ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEKS ASSOCIATION. 



103 



times that many, and when you get to 

 October, they will riddle everything. As 

 our President says, they will die in the 

 winter. You may have a house that is 

 mouse proof and j'^ou will find mice in it; 

 after a while you will find the hole. The 

 moth comes in and you will wonder where 

 it came in. You do not need to be afraid 

 until about July. You take a hive where 

 a colony died, there will be a few moths in 

 it and you let those moths hatch and you 

 will see them pretty thick; where the bees 

 have died during the winter, render them 

 up or give them to a small colony and there 

 will be very few moths; but the President 

 says the moth won't attack combs unless 

 they have pollen in them; I have seen 

 them eat the board. 



The President— I think Mr. Dadant 

 misunderstood me. My statement was 

 they are not likely to attack. 



Mr. Dadant — I think they are. 

 Mr. Stewart — Clean comb honey they 

 do not bother. 



Mr. Bruner — I had occasion to go 

 through some combs yesterday that had 

 been in stacks six or eight high, some of 

 them not disturbed two years; the hive 

 bodies that had combs with pollen in were ■ 

 riddled and others that did not have pollen 

 in had not been touched. 



Mr. Dadant — You did not have enough 

 moths to go round. 



The President — We have a question — 

 What is the best way of rendering wax- 

 in small quantities? 



Mr. Bull— Send it to Dadants; let them 

 render it. 



Mr. Dadant — To render combs; in the 

 first place you want a kettle on purpose 

 for that; it is worth while to have a wash 

 boiler if you do not want to spend money 

 for a Hershier press; they are expensive. 

 If they are old combs, crush your combs. 



They are brittle in cold weather. Crush 

 your combs, put them in a sack and let 

 them stand in water sometime, soaking 

 them well; use soft water. I have seen 

 people who never could render wax yellow 

 because they used hard water; using soft 

 water makes a great difference; put your 

 wax in a sack, put it in a boiler; heat it; 

 stir it well, and most of the wax will come 

 to the top; that is the most simple way of 

 rendering wax, but do not overboil your 

 combs and do not use hard water. If you 

 overboil your combs the steam gets between 

 the particles of wax and makes it sort of 

 mealy. It is simply water-daimaged bees- 

 wax. We sometimes received beeswax 

 from bee-keepers that looks like wax and 

 yet looks mealy; that is done by over- 



boiling; the only way to do is to melt it 

 again. 



Break your combs, melt them with soft 

 water in a tin kettle; put them into a sack, 

 stir well, skim off the top; melt it over 

 once and you will have good wax; you can 

 get rain water without difficulty if j^ou 

 have not soft water. If you want to get 

 the very last of it you wili have to press it, 

 but you can take it out so that very few 

 people would say there is any wax left 

 in it. It is important to soak your wax 

 in water before you render it. By the 

 method I tell you, you will not need a 

 press and this is the cheapest waj' of 

 rendering a small quantity of wax. Take 

 my word for it, you will have nice yellow- 

 wax and you will have about all that you 

 can get out of it; you will get so nearly all, 

 nobody will think it is worth bothering 

 with after that. 



Mr. Wheeler — Put a weight on it for a 

 while but you will sooner or later have to 

 take the weight off and stir it. You will 

 get nice beeswax and wax is worth while. 



Mr. Stewart — What kind of cloth do you 

 use for the sack? 



Mr. Dadant — It does not matter very 

 much what cloth you use. You can use as 

 thick as a flour sack, but I think it is 

 better to use a fairly thick gunny cloth. 

 If it is too open mesh it will not do. If 

 you have any residues left, keep those for 

 the next time^and you will be able to use 

 them. To get the wax out thoroughly 

 we use a little press, an ancient cider press; 

 the bottom and sides are steam pipe; the 

 lid fits on that. 



The President — I believe if one has 

 twenty-five or more colonies it pays to 

 have some sort cf a press. The Hatch 

 press is good. 



Mr. Dadant- — There is only one trouble 

 with the Hershier press; its fixtures are 

 not all tin; wherever there is iron, it 

 colors the wax a little. The Hershier press 

 puts combs in layers. The Hatch and 

 other presses try to go too fast. If you 

 take it slowly and give the wax lime to 

 rise you will succeed better. The matter 

 of rendering wax is a matter of patience 

 and care. 



The President — If you take cheese cloth 

 and put it inside your burlap the slum 

 gum will not stick to it and the wax will 

 be cleaner. The wax runs from the press 

 into a pail and then it is poured off from 

 the top into moulds. 



Mr. Wheeler — I have been working 

 along for years preparing wax for the 

 market. I use lots of water. The wax 

 comes on top. Take a piece of wire screen 

 and dip off the top carefully and after a 



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