12 BEES- WAX AND ITS ECONOMICAL USES. 



WAX EXTRACTION. 



By the invention of the moveable comb hive 'and 

 honey extractor the production of wax has sunk to the 

 minimum. The bee-keeper who uses moveable comb, 

 hives only allows his bees to build such combs as may 

 be required for brood and honey. The combs designed 

 for the latter never wear out, and can be used not only 

 ten, twenty, or fifty, but even fifty plus fifty years and 

 more, as the damage caused by the extracting is always 

 repaired by the bees. Brood-comb, on the contrary, must 

 from time to time be melted down and replaced by new. 



An apiary of twenty to thirty frame hives will only 



FIG. 5. Solar Wax-extractor. 



yield very small quantities of wax. It is therefore all 

 the more necessary carefully to collect all refuse wax 

 in order to melt it down. The most suitable apparatus 

 for this is the solar wax-extractor, which consists of a 

 little wooden box with a moveable glass cover (see 

 Fig. 5). Inside there is an inclined sheet of tin (marked 

 by dotted lines), upon which the combs to be melted are 

 laid. 



If the extractor is placed in a very sunny place the 

 wax melts and flows into the little tin trough, which is 

 placed under the tin plate at i in illustration. The refuse 

 remaining is taken away when the molten wax ceases 

 to flow. 



Those who wish to melt small quantities of wax with- 

 out an extractor should put them in a loose bag, place a 

 few laths in a copper, so that the bag shall not touch 



