878 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



second one, after turning the filled sack over 

 and shaking it up, about all the wax that it 

 was possible to obtain was thus obtained. 

 Various little kinks, valuable ones, were 

 given at different times by different ones; 

 as, for example, to " heat the press by pour- 

 ing hot water over it before using the press;" 

 to "mix cut straw and chaff with the broken- 

 up comb to make the mass of molten comb 

 more porous," etc. 



Various presses have been described and 

 illustrated for the benefit of the public, some 

 of a very primitive nature, others more 

 elaborate. We have ' ' made beeswax ' ' time 

 and again by this very method. 



Another way suggested itself to the never 

 resting mind of the bee-keepers. It was an 

 improvment over the other in so far as it did 

 away with the pressing— a feature which 

 never took well with the average bee-man 

 or woman. The plan consisted of breaking 

 up the old combs and placing them in a bag, 

 then immersing the whole in a kettle filled 

 with enough water to cover the bag, placing 

 a stone upon it to keep it down. The oozing- 

 out wax was dipped off or allowed to cool 

 without first removing it. I have followed 

 a similar course by fitting a cloth- covered 

 hoop inside of a large iron kettle about one- 

 third the way down. The melted wax, 

 through the boiling process, and being light- 

 er than water, was forced through the cloth 

 the same as in case of filling a bag with old 

 comb. It obviated the weigthing-down of 

 the mass with a weight. Still I had consid- 

 erable trouble to keep the hoop where it be- 

 longed. The wax obtained was of a bright 

 color, although made in a common cast-iron 

 kettle. 



An engineer bee-keeper in Germany melts 

 the comb by allowing a jet of steam to play 

 upon the mass in the bag and catching the 

 dripping wax in a pail of water. 



The reason the above- described methods 

 have been practiced so extensively, 1 could 

 almost say exclusively, is obvious. The pro- 

 duction of wax has always been of minor 

 importance. The large majority of bee- 

 keepers conducted the bee-business on a 

 small scale. Bee-keepers could not well af- 

 ford to have elaborate and costly machinery 

 to "make" a few pounds of wax. This is 

 especially true of the European continent. 

 There are a large number of small bee-keep- 

 ers, and they mast use any old thing to ren- 

 der their old combs in that comes handy, and 

 we find their primitive methods of rendering 

 combs into wax described in a thousand dif- 

 ferent places, none of them differing much 

 from another. I have just looked over the 

 bee- journals printed in Germany from 1901 

 to 1905, and I find the question not discussed 

 as to "how much wax may remain in the 

 slumgum," but a number of different wax- 

 extractors have come into existence during 

 this period and just previous. It seems the 

 bee-keepers were not satisfied with the old 

 and bungling ways of former times for ob- 

 taining wax. It has always bpen an annoy- 

 ance to me and to many others that we found 

 particles of wax in the slumgum, that the 



cloths used in the presses were coated with 

 the yellow costly material, etc. So the ef- 

 forts of certain more progressive and busi- 

 ness-like men to give us a better and simple 

 method, or at least better tools to produce 

 our wax, were appreciated, and the successes 

 or partial successes welcomed. 



The first of these machines was intended 

 to make my cloth- covered hoop, etc., handier 

 and more practical. A tin can or pail with 

 flaring sides was so rigged that a sieve could 

 be securely fastened about one- third of the 

 way down; through this, in the center, work- 

 ed an agitator which admitted of being turn- 

 ed by a crank at will. An inch above the 

 sieve an outlet-pipe was fixed. By keeping 

 the water just high enough in the tank the 

 melted wax would continue running out of 

 the outlet when the machine was in opera- 

 tion. There was no cover to confine the 

 heat and steam, etc. Another machine built 

 on the same plan ran the agitator very close- 

 ly under the sieve so as to keep it clean. 



The one illustrated in the American Bee 

 Journal, by Dadant, a French invention, has 

 a windmill winged agitator which is expect- 

 ed to force the wax- freed parts of comb 

 down. It is not provided with a cover or an 

 outlet-pipe, and the wax must remain in the 

 kettle till cold, which, as is stated, will take 

 30 hours. I should consider this an undesir- « 

 able feature, as a refilling of the machine ■ 

 would be impossible the same day. A salt- ■ 

 saturated solution is used in it in order that ■ 

 the mass may be heated to greater heat. It " 

 is said that it would require 24 degrees more 

 heat to bring such a solution to boihng; and 

 the higher the temperature the better will 

 the wax come up; but it must not be forgot- 

 ten that salt brme is very hard on iron uten- 

 sils. 



The last-named wax- rendering machines 

 have the one great fault in common, that no 

 provision has been made to prevent the 

 scorching of the boiling mass. When apply- aj 

 ing fire direct to a kettleful of old brood- ^ 

 combs filled with pollen, etc., it is a common 

 occurrence to have the contents bum or 

 scorch. When this has occurred it is almost 

 impossible to get the kettle back in good 

 shape for future work. The very recently 

 brought-out Arthur C. Miller wax- extract- 

 or, constructed otherwise on the same prin- 

 ciple, obviates the trouble of a possible 

 scorching absolutely, as the can holding the 

 unrendered comb is surrounded by water. 

 It also has a cover, of conical shape, which, 

 as it appears from the cut m the American 

 Bee-keeper for December, 1905, is securely 

 bolted to the outside can. It also appears 

 from the same illustration that the outlet 

 pipe is in this conical cover and the water 

 and wax must be kept above the top of the 

 can, and must rise above where cover and 

 can join. I entertain some doubt whether 

 this arrangement can be made to operate 

 successfully. 



1 have, so far, not mentioned the steam 

 wax- extractors. The first wax extractor I 

 ever owned was one of this kind. It was 

 made by A. I. Root many years ago, and 



