172 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



amount used in order that the bees might feed a 

 part of this brood, in which only a part of the cells 

 were hatched. 



To sum up: The ditfereuce in honey g^athered was 

 1 k. 203 grams. 



The wax produced was 191 grams. 



The bees used 6.!! grams of honey to produce one 

 gram of wax. 



In the preceding experiments, the bees com- 

 menced to build combs in eight frames; and as the 

 honey-flow was feeble, except the first day, they 

 could build little else than worker-cells; I say little 

 else, for in the corner of a large finished frame they 

 built some drone-cells. These cells were built the 

 first day, when the honey-flow was strongest (about 

 3 k. per day). 



In practice, it happens that one can make work- 

 er comb for the bees economically enough bj' fur- 

 nishing them honey at a low price. We find, for in- 

 stance, that foreign honey in the Havre market can 

 be had for from 50 to 60 francs per 100 k. (or f 9.37'/3 

 to .¥10.3.5 per 3.50 lbs.); but to obtain these results, 

 three conditions are necessary: 



1. A light honey-flow. 



3. Take away the frames of brood from a colony, 

 and replace them by unfinished combs, inserting 

 them between the full ones. These frames of 

 brood should be given to feeble colonies. 



3. Don't let them build, except at a high tempera- 

 ture. 



We are exceedingly obliged to our friend 

 across the water, for his suggestion of using 

 two colonies, and then make them change 

 about occasionally. A series of experiments 

 conducted in this way must give us some 

 pretty accurate facts. Perhaps we had bet- 

 ter say. in our text-l)ooks, tliat, instead of 

 20 lbs. of honey to make one pound of wax, 

 from 6 to 8 ll)s. is enough. We are the more 

 ready to accept this, as it seems to confirm 

 the result of friend Ilasty's experiments, 

 given on page (3-42, 1886, and also friend Vi- 

 allou's, given at the National Convention at 

 New Orleans. 



MAKING BEESWAX. 



RENDERING OUT WAX FROM OLD COMBS— FRIEND 

 FRANCE'S METHOD. 



T SUPPOSE that every bee-keeper makes more or 

 jMp less wax. If he doesn't, he surely is wasting 

 ]IL material which could be made into wax, and so 

 ■*■ saved. I don't like to see any scraps of wax or 

 bits of comb, or any thing that has beeswax in 

 it, going to waste. Wax is worth money. There is 

 always a cash market for all we can get. We keep 

 at home a box into which we put every thing we have 

 which will make wax— that is, scraps of comb, old 

 discarded combs, or any thing we are going to melt 

 up into wax. We always take with us, when we go 

 to our yards away from home, a box holding nearly 

 a bushel. Into this we put such things as scrapings 

 of honey-boards, broken combs, drone combs, which 

 we cut out, or any bits of comb. These we carry 

 home, to be melted up. It is not then lying around, 

 breeding moths. When it is made into wax there is 

 a cash value in it, and it can be turned into cash at 

 any time, or kept, if we choose to hold it for a higher 

 price. 



Now, after having saved up the material out of 

 which to get the wax, how are we going to separate 

 the wa.x from the refuse matter with which it is 

 mixed, so as not to waste the wax, and at the same 

 time not waste too much time';" I suppose the sup- 

 ply-dealers would say, " Buy one of our wax-ex- 

 tractors." Now, it may be that they are the best 

 thing in use forthe purpose. I don'tknow. I never 

 used one. But after I had seen them, and watched 



other folks use them, I thought it was too puttering 

 a job. I have bought wax which had been worked 

 out with them, and had wax sent me to work up in- 

 to foundation, which was made with them. But 

 generally there was more or less honey about the 

 wax, and I was obliged to melt the wax in water to 

 get rid of the honey. 



Let me tell you how I have rendered out my wax. 

 I have used the same plan, with slight changes, for 

 about forty years; but I will say, that I never was 

 satisfied with the plan. Alterl had become theown- 

 er of from 50 to 100 colonies of bees I took possession 

 of the old rusty clothes-boiler, and purchased the 

 wife a new one in its stead. I placed the old boiler 

 over the fire in the kitchen, put in a large pailful of 

 water, and then filled the boiler with such material 

 as I had on hand, to be melted into wax. I have a 

 good stout stick to stir it up when the water gets 

 hot. The wax will melt and settle down. Put in 

 more comb, and press it down into the water. Con- 

 tinue putting in and stirring, until the boiler is 

 within two inches of being full; then stop putting 

 in, but keep stirring until all is melted. Don't leave 

 the boiler a moment now, for it is likely to boil over 

 on the stove. Keep a dish of cold water within 

 reach; for if it boils it will foam up and run over. 

 If it can not be kept down by stirring, pour in a 

 pint of cold water. As soon as it is all melted, take 

 it off the fire and strain out the wax. For a strain- 

 er we have used cheese-cloth; but thin open cotton 

 cloth was the best of any thing we ever tried. It is 

 a yard wide. Take a piece a yard long for a strain- 

 er. Now we want a squeezer. Take two pieces of 

 dressed inch lumber, about two feet long by five or 

 six inches wide. Trim off the edges of the boards 

 at one end, so as to make a good handle. Now lay 

 them together, the wide ends one way. Fasten on 

 a good stout leather hinge, to hold the wide ends to- 

 gether; let the leather run up well on the sides of 

 the boards, and tack fast and our squeezer is ready. 

 We next need a pan to strain into, and something 

 into which to throw our rubbish. 



We are now ready to strain. We want a dipper 

 capable of holding about a quart or more, and one 

 chair or bo.x, for the one who does the squeezing, to 

 sit on. It takes two persons to do this job— one to 

 squeeze and one to twist the strainer. Now set the 

 chair at one end of the boiler, just a little to one 

 side; set the pan to catch the wax, close by the side 

 of the boiler. Let the one who does the squeezing 

 sit down in the chair. The other person takes the 

 strainer, and stands at the other side of the pan, 

 with two corners of the strainer in one hand and the 

 3d corner of the strainer in his other hand. The one 

 sitting takes the fourth corner of the strainer in his 

 left hand, and together they hold the strainer open 

 o^'er the pan. The one in the chair takes the dipper 

 in his right hand, and dips out of the boiler into the 

 strainer one or two quarts, then hands his corner of 

 the strainer to the other person and picks up his 

 squeezers, taking them by the two handles. He 

 then opens them out, holding them over the pan. 

 The other person then puts the strainer between 

 the squeezers, and twists up the strainer while the 

 other man, the one in the chair, squeezes. The 

 strainer is turned two or three times, shaken down, 

 squeezed, and twisted until the wax is out, and the 

 rubbish is thrown out. The whole operation is again 

 repeated until all that floats on the water is strain- 

 ed. Both pan and boiler are allowed to stand and 

 cool, when there will be a thin cake of wax on the 



