706 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Conversations with Doolittle 



At BorffDdiinifl), New York. 



SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTORS. 



" Doolittle, I came over to have 

 a talk about solar wax-extractors."' 

 '•Very good, Jones. The solar- 

 wax extractor is something every 

 man keeping bees should have, 

 even though he has as few as five 

 colonies." 



" But T am told that it is comparatively 

 worthless for melting up old combs." 



" The man who has old combs by the 

 hundred to melt up could doubtless make it 

 pay to employ the water or steam pi'oeess; 

 but for the oixlinary collection from an 

 apiary of from fifty to one hundred colo- 

 nies, the solar Avax-extractor will take care 

 of all the accumulation during each year. 

 From such aj^iaries no great number of old 

 combs can be i^rofitably spared to render 

 into wax." 



" But I do not tliink I get fifty per cent 

 of the wax from old combs." 



" Do you do more than put in the ohl 

 combs and allow the sun to melt them? " 



" No. What more can any one do? "' 



" As soon as the sun has heated these old 

 combs so that the wax will run out from 

 those at the bottom of the pile, take a wood- 

 en jiaddle and press the refuse against the 

 side of the comb-pan where the rays of the 

 sun strike the ?nost squarely. You will see 

 the wax run as you never saw it before if 

 you have never done this." 



''What shape is your paddle?" 



" The paddle itself should be about six 

 inches .square, with a handle tAvo inches 

 wide. T made mine out of half-inch stuff, 

 i-Qunding the side used for pressing out the 

 wax so that it somewhat conformed to the 

 concave side of the comb-pan. With such 

 a paddle, used with a rocking motion, three 

 ur four times an hour or so apart as you 

 are passing the extractor, 95 to 98 per cent 

 of the wax any comb contains can be gotten 

 ont unless the comb contains so much dry 

 ])ollen that it absorbs the wax as it is melt- 

 ed. The only way to get wax from combs 

 largely filled with pollen in quantities that 

 will pay is by the water process." 



'■' But don't the wax and dirt all mix 

 together when coming from the solar wax- 

 extractor?" 



'' That dei)eii(ls somewhat on how the 

 extractor is buill. Tf so small that it allows 

 the wax. as it drips from the comb-pan in 

 your extractor, to cool and harden as it 

 drips, more or lass dirt and dregs will come 

 off and be mixed all through the wax, and 



melting over for purifying in such an ex- 

 ti'aetor is only doing over again the same 

 jH-ocess with the same results." 



" How can the purifying be done then? " 

 " By making the extractor large enough 

 so that it will allow the dish which receives 

 ihe melted wax from the comb-pan to be 

 in the sun under the glass, which keeps it 

 in a melted condition for hours. AVax is 

 purified by allowing it to remain for sev- 

 eral hours at a temperature between its 

 melting and boiling points, thus giving a 

 chance for all impurities to settle to the 

 bottom. This is exactly what can be done 

 in the sun extractor just as easily as not to 

 do it; and by using this extractor in any 

 othei- Avay deprives it of half the benefit to 

 be obtained in using it." 



'• But will all the dirt and dregs settle to 

 the bottom where wax is kept melted for 

 half a day?" 



" To overcome all this dreg's and dirt 

 matter I punch two holes near the outlet of 

 the com.b-pan on either side, and, by mean.s 

 of a wire suitably bent, hang a small strain- 

 er made of cheese-cloth or some other suit- 

 able fabric so that the hot wax is strained 

 as it passes from the comb-pan to the dish 

 leceiving it below. As both the strainer 

 and the receiving-dish are in the sun all the 

 while, the wax is so thin that a fabric can 

 be used that will take out all but the very 

 (hiest of the dirt." 



" How do you keep the dreg« from flow- 

 ing down with the wax from the comb-pan 

 into the strainer? The incline of the comb- 

 pan would carj-y all along together." 



" About two inches above the outlet of 

 the comb-pan two other holes are made, one 

 on either side of the center, into which go 

 two wires to Avhich is soldered a piece of 

 quarter-inch-mesh wire cloth. This wire 

 cloth is fitted at the bottom to conform to 

 the concave of the pan. This arrests in its 

 riow toward the sti'ainor all but the wax ami 

 t he finest of the dirt." 



"What is used for a receiving-dish?"' 

 " After doing some figuring I got our 

 tinsmith to make some oblong square tins 

 which hold two pounds of wax, when the 

 incited article came within a quarter of an 

 inch of the top; and when the proper 

 amount was in, the cover was shut over the 

 glass till the wax was cold, when it would 

 come out in a brick form suitable for a 

 fancy market. In this Avay it could be 

 packed in a proper-sized box and shipped 

 in jierfect condition to any market." 



