Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-11-11
Modern Bee Culture.

dustry, whose watchward is progress,
and whose special characteristic is
economy of muscular power, is the
Importance Of scientific method more
strikingiy exemplified than in bee cul-
ture. Could the dreamer of century
ago have looked into the magic mirror
of the future, | think the mighty en-
gines of our day that chisel and plane
and mould solid iron us if it were pot.
ter's clay, or that do the most delicate
work with an accuracy and an ease
that the human eye and hand could
never equal, would hardly have aston
ished Lin more than would the sight
Of one of our great modern apiaries,
with its bees pasturing upon acres Of
carefully cultivated honey plants,
raising queens by the score for the
market at the will of their master,
and economizing their time and labor
by using machine-made comb Thin
plates Of wax passed between the roll
ers of n machine come out in thin
sheets of double hexagonal cells so
perfect that the bees approve the
work, though they always thin the
walls considerably and of course build
them higher. At one time the cell
bottoms were made fiat; but as the
bees would always reconstruct them
after their own ideas-that is, concave
the six sides forming three lozenges
meeting in the centre, the machines
were made to satisfy the fastidious bee
in this particular. In the great apiary
every scrap and shaving Of old comb
is melted, strained and made into
clean golden sheets of foundation for
the machine can do what the bee has
no power 10 do-make new comb out
of old Wax is a secretion under the
rings of the bees body. 1t is thrown
off, apparently at will, in tiny scales,
which are plastic from the warmth of
the body, and after being laid and
moulded they cool and harden. The
bee is an artist whose work, like that
of the fresco painter, must be perfect
at first, for there is no rubbing out, or
undoing in any way, except by utterly
destroying.
Comb foundation has another and
far greater merit than that of saving
labor to the bee; it secures perfectly
even, straight comb for each frame
Or into the large frame there may be
set eight little one-pound frames, each
with its foundation starter. and if
these are placed in a second hive set
on the top of the first, the bees will
very rarely rear broods in them,
but fill them with clear honey. Thus
we have the beautiful little pound
frames of capped honey.
The invention of the movable frame
was of the utmost importance to bee
culture; it was impossible to have a
colony of bees under control without
it. These frames completely fill the
whole hive except the space of about
half an inch between every two
frames. You lift off your hive cover,
which fits nicely without any fasten-
ing, and your whole colony is under
your eye. If You wish to examine
your queen, you lift out one frame
after another, search for her among
the mass of bees covering the comb,
always replacing the frame carefully
without crushing your bees. As a
rule bees do not sting. They are the
most patient, long-suffering, gentlest
little beings in the world. have of
ten and often opened a hive in this
way, lifting out frame after frame,
removing all the honey from one or
more, and to do this brushing off the
bees by hundreds with a wing; step
ped upon or otherwise crushed several
bees in the operation, and yet without
receiving a sting. unless | had awk-
wardly pinched a bee or squeezed him
against my flesh, when, of course, l
deserved my punishment, and took it
philosophically. And this without
using the smoker, but of course it is
more prudent to use it.
Another wonder of modern bee
culture is a peculiar method of ex.
tracing the honey from the comb by
means of a tin cylinder with a verticle
shaft in the centre. II has bottom
and tightly fitting cover through
which the shaft projects. The shaft
is furnished with a crank. Sheets of
comb, or frames full of comb, are set
perpendicularly in a framework fitted
to the shaft. On turning the crank
rapidly the honey flies out by GEN.
trifugal force, leaving intact the brood
cells If there are any. The honey ex-
tracted, the frames are returned to the