810 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



Shake the frames having short top- bars? 

 Why, no. I did not know that I had failed 

 to answer your question on this point. Just 

 the other day I was at one of our outyards, 

 and observed that I found it most conven- 

 ient to hold the Hoffman frame by the end- 

 bar instead of by the top- bar. By giving it 

 a quick shake all the bees can be dislodged, 

 and the widened projection of the Hoffman 

 end- bar gives a splendid hold. 



If an extracting carrier- box is used, 

 frames can be stood end bars up, and con- 

 veyed to the extracting- house, when they 

 will be the right way up to be handled by 

 the one who does the uncapping, thus sav- 

 ing the quarter twist. 



But I have shaken many frames by the 

 top-bars; and it is the most natural thing 

 for me to grab between the end-bars, and I 

 do not need to jab into the honey either. If 

 the bar3 are i in. thick there is plenty of 

 finger room. 



After all, this is a matter of getting used 

 to a thing. Why, these fellows who have 

 always used closed-end frames having no 

 projecting ears to the top bars are compel- 

 led to grab the frames in the manner I have 

 described, and they wouldn't shake by the 

 bars even if they had them.— Ed.] 



WAX-RENDERING. 



How to Manage Large Quantities; a Bee-cave. 



BY ISAAC BARBER. 



I have about one ton of slumgum. Some 

 of this is nearly as heavy as wax, and some 

 has but little wax in it. I bought out a 

 large apiary, and I find barrels and boxes 

 filled with this wax refuse. Some of the 

 chunks are quite large, smooth, and hard. 

 I think the wax has been rendered out in 

 barrels by the use of a steam feed- cooker. 

 I should like to know the best way to get 

 the wax out of this, if you will kmdly m- 

 form me. I have a good steam feed- cooker 

 and two German wax-presses, plenty of bar- 

 rels, tubs, and pans for holding wax. 



We have some beeswax that we tried to 

 refine. We put water and sulphuric acid 

 and beeswax in a barrel. The hired man 

 turned on the steam and boiled it for quite 

 a while. When it cooled it was about like 

 thick meal mush. Now, what can be done 

 with it to make it marketable? 



We have a cave in a dry clay bank about 

 ten feet deep, eight wide, twenty four long; 

 a ventilating- tube four inches square and 

 sixteen feet long, in the back end of it. It 

 reaches to within two feet of the bottom of 

 the cave, and straight out at the top; double 

 doors to the cave. We have 115 colonies of 

 bees in this cave. The thermometer stands 

 at 52 Will it be safe to leave them at this 

 temperature? There is no roaring of the 

 bees, but they are still and quiet. I have 

 kept the ventilator closed except a day or 

 two. and I thought they were not quite as 

 still near the ventilator as at the other end 

 of the cave. I am afraid of venlilating- 



tubes, as I lost quite a number of colonies 

 that sat next to them years ago. This is a 

 large apiary I have just bought out, the 

 owner having died. I know he has wintered 

 bees successfully in this cellar for years; 

 but I don't know whether he gave them ven- 

 tilation or not. He told me that something 

 dug some holes at one end of the cellar, and 

 that quite a number of swarms died that re- 

 ceived direct ventilation from those holes. 

 From the experience of this man I am sat- 

 isfied that bees can be successfully wintered 

 in this cellar; but I don't know as to the 

 ventilation. 



Rodney, Iowa. 



[The method which you followed in refin- 

 ing your wax was not quite correct. You 

 should first put your cakes of beeswax into 

 a tank or kettle containing a little water, 

 and then boil the water until the wax is 

 pretty well melted, and then keep the wax 

 at a temperature near the boiling-point un- 

 til you are sure that all is reduced to a liquid 

 condition; then add your dilute sulphuric 

 acid, and be sure that you do not add too 

 much. The wax which you had left from 

 your attempt at refining was evidently what 

 we call "water-soaked," as you say it was 

 in fine particles resembling mush. You 

 should heat this up in a tank containing no 

 water; and in doing this be very careful 

 that you do not burn the wax. In this way 

 you can reduce it to a firm solid cake. If it 

 is now clean it is ready for market; but if 

 not you should treat it in the manner de- 

 scribed above. 



In reference to a method of rendering wax 

 from a great quantity of slumgum, if this 

 ton of slumgum which you say you have 

 contains chunks very rich in wax — that is, 

 if parts of this mass of slumgum had been 

 partially rendered — I believe your best way 

 would be to pick out these chunks of wax 

 and melt tht m up separately. If I am right 

 in understanding that this is the case, I 

 would suggest that you follow the method I 

 have just described, and then strain out the 

 impurities. This will save running the rich- 

 er portions of the slumgum all through the 

 press. You could take these strainings and 

 press them — an operation which would, of 

 course, take but little time. The rest of 

 the slumgum you would probably have to 

 run through the press in order to get prac 

 tically all the wax. I would suggest that 

 you follow th^ plan given in the directions 

 which we are now sending out with the 

 presses. You will see that we recommend 

 melting up the slumgum in another kettle 

 or boiler when a large quantity is to be ren- 

 dered, and then dipping this melted mass 

 into burlap bags and pressing three of these 

 bags at a time by the use of our cleated di- 

 vision-boards. 



In reference to the cave in which you 

 have placed 115 colonies of bees, I will say 

 that, in my opinion, a temperature of 50 de- 

 grees is rather high, and I should suppose 

 that you would need to use a ventilator. As 

 long as the bees are quiet, however, you can 

 be pretty sure that they will come through 



