•2?A 



July, 1S13 



American l^ee Journal 



Different companies advertise for tliis 

 trade, and if great care is taken, good 

 results can be secured, but I think the 

 price of the right kind of a wax press, 

 to the average bee-keeper, would pay 

 for itself in one season, if not in a sin- 

 gle melting. How can the bee-keeper 

 tell how much wax his apiary yields if 

 he does not render it himself ? 



Beeswax is purely the product of the 

 honey-bee; a secretion formed in the 

 shape of disks on the underside of the 

 abdomen of the worker-bee. The bees 

 form these disks together into the cells 

 of the comb. Pure beeswax should be 

 a natural :c;,x. ye//o-u: It should not 

 contain (when properly rendered) pro- 

 polis, bee-bread of any kind. There- 

 fore, it is the purpose of this short 

 article to give an idea of how good wax 

 can be rendered by the average bee- 

 keeper. 



ine first thing is to have proper 

 utensils. In the shop I have a large 

 stove, and on this I place a large cop- 

 per boiler, about :i'/i feet square. I 

 make sure, first, that the stove lids are 

 all on, so that the direct fire does not 

 come in contact with the boiler. I put 

 enough water in the boiler to fill it 

 two-thirds full. The remainder of the 

 space I fill with old combs and wax 

 particles. All old combs should be 

 well broken up to melt evenly with the 

 other wax. A boiler made of tin will 

 do just as good work as a copper one, 

 only the copper will last several of the 

 tin in course of time. By all means 

 never use a boiler or press having iron 

 in its construction where the wax 

 comes in contact with the iron, for you 

 will generally get dark wax. 



I now build a fire in the stove and 

 heat the water hot enough to thor- 

 oughly melt the wax. Often stirring 

 is necessary to keep the wax melting, 

 and never allow the water and wax to 

 boil. In easel see the substance going 

 to boil, I add a little cold water. The 

 stirring will also allow dirt and other 

 substances to settle away from the wax. 



As the combs melt I keep adding 

 more wax material, until the boiler is 

 fairly well filled with water and melted 

 mixture. 



Now the wax is ready for the press. 

 I use the press shown in the first pho- 

 tograph (cut No. 1). In the press I 

 can place one thickness of cofifee sack- 

 ing, letting the center bag to the bot- 

 tom, with the sacking open and over 

 the sides. I take a large dipper and 

 skim off the wax from the boiler, and 

 pour it in the press on the sacking. 

 The hot wax will run through very fast, 

 as it will have some water with it. The 

 wax and water run out of the spout 

 into square honey cans made ready for 

 the purpose. After several dippersful 

 of the mixture there will probably be 

 some slumgum. The sacking is folded 

 over the hot stuff and pressed by means 

 of the screw. All this operation from 

 the boiler to pressing is done very 

 fast, as the wax will cool very quickly 

 if left in the sacking. To melt combs, 

 etc., for half a day or more, I keep an 

 other boiler ready with hot water. One 

 of the most important features of good 



Fig. r.— Stove. Boiler. Differ. Press. Etc. 



Fig. 



-0.\E With the Coku .\nd Strips of Wouli. 

 Half Removed. 



The OiHEK SiiuWb ibe \V.\x 



wa.x is to have it clean, and this can be 

 done if you have lots of water to pre- 

 cipitate the dirt from the wax as it is 

 melting. 



The best receptacle I have yet found 

 to cool wax in is the second-hand 

 square honey can. With a pair of tin 

 shears I cut out the top of the can ; 

 then I lay the can down on its sides 

 and pound the rough edges smooth so 

 that the cake of wax will not catch 

 when taken out. 



Before I put any melted wax into the 

 cans, I tie a stiff cord about half way 

 up around the outside. I place a strip 

 of wood about one inch wide between 

 the can and the cord on each side, 

 which will pressthe sides of the can in. 

 After waiting 24 hours for the wax to 

 cool, I remove the strip of wood and 

 string. The cake of wa.x will then be 

 smaller than the can, and can be re- 

 moved easily by inverting, as shown in 



the second photograph (cut No. 2.) 

 One important thing to secure a good 

 solid cake of wax is to have it cool 

 slowly, and this can be done b> cover- 

 ing the cans with a board to keep in 

 as much heat as possible. If the cans 

 are not covered in this way the cakes 

 will be sunken on top and rounded on 

 the bottom. 



Platteville, Wis. 



Flowers from Which floney- 

 Bees Cannot Obtain Nectar 



BY JOHK H. LOVELL. 



NOT long ago there appeared in one 

 of our bee journals the state- 

 ment by a New England bee- 

 keeper that his bees had gath- 

 ered 10 or 12 pounds of honey 

 from corn, which provided them with 



[ 



30 ToUrrs FOR LEWIS BEEWARE 



Send for Annual CntnloK nhieh ivill tell 

 joH « ho is your nearest Distrilniter. 

 <;, B. l>e«is l'onipnn>. \A aterto«n. Wis. 



