JUNE 1, 1916 



445 



wax. Excluders would have to be used, and 

 it would bf best only to half empty a super 

 at one taking, alternating the combs. 



To feed back honey in Miller feeders, and 

 produce wax only, would not be necessary 

 for me, as I am close to railway facilities; 

 but if I were located where nothing could 

 reach me but pack mules, then I certainly 

 would produce wax only. 



Honey nets us 4 cents per lb., and wax 

 26 cents. It takes the bees an average of 

 six pounds of honey to produce one of wax 

 — a gain of 2 cents. Combine this with the 

 low cost of production less risk of thief, 

 cheaper hauling, warehousing, freight, it 

 ought to pay at present prices. 



Heber, Cal. 



COLLECTION AND 



EXPORTATION OF THE WAX OF WILD BEES IN 

 AFRICAN COLONIES 



BY A. S. ASHTON 



Michel E. (Agricultural Engineer at the Ministry of the Colonies), in Bulletin Agricole dv Congo Beige, 

 Vol. v., No. '2, pp. 385-395, Brussels, June, 1914. 



This paper contains information on the weighing 253 to 264 lbs. each. The quanti- 



wild-bee hongy in the African colonies, a ties of wax exported the last few years 



description of the native methods of bee- from German East Africa and from the 



keeping in the Belgian Congo, in the Sou- British African colonies are given by the 



dan, and in Tunis, and of the improved following table: 

 methods of separating wax (melting by so- w^^h°\h°^^v^f 



lar heat, in a stove, in boiling water). German East Africa IQll 802t347 $197,175 



The trade in wild beeswax is constantly Gambia 1912 19,498 5,602 



, ^ ,, . n • , ■ "^ Nigeria 1912 12,862 1,875 



increasing in most or the African colonies, Uganda 1912-1913 263,408 



especially in Gambia, Gold Coast, Nigeria, British East Africa. .1912-1913 139,207 36,630 



o J -Vt j t> -i- 1 -n i. a ^ • n Ivyasaland 1912-1913 110,609 26,675 



boudan, Uganda, British East Africa, Ger- soudan 1912 43,704 ii,585 



man East Africa, Mozambique. A few wild beeswax, when well purified, is com- 



years ago the exportation of wax from parable to European wax. The Central 



these countries was insignificant, while now Administration of the Belgian Congo had 



it amounts to many tons. Wax occupies gome samples of wax from the Colony ex- 



the third place in the export trade of An- amined, and among them many of good 



gola (Benguela supplying 90 per cent of quality were found. Bees are widely spread 



the exports of the whole province). Angola i^ the Belgian Congo. The natives extract 



exports every year 600 to 700 tons of wax ; honey, but do not make any use of the wax, 



Mozambique about 100; PortugTiese Guin- the value of which is unknown to them, 

 ea, oO. The wax is exported m cakes Beauharnois, Quebec, Can. 



NIX ON THE SOLAR 



BY W. J. OATES 



T consider the solar wax-extractor the 

 biggest nuisance in the apiary. In the first 

 place, it does not put either the wax or 

 honey in merchantable shape; next, in out- 

 yards, where the cappings are left to melt 

 out, and you are not there for ten days, 

 they condense all the moisture in the atmos- 

 phere, and your honey is sour. Then it's 

 one of the stickiest messes to clean that ever 

 was. 



The cost of glass is a big item, unless 

 everybody else plays in better luck than 

 myself. What the carelessness of the help, 

 and wind, and mischievous boj^s, etc., all 

 thru the experience of 20 years they* are 

 by far the most expensive thing to keep up 

 connected with beekeeping when one figures 

 the usefulness of them. P>ut away and 



above all the foregoing objections is the 

 fact that they are the worst disseminators 

 of disease we have. In my duties as inspec- 

 tor I can trace the loss of hundreds of 

 colonies to the solar extractor. Combs full 

 of disease thrown in them are afterward 

 scooped out and put in a box or thrown 

 around any way, so that everybody's bees 

 can help themselves. Over 90 per cent of 

 the solar wax-extractors that I have come 

 in contact with are either leaky or so ill 

 fitting from the moths that bees can get in 

 and perish by the thousand. 



A German wax-press costs l^-* little, and 

 it is tlie finest place for scraps (here is, and 

 when it is full one can squeeze out the hon- 

 ey in no time; and it is good and not dis- 

 colored, or half water, as when left in a 



