23 
keepers—those who adhere to the use of box hives and who can not there- 
fore utilize comb foundation—are called upon for their wax product. 
As each pound of wax represents several pounds of honey, all cappings 
removed when preparing combs for the extractor, all scrapings and 
trimmings and bits of drone comb, are to be saved and rendered into 
wax. This is best done in the solar wax extractor (fig. 15), the essen- 
tial parts of which are a metal tank with wire-cloth strainer and a glass 
cover, the latter generally made double. The bottom of the metal tank 
is strewn with pieces of comb, the glass cover adjusted, and the whole 
exposed to the direct rays of the sun. A superior quality of wax filters 
through the strainer. 
Another method is to inclose the cappings or combs to be rendered 
in a coarse sack and weight this down in a tin boiler partly filled with 
rain water or soft sprivg water and boil slowly until little or no more 
wax can be pressed out of the material in the sack. Melting in an iron 



Fie. 15.—Solar wax-extractor. Fa. 16.—Steam wax-extractor. 
receptacle makes the wax dark colored. A special utensil made of tin 
for use as a wax extractor (fig. 16) over boiling water can also be had. 
The bits of comb are placed in this in an inside can having fine perfora- 
tions, through which the steam from below enters and melts out the wax, 
which drips from a spout into another receptacle partly filled with 
water, from the surface of which the cake of wax may be removed when 
cold. 
THE WINTERING OF BEES. 
How to bring bees successfully through the winter in the colder por- 
tions of the United States is a problem which gives anxiety to all who 
are about to aitempt it for the first time in those sections, and even 
many who have kept bees for years still find it their greatest difficulty. 
It may happen occasionally that a queen, apparently young and vigor- 
ous in the autumn, will die during the winter, when a young one can 
not be reared, and as a result the colony will dwindle away. Such 
losses are, however, rare, and, aside from the possible results of fire, 
