keep the pressure always vertically above the center of the pressing-box. It is much more difficult to handle a lever than a screw, for there is so much weight to manage. The argument is often advanced that the lever is preferable for the reason that the operator can leave it alone, knowing that the pressure will be applied constantly if heavy weights are hung on the end. While this point is valuable in connection with pressing combs submerged in boiling water, as shown in Fig. 6, it is of little advantage in the un
Figure 19:\(ullet\)=\(\Lambda\) good design for a home-made unheated press.
Figure 20:\(ullet\)=\(\Lambda\) good design for a home-made unheated press.
We are often asked how much was can be rendered from comb holding a given amount of honey; but it is quite difficult to answer such questions, as it makes considerable difference whether full sheets of foundation were used, and also whether such foundation was thick or thin. In general, however, we might say that it requires about 4 lbs. of wax in comb to hold 100 lbs. of honey; or, in other words, that a bound of new comb will hold about 25 lbs. of honey.
A sixteen-ounce section of honey consists approximately of 14) ounces of honey--a little over one-half ounce of wax and about one ounce of wood. Fig. 21 shows the results after separating the honey, wax, and wood, in a sixteen-ounce section. Of course, these results, as before mentioned, are not always the same, and the different amounts vary considerably.
On one occasion we melted over 600 lbs. of candied comb honey, Keeping careful account of the weights, we found that the percentages of honey, wax, and wood were approximately ss8, 5, and 7, respectively.
How to refine wax with sulphuric acid.
Wax eakes, as they are bought up, are usually of all grades and colors. The difference in color is due largely to the amount of impurities the wax contains. In all the years that we have been in the business we have found no practical or satisfactory way of bringing the wax to a yellow color--that is, to its original state of purity, except by treating it with acid.
The method, in brief, is as follows : Fill a wooden tank or barrel a quarter full of water, and add cakes of wax until nearly full. The water is then boiled until all the wax is melted, when a quantity of commercial sulphuric acid is poured in, and the boiling continued until all is thoroughly mixed. The heat is then removed and the impurities allowed to settle.
For a detailed account, it may be well to describe our own system of refining wax.
Our tank is a little over 34 feet in diameter, and about 5 feet high. Water is run into it to a depth of 12 inches, and then 1500 lbs, of wax is thrown in, making it about full. The mass is then heated by means of a jet of steam from a pipe projecting down into the water from the top. When all the wax is melted, the acid is poured in. Dark wax to make brood foundation requires three joints of acid; but if light enough for surplus foundation, not more than 14 pints is used. If the wax is already of good quality, so small in amount as one pint of acid will answer. On the average, therefore, we use one qint of acid in 80 gallons of water for 1500 lbs, of wax. Soon after this is poured in, the color of the boiling wax will be seen to grow lighter, and, after a minute or so, the boiling is stopped.
The steam-pipe is now drawn out, the tank covered with a cloth or carpet, and allowed to stand as long as the wax will remain liquid, or about 24 hours. At the expiration of this time the water and acid will have settled to the bottom by reason of their greater specific gravity; and the acid, in turn, having a greater specific gravity than that of water, will settle below the water; and the consequence is, that the wax itself, after being purified, is allowed to become thoroughly cleansed of any residue of acid, and the dirt accumulation, all have settled beneath the wax into the water. The melted wax is now drawn off from the top, and poured into any sort of receptacles with flaring sides. When the wax is nearly all removed or shows evidence of coming near the dirt, the rest is allowed to stand. As soon as it cakes in the tank it is lifted out, and the dirt clinging to the bottom scraped off.
We do not recommend the use of acid for refining wax on a small scale, for, without proper receptacles and facilities for heating, the wax is more often injured than benefited.
bleaching beeswax.
There are methods by which beeswax can be bleached by the use of chemicals; but after some experimenting we have not been successful with any of them, and finally discovered that, for the economic uses of the bee-keeper, foundation made of bleached wax was no better than if as good as that having the natural yellow color, refined by the use of sulphuric acid as explained elsewhere. Yellow wax is more ductile, and therefore more easily worked by the bees; and even when used for section honey-boxes, the combs from yellow wax are about as white as those from the bleached; so that when exppel over, no one can tell the difference. But very often dealers have a call for bleached beeswax; and the only practical way of getting it is to convert the product into this sheets or small particles, and then subject them to the sun's rays for a suitable length of time. When sufficiently bleached it may be melted up and asked.
The illustration given on next page shows how it is done at a large wax-working establishment where wax-bleaching is made a specialty. We refer to the firm that was formerly Eekerman & Will, of Syraeuse, N. Y., but now bearing the name of Will & Baumer. The wax is reduced to thin sheets or shreds, or, what is often done, is allowed to drop on a revolving cylinder, forming small chunks or drops, as it were, which immediately cool. These particles of wax, or thin sheets, are spread on canvas trays, and then exposed to the rays of the sun until they are bleached. When the wax is first put out it packs more or less small has to be frequently shovered with water, or raked over, to keep it loose so that the air and sun can get at it. If the process has been properly carried on, the inshed product, when caked,will be of a pearly whiteness.
At this factory of Will & Baumer, immense quantities of candles are made for sareamental purposes of the Roman Catholic Church, which prefers them of pure beeswax. Some are of immense size, but all are not made of pure beeswax. Paradline is used very largely for the purpose, and the small candles for lawn-fetes and Christmas times, variously colored, are probably wholly paraffine, because that article costs less than half as much as beeswax.
how to detect duplicated wax.
We have already mentioned the fact that beeswax is lialle to aduliteration with paraffine or eeresin, and sometimes with ordinary bee - keepers, after brinstoning their old grease or fat. Some unscrupulous box-hive "skeps," and melting up the wax,*ad just enough tallow to increase the weight, because grease is cheap compared with the ordinary product of the hive. But such adulterations are very easily detected, both by smell and sight. The cakes have a greasy smell and feeling; and when subjected to the float test, presently described, they will immediately rise to the top of the liquid. Paraffine and eeresin adulterations are not so easily recognized; but nearly all pure bees
## WAX
Melaining wax from utensils.
Perhaps the readiest means is to immerse them in boiling water until all the wax is thoroughly melted off, then drain, while kept hot, until the wax which adheres to them when being lifted from the water is thoroughly melted, and can be wiped off with soft newspaper. Where the article can not be easily immersed,benzine or a solution of sal-soda will readily dissolve the wax so it can be cleaned off with a cloth. Benzine dissolves wax almost as readily as water dissolves sugar.
_Caution in handling weak.--_We have spoken about order, care, and cleanliness, in handling honey, candy, etc.; now, friends, it is a much more serious thing to dauh melted wax about the house, on the carpets and on your clothes, than it is to dauh either honey or candy. You can very easily spoil a dollar's worth of clothing while fussing with 10 cents' worth of wax, as we know by experience. When you commence, bear this in mind, and resolve that you are going to have things clean and neat at every step, no matter what the cost. Newspapers are very cheap, and it takes but a minute to spread them all around the room where wax may be dropped.
**WEIGHT OF BEES.** Some very interesting 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 experiments were given in _Gleanings in Bee Culture;_ and the article is so valuable we have thought best to preserve it in permanent form :
Some two years ago, in a leisure hour I went to my aplary and captured one outgoing bee from every hive and subjected them to the funes of cyanide of potassium for a few moments to render them inactive, and then weighed each bee upon our chemical balances\(-\)a pair of scales so dellectely adjusted that it is an easy matter to weigh the one-millionth part of a pound or the one-thousmouth 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 411 to 5690 in a pound. These results you published in _Gleanings_, and there expressed a wish that I would also determine the amount of honey carried by a homing bee. In any research for the weight of bees I took this 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.
**WIGTH OF BEES.** :
By method was this : From the chemical laboratory I secured a couple of delicate glass flasks with corks, marking them A and B. Each was very carefully weighed, and the weight recorded. I then went to a hive, and, with the aid of a pair of delicate plates, or pieces, I captured a number of incoming bees and dropped them into flask A. I then secured about an equal number of outgoing bees in flask B. These were then taken to the laboratory immediately, and each flask again weight-d, after which the bees were carefully counted and released. This operation was repeated quite a number of times, not on the same day, but as opportunity offered, and when the bees were bringing in an abundance of honey. I captured from 20 to 15 bees for each flask at each trip, aiming to hive, as a early as might be, the same number in each flask on any particular trip. I always weighed the flasks before starting out, test some little bit of soil or stain, or even moisture on the glass, would render the results less accurate; I also always allowed any moisture condensed upon the inside of the flasks, while the bees were confined, to evapo's rate 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 number 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 going to the same hive for a second lot of bees. A considerable difference does appear, but probably that arises in part from the abundance or scarcity of honey on any particular day when the colony was visited. My aml was to secure reliable results, as nearly as possible representing the average amount of honey carried by bees.**
**The following is the result of weighing several hundred each, of returning and outgoing bees. The smallest number of bees necessary to carry one pound of honey, as shown by my results, is 10,151 : or, in other words, one bee can carry the zebra (one ten thousand one hundred and fifty-fourth) part of a pound of honey; and the largest number, as shown by the results, required to carry a pound is 45,692 and the average of all the sets weighed is 20,167 : Perhaps, then, it is approximately correct to say that the average load of a bee is 10,167 : this measure is 20,600 bees in it, and each one makes one trip a day, they will add the bound to their stores. Of course, not all the bees in a colony leave the hive, the nurses remaining at home, hence necessitating more trips of those which do "go a field."
I also repeated my observations of two years ago on the weight of bees, and found that my numbers ran from 369 to 5495 in a pound, and the average about 480, the same as in my former test. I likewise secured the following on the weight of drones: Of a dozen or more weighed, the largest would require 180s to make a pound, and the smallest 2122, or an average of about 200s drones in a pound, over a against nearly 2000 workers. B. F. Koons, Agricultural College, Storrs, Ct., Sept. 3, 1895.
## Weight of Bees.
In a nutshell, and speaking in round numbers, we may say that it takes 4800 bees to make a round; and that, while 10,000 bees may carry a round of nectar, twice that number, or 20,000, is probably more nearly the average. During basswood bloom, the first figure should be considered as the nearer correct one because the bees drop down at the entrance; but from almost all other sources of nectar the twenty-thousand mark is the one to accept.
Let us now look at these interesting figures in another way: A bee _can_ carry half its weight in nectar; and perhaps, under certain circumstances, a trifle more; but, generally speaking, one-fourth its weight is the amount. A single strong colony has been known to bring in a trifle over 20 lbs. of nectar from basswood in one day;* but usually four or five pounds is considered a _remarkably big_ day's work. If we figure that there were, say, in the first instance (20 lbs, per day), 8 lbs. of bees, there would be 38,400 bees. If 20,000 of these were field-bees (estimating 10,000 necessary to carry a single round of basswood nectar), those bees must have made forty trips. On the same basis of calculation, a colony of equal strength that brought in 5 lbs. would make one-fourth as many trips, or an even ten. This would leave for each trip one hour for ten hours; or, in the ease of 20 lbs. a day, twenty minutes.
Both Profs. Gillette and Lazenby, the former of the Colorado Experiment station and the latter of the Ohio Experiment Station, conducted a series of experiments which closely approximate figures of Prof. Coons, so we are sure they are correct.
**WHEAVOOLIES, TO STRENGTH.** See Unitino, sub-head AlexanderPlan; also Nucleus.
**WHEAVOOD** (_Liriodcarbon Tulipifera_). This is often called the tulip-tree, we suppose from its tulip-shaped flowers.
After writing the foregoing, we concluded we did not know very much about the whitewood, especially the blossoms. So we traveled off into the woods, where we found a tree; but there were only buds to be seen, not blossoms. It must be too early in the season; but hard! whence come those sounds of humming-birds and humming bees? Whence, too, that rare and exquisite perfume? We
_Remarkably big_ day's work. If we figure that looked higher, and, away in the nisty top of the tree discerned, by the light of the setting sun, multitudes of bees flitting about. Oh that we were just up there! We looked at the rough trunk of the tree, and meditated that we were boys no longer, but forty years of age, or would be in a few months more. We might get up to that first limb: after a good deal of kicking and pulling, we did. The next was a harder pull yet; but soon the limbs were thicker, and finally we began to crawl upward with about as much euse as our year-and-a-half-old baby goes upstairs whenever she can elude maternal vigilance. Up, up, we went, until, on looking down, we really began to wonder what that blue-eyed baby and her momma would do should our clumsy boots slip, or a dead limb break unexpectedly. Now we were at the very summit of the tree, and, oh what a wonderful beauty we saw in those tulip-shaped blossons that peeped from the glossy-green foliage all about us! No wonder there was humming. Bumble-bees, gaudy-colored wasps, yellow Italians, and last, but not least, beautifully plumaged humming-birds, were all rejoieing in a feast of sweets. Every now and then one of the latter pansed before our very face, and, as he swung pendulumed in mid air, winked his bright little eyes, as much as to say, "Why, what on earth can _you_ be doing away up here in our domain?"
We picked off the great orange-colored, mottled blossons, and looked for the honey. We presume it was the wrong time of day to expect much; but inside, those large petals seemed to be distilling a kind of dark dew that the birds and insects were licking off. It tasted to us more like molasses than honey. In the cut our engraver has tried to show you what we saw in the tree-top.
As the sun had gone down, we commenced in a rather undignified way to follow suit, and, after resting a little, lumped home. Although stiff and sore, we carried an arndful of whitewood blossons to surprise the good folks who, probably, had never dreamed of the beanties to be seen only in the tree-tops
Our friends in the South have a great deal to say about what they call "polar honey;" and, if we are correct, the poplar is the same tree which we call whitewood. It blossons with them in April and May. We know what time it blossons here, for we thought about its being the 27th of May, when sliding down out of that tree. Shortly after, we received some bees from G. W. Gates, of Bartlett, Tenn. The combs were filled, even bulged out with a dark honey, such as we have described, and the bees had built fins of snow-white comb on the cover of their shipping-box. From this we infer the honey must be yielded in great abundance in those localities. We have seen it stated that the large flowers sometimes yield a spoonful of honey each. As the tree is often used for ornament, we make the following extract from _Fuller's Forest-Tree Cultivist_:
Lewes smooth, on slender petioles, partially three-lobed, the middle one appearing as though cut off; flowers about two inches broad, bell-shaped, greensils yellow, marked with orange; seeds winged, in a large cone-shape cluster which falls apart in autumn. The figure shows a single seed as it appears when separated from the mass. It blossons in May and June, and the seeds ripen in late summer or early autumn, and should be swn as soon as ripe, in good, moderately dry soil. They may remain in the seed - bed two years if desirable, but should receive a slight protection the first winter; tree of large size, sometimes 100 feet light, with a very straight stem; wood light color, greenish white, soft and light, not hard enough to receive a polish. It is much used in cabinet work, and for making panels for centrifuges, and for any inside work where toughness or a hard surface is not required. There is perhaps no native wood that will shrink more in seasoning than whitewood, for it not only shrinks sidewise but endwise as well; yet when once thoroughly sensed it remains fixed, and does not warp or twist like many of the hard and tough kinds of wood. There is also much difference in the character of the wood coming from different sections of the country, and mechanics who are conversant with the various kinds and localities will readily tell whether specimens came from the West or East. The latter is of a light greenish color, grain not so smooth and soft, and sometimes rather tough. The wood is but little used, except for the purposes mentioned above, and consequently it is only large trees that are of much value. It is one of the most beautiful ornamental trees we possess, growing in a conical form, and production an abundance of beautiful tulip-shaped flowers in spring. The roots are soft and sponge-like, and it requires great care in removing to insure success.
The question is often asked, "Is whitewood good for bee-hives?" It may do for sections and brood-frames, but it is very unsatisfactory for hives, for the reasons given in this extract.
**Willlow** (_Salix._) We have had little or no experience with this shrub. It does yield honey and pollen in some localities, and we can do no better than to copy an article with engrivings, from the pen of G. M. Doolittle, as given in _Gleenings in Bee Culture_, p. 486, Vol. XVII.: