JVNE 1, 1916 



A RACE BETWEEN HONEY AND WAX 



BY A. J. WRIGHT 



Possibly some of my experiments may be 

 (if interest along the line of wax production 

 in the season of 1912, the best season witli 

 rae for the i^roduetion of honey in this 

 locality for several years. I selected two 

 strong colonies, one intended for wax pro- 

 duction only, and the other for honey. Both 

 colonies were veiy strong. I may say that 

 the colony selected for wax in previous sea- 

 sons had shown a marked proclivity for 

 depositing wax in every available place in- 

 side the hive, and giving a comparatively 

 small surplus of honey. The colony select- 

 ed for honey production showed opposite 

 traits in a marked degree, everything being 

 clean and neat, and the honey going where 

 it should. Having decided to let the '"'ax 

 colony have its own head, I also decided to 

 ]jut it in financial competition with the 

 honey colony referred to. 



About .June 1, when white clover began 

 to appear, I put on the wax colony an 

 eight-frame hive-body, the same as the low- 

 er hive, without a queen-excluder : The up- 

 per hive contained eleven boards, the same 

 dimensions as the regular frames, but only 

 half an inch thick. The hive was leveled, 

 and the half-inch boards had a wire nail 

 driven in each opposite end, near the top to 

 rest on the tin rabbets. Xo spacers Avere 

 used, the boards being spaced by guess Vo 

 inch apart. A ^.^-ineh strip was tacked on 

 the top of the upper hive to give wax space 

 under the cover. A similar hive-body was 

 prepared and set aside to be used later on. 

 A single frame of broo'd in various stages 

 of development was taken from below and 

 placed above (removing two of the boards 

 for the purpose). I was careful to leave 

 the queen below. This brood was for the 

 sole purpos? of inducing the bees to go 

 above. Altho no excluder was used, yet the 

 queen was never found above thru any of 

 the manipulation that followed. The caji- 

 pings of all honey below for two inches or 

 more below the top-bar were broken by 

 passing a knife flatwise over them but not 

 enough to make the cells leak. Before the 

 wax-boards were placed in the upper story 

 each board was painted with a thin coating 

 of hot wax, both sides. The following out- 

 fit I found necessary: A knife with blade 

 long enough to reach to bottom of the hive, 

 and turned up at the end like a miniature 

 hoe, and a scraper. The knife was used to 

 scrape the wax from the wall of the hive 

 by an upward motion, and the scraper to 

 remove the wax from the top of the frames 



in lire lower hive, from the under side of 

 (he cover, and from the wax-boards in the 

 upper story. I used a wooden device to 

 remove the wax from between the frames 

 below. The small end, which was V/(i inehas 

 long, was inserted between the top-bars, 

 and a downward motion on the handle rais- 

 ed the wax to the top of the frames. In 

 addition to the above there should be a pan 

 long enough to allow one of the wax-bearers 

 to stand on end. and of sufficient width and 

 depth to hold the comb or wax scraped off. 

 Everything being ready, developments 

 were watched with interest. The honey-flow 

 was noAV on in earnest, and in three days' 

 time the cover was removed, and wax in a 

 limited amount was found in patches be- 

 tween the cover and top of wax-boards. 

 One of the wax-boards was removed, and 

 spurs of wax or comb were built out from 

 the sides of the board and the adjoining 

 one, and also from the sides of the hive, but 

 I decided not to remove any at this time. 

 Four days later I deci.ded to remove what 

 there might be anyway. I undertook to re- 

 move the cover; but in doing so I snapped 

 off the blade of a new knife. I then insert- 

 ed a hive-tool, and, removing the cover, I 

 found parallel ridges of wax following the 

 tops of the wax-boards and the top of the 

 frame. I then removed the upper stoi-y en- 

 tire, and put the one prepared as mention- 

 ed above in its place, first removing with 

 the wooden device all wax from between 

 the top-bars of the lower hive, and with the 

 scraper all wax on top of said (op-bars. I 

 then removed each wax-board and shook the 

 bees on to the wax-boards in the upper 

 story; tlien the end of each wax-board was 

 placed in the pan, and with a downward 

 motion of the scraper the wax was removed 

 from each side of the wax-board, and so for 

 each one, but leaving a coating of wax on 

 each board as a foundation for future work. 

 The frame of brood was now returned to 

 the lower hive after carefully assuring my- 

 self that no queen-cells had been started. 

 T weighed the comb gathered, and found I 

 had 12 ounces before rendering. The fol- 

 lowing week I took 18 ounces, and after 

 that T removed the wax every four days 

 during the honey-flow. The largest yield 

 in eight days was 1% pounds. The total 

 amount of wax received from this colony 

 after rendering was 16 pounds. This, at .32 

 cts., made tlie gross receipts $5.12. The 

 colony set aside for comb honey gave a sur- 

 plus of 152 lbs., at 15 cts. per pound for 



