1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



257 



complyiuy witb all the conditions necessary for re- 

 ducing' to the minimum the iicoumulation of this 

 refuse matter, which seems to be the objective 

 point of most efforts at present. But I think the 

 lack of ventilation is a potent cause of over-eon- 

 sumption of stores, and consequent accumulation 

 of fecal matter. 



We have also reason io believe that, with perfect 

 ventilation and a high temperature in th3 hive, 

 which can be combined only by the house-apiary 

 principle, a large ]>er cent of the refuse matter will 

 be discharged through the air that would otherwise 

 clog the intestines. There are objections to the 

 house-apiary as described in the article referred to. 

 It takes an odd-sized frame, which is intolerable. 

 The hives are immovable, and it is difficult to get 

 all the bees out of a hive when desired. The bees 

 and queen arc liable to get into the wrong hive. 

 The house has no floor, only the ground. As for 

 bees getting out in the house, I do not consider 

 that an objection, as I have had no such trouble. 

 I would hardly advise any one now to build a house 

 just like this. 



The details of just what I would advise I will re- 

 serve until I have had a little more experience. 



Before closing I wish to thank you kindly, Mr. 

 Editor, for j'our kind words on page 90, and else- 

 where, from time to time. Such recognitions are 

 incentives to improvement. 



10— Oliver Foster, 250— 2C6. 



Mt. Vernon, Iowa, Mar. 4, 1886. 



THE SOLAR "WAX-EXTRACTOR, AND 

 HOW TO MAKE IT. 



FRIEND GREEN GIVES DIRECTIONS FOR ARRANG- 

 ING ONE IN A SIMPLICITY HIVE. 



XtFOU seem to be the natural friend of the small 

 1^^ bee-keeper. Now, yoj can furnish this class 

 ^Ib ^'^'^ solar wax-extractors at a very moder- 

 ■^ ate price. Most of your disciples have the 

 Simplicity hive. To transform this into a 

 wax-extractor, make a sash for glass that will fit on 

 the top of a Simplicity. You can furnish these 

 sashes either with or without glass. Furnish with 

 them a sheet of perforated metal about 13 x IT, and 

 n sheet of tin 11!4 x 18'. 2 ; also, if ycu like, a dripping- 

 Ijan about 13 x 17. 



The buyer of one of these outfits has only to place 

 a Simplicity hive on a tight bottom-board; place the 

 pan inside, blocking it up until its top is about three 

 inches below the top of the hive; lay the sheet of 

 perforated metal on this; put on the sash; put the 

 sheet of tin in the cover for a reflector; hinge hive, 

 sash, and cover together temporarily, and he has a 

 wax-extractor which can be turned back into a 

 hive at any time when so desired. On hot days no 

 reflector will be needed, S) that all it would be 

 really necessary to buy would be the sash and sheet 

 of perforated metal— any pan that will go inside of 

 a hive answering the purpose. 



I have no doubt that, if you will get up outfits of 

 this kind, j-ou will sell hundreds of them, make bee- 

 keepers happy, and make a good thing out of it 

 yourself. I would go into the business myself, 

 only, as I said before, it would bo useless to com- 

 pete with your facilities. Even if I could make 

 them as well and cheaply as you could, you could 

 sell a great many more than I could, do moi-e good, 

 and make more money. 



In use it is to bo placed on the south side of a 

 building, and the cover leaned against it at the 

 proper angle. If much wax is to be melted, time 

 will be saved by turning it a little, several times a 

 day, so as to face the sun; also that, if any one 

 wants to run the honey and wax into the honej^- 

 house, all he will have to do is to bore a hole 

 through the corner of the case and run a trough 

 from the tube in the tin pan, through into a recep- 

 tacle in the honey-house. Where there is much 

 honey in the comb to be melted, as where a large 

 quantit3' of cappings is to be rendered, this is the 

 better way, as the honey becomes overheated and 

 injured by being left iu the extractor long. 



In regai-d to the use of a double-glass covering, 

 some seem to think that its purpose is to "draw," 

 "gather," or "attract" the heat of the sun, just as 

 some persons say that a piece of metal or any thing 

 of a dark color "draws the sun." This language, 

 of course, is erroneous. A double glass attracts no 

 more of the sun's rays than a single glass or no 

 glass at all. The purpose of the double glass is to 

 prevent the escape of the heat that is within the 

 extractor. 



It is a curious fact, that glass, while permitting 

 luminous heat-rays, such as those in sunlight, to 

 pass through it quite freeli% is almost impervious 

 to rays of heat radiating from any dark source. 

 The radiant heat of the sun, passing through the 

 glass of the solar extractor, is absorbed by the 

 beeswax, and changed into sensible heat, in which 

 form it can not escape by radiation the way it got 

 in. It might be carried out by conduction, but 

 glass is fi very poor conductor. Dry air is one of 

 the pcorest of conductors. A sheet of dry air, in- 

 closed between two sheets of glass, forms a very 

 perfect non conductor. Wc might compare this ar- 

 rangement to some kinds of traps. The heat of the 

 sun finds its way in easily enough, but it can not 

 get out again. A single sheet of glass will conduct 

 the heat off a great deal more readily than two. 

 In very hot weather I have made beeswax simply 

 by placing the comb on a sloping board in the sun, 

 without the aid of glass to confine the heat or re- 

 flectors to increase it, so I have no hesitation in 

 saying that a single sheet of.'glass will do very well 

 during most of the summer. A double-glass ex- 

 tractor, though, will melt wax [faster, ordinarily, 

 thus having a greater capacity, and it can be used 

 at many times when^a single-glass extractor would 

 not work. J- A. Green. 



Dayton, 111., Feb. 9, 1880. 



After the wax-extractor sent us by friend 

 Green was received and tested, we turned it 

 over to the foreman of our saw-room, and he 

 shortly gave us one as shown in tlie drawing 

 below. 



SCALAR wax-extractor AS DEVISED >BY FRIEND 

 GREEN. 



Til is wax-extractor is made exactly the 

 size of the Simplicity hive. A pane of glass 



