1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



399 



CAPPING-MELTERS. 



How to Separate the Melted Wax and Hon- 

 ey Successfully. 



BY H. H. ROOT. 



The time has come when the extracting- 

 rooms of a large number of the prominent 

 bee-keepers are e(iuii)|)ed with capping- 

 melters of some form or other. The univer- 

 sal interest in tliis method of disposing of the 

 capnings shows how valuable and how prac- 

 tical the plan is. There are many different 

 slia|)es and constructions of capping-melters 

 in use; but it is not the purpose of this arti- 

 cle to discuss the construction of capping- 

 melters, but to consider separating the hon- 

 ey and wax that run from tnem. 



Some bee-keepers make no attempt at 

 separating the two liquids, but simply run 

 both of tnem into a pail or can; and when 

 this can is full they set it aside and put an 

 empty one in its place. This process is kept 

 u|) until the work is finished, and by the 



next 'day tlie melted wax will have hardened 

 so that it may be lifted from the honey in a 

 solid cake, which cake needs only scraping 

 on the bottom to be marketable. While this 

 plan has its advantages, it requires quite a 

 large number of cans, which, of course, take 

 up considerable room, and necessitate much 

 heavy lifting. 



The Aikin honey and wax separator de- 

 scribed in the Jan. 15th issue of Gleanings 

 for 1902 was the first practical separator, we 

 believe, to be shown; and the principle made 

 use of in this separator is the one used by 

 the majority of bee-keepers to-day for sepa- 

 rating honey and wax. The wax is lighter 

 than the honey, and floats on the top of it. 

 A gate, therefore, at the bottom of a can 

 containing melted wax and honey will draw 

 off the honey only, while a gate at the top, 

 or near the top, will draw off the wax. 

 Practically the only difficulty that we have 

 encountered with the Aikin separator is that 

 the wax tends to chill unless tnere is a very 

 large amount of wax and honey running into 

 the can constantly, or unless the room where 



CAl'PING-MELTER, HONEY AND WAX SEPARATOR, AND HONEY-STRAINER. 

 The melted wax and honey run directly from the melter into the separator. The wax remains in the sep- 

 arator, and the honey flows on into the strainer, and from thence into the five-gallon can. 



