1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1313 



General 

 Correspondence 



EXTENSIVE WAX-RENDERING. 



Buying the Combs from Dead Colonies to 



Render for Wax; the Manley 



Wax-press. 



BV E. D. TOWNSEND. 



Two familiar figures at our State convention 

 for the last few years are the Manley brothers, of 

 Sandusky, Sanilac Co., Michigan. They are the 

 parties who apparently turn failure into success; 

 and I think I can not do better than to tell of some 

 of their experiences as they have told it at our State 

 conventions; then the reader will better under- 

 stand what I have to say about their wax-press 

 and method of rendering wax, and how they se- 

 cure the material. 



Sanilac County is low, level, and very fertile, 

 quite a considerable portion of it being on the 

 swampy order. Years ago, when the country was 

 new, it was swept with forest fires until there was 

 not much of the natural forest left. Later, in this 

 burned district came clover, willow, and asters — 

 the latter, sometimes, in a favorable season, yield- 

 ing a large quantity of surplus honey. This as- 

 ter honey is what makes the trouble, for during 

 the winter after a season when the asters yield 

 honey, nearly every colony of bees in this locali- 

 ty dies, sometimes only two or three colonies be- 

 ing left out of a yard of between 100 and 200. 



A little incident illustrating how much confi- 

 dence the bee-keepers in this location have in 

 their ability to winter bees came out at our State 

 convention at Saginaw last fall. A bee-keeper of 

 this district having a yard of about 100 colonies, 

 sold the lot for an average price of $1.12/^ per 

 colony. This price was based on the value of the 

 hives, combs, and honey, the bees not being con- 

 sidered, as they die early in the winter. Whole 

 yards are often dead in February, and the honey 

 left amounts to considerable. 



The Manley brothers are farmer bee-keepers, 

 and after the winter loss they scour the country 

 for miles around, picking up wax material. They 

 pay about 25 cents a set for the combs, and some- 

 thing also for the honey. A galvanized steel 

 tank is taken along, as well as some large boxes. 

 The empty combs are cut out into the boxes, and 

 the honey-combs into the tank. This honey is 

 afterward melted and strained, and sold to the 

 bakeries. In this way they have no trouble in 

 buying nearly every lot they come to, for most 

 of these combs would be left to the moths, and 

 the owner would receive nothing for them. 



At our State conventions in years back the 

 Manleys have been asking for instructions to 

 make a wax-prtss that would render wax econom- 

 ically, as they were in the wax business exten- 

 sively, and could not tolerate the slow-working 

 presses on the market. They had tried the plan 

 of working several presses at a time, which help- 



ed matters somewhat; but they were not satisfied, 

 as they wanted something that would handle a 

 large quantity of old combs, but there did not 

 seem to be any. At our last convention at Sagi- 

 naw, Mr. W. J. Manley reported very good suc- 

 cess with a press which they had gotten up; by 

 request he describes it here: 



There is nothing original about this press as I stated at Sagi- 

 naw. It is a sort of combination of the Hatch, Root, and Her- 

 shiser ideas, and the press is only one feature of the process. 

 However, 1 have experimented extensively, and it is the best 

 thing I have found yet. I rendered over 1500 lbs. of wax with 

 it last spring, and was very much pleased with it. It is not per- 

 fection; but I can take the oldest, blackest brood-combs and turn 

 out 20 to 25 lbs. of fairly good wax per hour, and make a thor- 

 ough job of it too. 



The press is a built-over Root-German — in fact, it is all Root- 

 German except the can. The new can is built of heavy galvan- 

 ized steel, is 15 inches in diameter, and 18 inches high. Two 

 inches from the bottom a spider is riveted, for the perforated bas- 

 ket which contains the combs to rest upon. This arrangement 

 provides for plenty of water to circulate under the cheese, on the 

 Hershiser principle of the washing-out of the wax, as will be ex- 

 plained later. We transferred the Root screw and plunger, with 

 oak cross-arm, into our press, and also the perforated iron basket. 

 We had to reinforce the follower with a plate of iron on top to 

 keep the wood from warping; also the oak cross-arm, to keep it 

 from springing. We had trouble until we did this. The two 

 lugs were riveted to the top rim of the tank for the burrs on the 

 cross-arm bolts to slip under, as on the Root-German. 



A large-mouthed sack, like a potato-bag, is the best thing we 

 have found to hold the combs, when the top is cut off to the de- 

 sired length. The combs can be more securely held than in a 

 square piece of burlap, especially when they are being submerg- 

 ed. Besides, it does not require so many square feet of burlap, 

 which is important. We press only one cheese at a time. As 

 we use two boilers we do not attempt to melt all the combs that 

 could be melted in each one, but simply fill each boiler in its 

 turn with dry combs tramped in moderately tight. If the combs 

 are old, hard, and black, we find about two eight-frame Lang- 

 stroth brood-chambers furnish enough material for a batch; if 

 only moderately so, four or five sets of combs can be run in a 

 batch. 



We then pour in water until it comes up two-thirds of the way 

 in the boiler. This will all go into the press nicely in one batch, 

 2iaA furnish plenty of water 10 make a thorough job of it. The 

 contents of the boiler are kept stirred, and, when melted, are 

 dipped and poured into the sack previously arranged in the press. 

 The top of the sack should be straightened up, and held in this 

 position until the free wax and water work out into the press- 

 can; then the top of the sack is rolled or folded down, the plung- 

 er put in, and pressure applied. In handling the hot sack gloves 

 are worn. 



In the washing-out process we raise the plunger usually twice 

 by unscrewing it a little and allowing time for the slumgum to 

 become saturated with water; then screw down again. This 

 part of the process does not take more than ten minutes; for where 

 there is only one cheese, and that not over one inch thick at the 

 most, the wax can escape readily into the water in every direc- 

 tion as pressure is applied, and the work is soon done. We have 

 never tried more than one cheese in this press; it is too slow and 

 fussy. We have tried putting the slumgum through the second 

 time, but it does not pay since using this press. 



When throrgh pressing, while the plunger is still screwed 

 down tight, the hot water and wax in the press are emptied into 

 a wash-tub provided for the purpose. We use but one tub for 

 this purpose, and also use this same hot water for the next batch. 

 There is a little knack in cooling the inch or so of wax that is 

 on top of the water in the tub, without cooling the water under- 

 neath to any great extent. It is accomplished by splashing on 

 cold water in sheers, thus causing the wax on top of the water to 

 congeal, so it can be removed immediately. This is very quick- 

 ly done with a common ten-cent sieve dipper, such as house- 

 keepers use for straining soups. Repeating this operation every 

 few minutes in such a thorough manner constitutes the chief 

 merit of this system; thereby we can turn out a large quantity of 

 wax of good grade, in a short time. We have rendered in the 

 last four years neatly 10,000 lbs., but we have used this press 

 during only a part of the last season, and have rendered out about 

 1500 lbs. with it. An eight-frame Langstroth brood-chamber 

 yields with us about 2Y> lbs. of wax on a general average, and 

 extracting-combs from 2M to 3 lbs. 



We have spent considerable money and time experimenting 

 on the wax-rendering proposition; and this plan of melting the 

 combs in boilers, and turning every thing out into a press that is 

 operated a few feet from the heat of the stove, and down where 

 we can get at it to work, is the most thorough and expeditious of 

 any thing we have found yet. We use the tank of the Root press 

 to remelt this wax, ind get it in shape to mold. Our stove is 

 large enough to hold the two boilers and this Root tank all to- 

 gether; and as soon as we get a 5 gallon can (with top cut out) 



