Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-11-12

III wax. Among the things
EM1l WNHFIPo they wish to obtain
MA from Congress is legis-
lation forbidding the
counterfeiting Of their products. At present
liquid honey Is so largely sdulterated with glu-
cose that it Is difficult to buy the pure article.
Attention will be called to the fact that the
honey making business in this country is at vet
in its infancy, and that It is capable of an ex-
pansion so great as to vastly surpass the present
production of sugar from the sugar cane. Four
contiguous counties in one state last season
turned out 1900, 600 pounds Of honey, this
quantity representing but small fraction of
what might have been gathered. When it is
considered that from fourteen to eighteen
pounds of the nectar sometimes collected
within tweuty-four hours by a single hive Of
bees it will be seen that there is profit in bee
keeping. Secretary Rusk is strongly in favor
OF appropriating money to instruct the farmers
In scientific methods Of bee culture.
THE BUSINESS OF RAISING QUEEN BEES
for sale has become a very important one in
this country within the last few years. One
lady in Texas reared and sold 1000 last sum-
mer. which is a larger number than has ever
been produced in year by any man. Bee
keeping in general is an industry very suitable
for women and they have proved that they can
make money by it. For raising queens minia-
ture hives are employed-little wooden boxes,
in each Of which are put a handful OF bees, a
bit OF honeycomb and q single queen cell con-
tanning queen bee not yet Matched. An ordi-
nary hive produces from a dozen to 800 queen
bearing cells each season, so that it is a simple
matter to detach them from the broodcomb aud
use them in the manner described. Soon after
the queen bee is Matched in the little box she
flies out of it high in the air, where she mates
with drone. thereupon returning to the box
and beginning Immediately to lay eggs. one in
each of the hexagonal cells constructed BY the
worker bees to receive them. few days later
her progeny begin to appear, full fedged. and
the young workers among them examined
to make sure that their breed is pure. Without
this precaution it could not be known with GER
tainty that the queen had paired with one Of
her own species, and purity of stock in bees is
as important as with cattle.
DOLLAR QUEENS"
If the offspring are all right the queen is
considered ''tested"-in other words, she can
be guaranteed to give birth only to pure-bred
Young ones, being provided with about $780,
900 eggs all OF them fortified by that one
mating Tested queens are worth from 90 to
80 each; INFESTED ones, not guaranteed. there
fore very commonly called dollar queens"
selling for only 81 apiece usually. When the
young queen is taken from the miniature hive
for sale new queen cell Is put into the box
and the operation Is repeated as before. each
every few weeks. The queens propagated in
this way are sent in little boxes each contain
ing bit Of candy for food all over the world,
even as far as Australia. Sample workers and
drones are kept in the same manner. the price
asked for them being only cents apiece They
are transported by mail. Post Office regula-
tions used to declare them unavailable, but this
restriction has been Withdrawn in the United
States and in most European countries
duty of 20 per cent imposed on bees imported
n ia Mt frnt oh Nad hoa han,,
the plea being successfully urged that they
were ''animals imported for breeding pur-
poses" and as such free under the law.
THE QUEEN CELL PROTECTOR.
The breeding of queen bees in this manner
has been facilitated by remarkable American
invention. When a cell containing an I'M
hatched queen has been newly put into the
miniature hive the worker bees have not had
time to become aware o. the fact that they
have no queen. Accordingly. because they will
suffer only one mistress, they would very soon
kill the immature queen by stabbing her with
their stings through the walls of her cell. only
that this is prevented by artifce. Before put
ting the queen cell into the little box it is in
closed in "a queen cell protector" which is
simply spiral coil of wire. This wire coil
renders il impossible for the bees to get at
the queen. Before she is ready to emerge from
the cell Of her own accord the workers have
had time to ascertain that they are without a
queen and they are glad enough to receive her
dutifully wnen she comes out, for 1t must be
remembered that the worker bees, themselves
females which are undeveloped sexually, make
the perpetuation of their species the sole objecs
of their lives. For this they literally work
themselves to death. storing up honey to feed
future broods, building cells for Matching and
storage purposes and nursing the Young grubs
Only the queen lays the eggs which produce
workers and queens.
THE CoYB PouNDIr1oy
This is only one of the ways in which the in
genuity of man has interfered to help the
honey bees in their work. The Germans were
the first to invent whs. is called comb founda-
ton, which Is sheet wax, one-sixteenth Of an
inch thick and stamped in such manner that
both sides are covered with small hexagous
slightly raised from the surface and formed ex-
actly on the pattern adopted in nature by the
bees This is sold at a small price by the square
foot. The bee keeper suspends piece of it in
comp frame. which he places in hive, and
the bees use 1t as foundation in building their
cells. Thus they are enabled to store up much
honey. which they would otherwise be Obliged
to utilize in the form Of wax for purposes of
construction. Wax is very costly product
from the bees point OF view, requiring for its
manufacture several times its own weight in
honey. Accordingly, the insects pursue the
utmost economy in its employment, making
from a single pound Of il So 900 to So 900 cells
two pounds OF honey. Obviously, when q comb
wall and cell foundations are provided, there is
o great saving Of labor and material and much
more honey is stored in given time.
STAMPING THE WAX.
The German method of making this comb
foundation was to stamp the sheets by hand.
But that process was too slow to satisfy the in
ventive Yankee genius. which has devised a
very simple machine for doing the work It
looks somewhat like a clothes wringer, with
two metal cylinders engraved in intagiio. be-
tween which sheete Of wax are passed. coming
out on the other side all ready for use The
wax sheets are obtained by dipping wet board
into tank Of pure melted beeswax Coatings
OF wax adhere to both sides OF the board,
and they are peeled off after cooling dozen
large firms in this country manufacture this
comb foundation. One of them. IN Illinois,
turned out so 600 pounds OF it last year. But
ehe most remarkable point about the con-
friysnce Is that the outlined cells covering both
sides of the imitation comb wall are purposely
made exactly the size of worker cells 1t should
be Understood that the cells designed by the
bees for the reception Of eggs that produce
workers are smaller than the cells which are
destined to accommodate young drones, because
The latter are bigger. The queen lays only worker
eggs In the cells prepared for them and drone
eggs In the cells meant to produce drones. In
this way the bees. by judicious arrangements in