Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-04-09
BEES AND HONEY.
The Life of the Honey Bee Explained by
Dr. Lyon.
To the Tobacco Loaf.Cnronicle.l


swarm which has been safely hived
in a new hive begins work with mar
vellous energy, and although they
have nothing to start with and all
their combs to build, they often not
only fill up the hive with abundant
stores of money and "bee-breed" for
their own use during next winter,
but gather handsome "surplus" for
their owner. AS they usually have
no further notion Of swarming, they
will generally build the new CONT
almost entirely Of worker size and
not much "drone- comb," as eXpla hin
ed previously. The bee-keeper can
assist them materially and also Sc
cure extra nice, straight, even Combs
by using "comb foundation This
"cOmb foundation" will require
some explanation, as it has frequent
ly been misunderstood. The use of
it by the modern bee-keeper HIS led
to the absurd report that honey comb
is now made artificialIy, filled with
glucose and then palmed off on
much suffering public as the work of
bees. All such reports may be set
down as mere newspaper yarns"
However, in this age Of invention
and food adulteratiOn, it is not Won
derful that many believe man capa-
BILE of taking the field against the
honey bee in making honey comb
and honey.
If one looks closely at the mar
velously delicate work ON the honey
comb, and tries his hand at patching
up broken one, he will soon be con-
WINGED that man is not get ready to
| take the work from the bee ana force
her to join the alliance Of labor
against capital and machinery, But
while man cannot yet make "c0mb,"
he can and does make comb fOu0-
dation," which is a much simpler
matter.
| A smooth, thin board, say ten
inches wide by two feet long, is
wetted and then dipped into a deep
vessel containing melted wax The
dipping is repeated several times,
when the board is covered with a
thin layer OF wax. This can be
peeled off in thin sheet, as the wet
ting of the board prevents it stick
ing tight. This thin sheet of wax is
then passed between iron rollers Of a
machine something like the futjng
machines the ladies used some years
back in fine laundry work. These
iron rolls indent upon the wax some
thing like the bottom of a
cell in the honey comb, and
the pattern is Of the same
size as in the natural comb GO to the
square inCh). Now if 5uch a sheet of
comb foundation be fastened in a
fame and put into hive the bees
will use this as a foundation for their
comb, and it saves them a good cit al
OF time and material, and also Sc
cures the building OF the new comb
straight and true anu free from dr0He
comb. When we hive new swarm,
if we put them into a hive filled
with tn, Sc cranes of foundation"
as we call them, it gives them quite
a lift in their work. Still, as it costs
something, it is questionable if it is
not cheaper to let the bees build
their own cont 5 complete.
Comb foundation" is also used to
put into these little "SeCtiOn boxes"
which hold usually one pound OF
honey, as they cause the bees to
build the comb just where we want
it and not cross wise, as they some
times do. Used in this way it is OF
great value in producing tirst.class
comb honey.
Now let us turn from the new
swarm to the old colony which
east" (not "cOst,'D the swarm.
Even more may be expected of it in
the way of Surplus" honey than
Of the new swarm. But our hopes
are often blasted by what is know as
Understanding" We will explain
this and then describe one OF the
means used to prevent it.
Frequently Il we. k or ten day
after one of our colonies has "cast q
swarm second swarm will come
off, and sometimes a third and fourth
! These "aItor-sWarms" are necessari y
small ones, and they have young
II Jn-layiug queens with them, and
they are of comparative little value,
and their loss wCakens the original
colony 50 much that it can barely
make a living, and so by scattering
their forces they take away our hopes
of surplus honey. AS / have pre-.
viously explained, the old queen
generally comes oft with the first
swarm when the bees have a mum.
Der of queen cells sealed up and
nearly ready to hatch out. The
proper thing for the first young queen
that matches to do is TO destroy all