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THE AMERICAN BEE JOTJR>^AL 



Nortli American Bee-Keeiiers' Society. 



SECOND DAY.— Wednesday. 



The convention was called to order 

 at 10 a.m.. President Cutting in the 

 chair. The meeting was then ad- 

 journed, and Dr. Miller, President of 

 the Northwestern Bee-Keepers' So- 

 ciety, then called «/iat society to order. 

 It was voted that the roll call be dis- 

 pensed with and that the secretary be 

 instructed to cast one ballot for the 

 re-election of the present officers, 

 which was done. The society then 

 adjourned to meet in the fall (exact 

 date to be decided upon by the ex- 

 ecutive committee) of 1887, in Chicago, 

 Ills. 



The President of the Indiana State 

 Society then called that society to 

 order, and officers were elected as 

 follows : President, Frank L. Dough- 

 erty, Indianapolis, Ind. ; Secretary, 

 Mrs. Cassandra Robbins,Indianapolis, 

 Ind.; Treasurer, Mrs. Stout. The 

 time of meeting is to be decided in 

 the future. The society then ad- 

 journed, and President Cutting then 

 called to order the North American 

 Society, and an essay was read by 

 Mr. C. P. Dadant, entitled, 



RENDERING OF COMBS INTO WAX. 



The rendering of comb into bees- 

 wax can be effected by artificial heat, 

 or by the sun's rays. The heating on 

 stoves or by steam is the most usual 

 way, but many inexperienced persons 

 spoil their wax either by melting it 

 without water, or by overboiling, or 

 by using dirty iron kettles. When 

 comb is melted over a stove, it is not 

 absolutely necessary to have an ap- 

 paratus expressly made for the pur- 

 pose. Any ordinary boiler will an- 

 swer. A great deal of water should 

 be used, and a moderate heat applied. 

 When the wax is thoroughly melted, 

 it can be dipped off the top, by using 

 a piece of wire-cloth shaped like a 

 dipper, hung in the kettle, to prevent 

 the coarsest impurities from being 

 dipped out. We have never seen any 

 •old combs, no matter how old, that 

 did not make nice yellow wax when 

 treated in this manner, or by the use 

 of a wax-extractor. As a matter of 

 course a good wax-extractor, if prop- 

 erly used, will give cleaner wax at the 

 first melting. 



If steam is used to melt comb, it 

 should not be turned directly on the 

 comb, but into the water below it, 

 the steam often damaging the wax, 

 and making it grainy and green look- 

 ing. This same unpleasant result is 

 sometimes attained by overboiling. 



If some wax remains in the dregs, 

 it is not advisable to throw away these 

 residues. We have never yet seen 

 any process that separated them so 

 completely that they could be called 

 worthless. Wax-bleachers usually 

 press the wax out of them in a small 

 press while hot. But a cheaper way, 

 on a small scale, is to preserve them, 

 or rather the best of them in a box, 

 exposed to the weather, until more 

 comb has to be melted, when they 

 can be melted again with it. The ex- 

 posure to the weather dissolves the 



foreign substances, but not the wax, 

 whicn, to all appearances, is in- 

 destructible. 



Cappings of honey are melted in the 

 same manner as old combs. It is well, 

 however, to work them, first, in warm 

 water to separate the honey that is 

 left.. This sweetened water can be 

 used to advantage in cider or wine 

 making, and for vinegar. Honey- 

 vinegar is the very best that is made. 



We have many times heard it said 

 that it did not pay to melt old combs, 

 but this is a mistake. It is not advis- 

 able to melt them with nice new 

 comb, but any apiarist who will try 

 rational methods, can find a profit in 

 melting the very oldest and dirtiest 

 combs that can be found. 



The heat of the sun, in rendering 

 comb, makes the finest beeswax, as it 

 not only melts it, but partly bleaches 

 it, and we have to thank our Italian 

 brothers for the first idea of this, as 

 well as for the invention of the ex- 

 tractor. Thus far, however, little use 

 has been made of this discovery, but 

 the time is not far distant when the 

 solar extractors will be as plentifully 

 found as steam or stove extractors. 

 This method will have the advantage 

 of giving clean wax at the first melt- 

 ing, without any danger of spoiling it. 



After the reading of Mr. Dadant's 

 essay, the subject of which it treated 

 was discussed as follows : 



O. O. Poppleton said : The solar 

 wax-extractor is my " baby." About 

 ten years ago I was experimenting in 

 wintering bees under glass, and the 

 heat melted some wax ; from this hint 

 I rpade the solar wax-extractor. The 

 melted wax running from a solar wax- 

 extractor ought not to stand in the 

 shade, but in the sun where it will 

 remain melted for hours, and allow 

 the impurities to settle, when the 

 melted wax may be dipped off the top 

 with a flat dipper. The heat from the 

 sun will not injure the wax, but it 

 gives the honey that settles at the 

 bottom a taste or flavor of pollen. 

 Solar wax-extractors ought not to be 

 too large, they should be small enough 

 so that all the combs or cappings put 

 into them will be rendered in one day. 

 It is the best kind of wax-extractor. 

 I once had 500 old drone-combs, each 

 of which were about a foot square ; 

 in rendering them I secured about 

 one pound of wax to five combs. 



C. P. Dadant— We allow our cap- 

 pings to drain a longtime, sometimes 

 three or four weeks, the upper half of 

 them is taken off, and the lower half 

 of two "batches" is then put together. 



A. I. Root— Those who have small 

 lots of wax to render can place the 

 cappings in a seive, when the honey 

 can drain out into a dish-pan into 

 which the seive is placed. After the 

 honey has drained out, the pan and 

 all can be placed in an oven and the 

 wax melted. 



Dr. Miller— I have an old dripping- 

 pan with one corner broken out. This 

 can be used as a solar wax-extractor, 

 and when the weather becomes too 

 cool for this, the pan can be placed 

 in an oven and the wax allowed to 

 run out through the opening in the 

 pan, into a dish. 



SErARATOES. 



Mr. N. N. Betsinger then gave an 

 interesting talk about separators. He 

 said in substance : I do not know to 

 a certainty who first used section 

 honey-boxes, but they were first used 

 without separators. This manner of 

 using them was unsatisfactory to me, 

 and I began to devise something that 

 would prevent the " bulge." The first 

 substance used was glass, but many 

 sheets broke, and many brace-combs 

 were attached to the glass. I next 

 used wood, and surprising as it may 

 seem, the smoother the wood the 

 greater the number of brace-combs 

 attached. I next tried what is uow 

 used for separators all over the world, 

 viz : tin. The only objection to tin 

 is that brace-combs are attached ; but 

 the use of comb foundation largely 

 decreased this trouble. In using half- 

 pound sections I again dispensed with 

 separators, and believe that my crop 

 was thereby increased 25 per cent., 

 but it was so badly bulged as to 

 greatly delay its sale. I am now 

 using a separator that is perfect, I 

 have used it four years, and I do not 

 think anything better will be dis- 

 covered. It is wire-cloth, with a mesh 

 of }4 inch. The cloth is dipped in 

 melted metal, which fixes the wires. 

 It is patented. I am aware that per- 

 forated separators have been used, 

 and there are objections to this style. 

 They are expensive, and the perfora- 

 tions will show, by the way of length- 

 ened cappings upon the surface of the 

 comb. 



T. H. Kloer- Will not the bees 

 place propolis in the meshes where 

 they come in contact with the 

 sections V 



Mr. Betsinger— I should think they 

 would, but they never have with me. 



It was afterwards learned that in 

 the case in which Mr. Betsinger used 

 the wire separators, the sections did 

 not come in contact with the separa- 

 tors ; the space between the separa- 

 tors being so great that there was 

 room for not only the section, but for 

 a bee-space on each side of it, between 

 it and the separators. 



The following essay by Mr. A. J. 

 King was then read, on 



FOUL BROOD. 



This much hackneyed subject has 

 appeared on the programmes of every 

 bee-keepers' convention, county, State 

 or National— so far as my information 

 extends — for the past twenty-five 

 years, or since the first organization 

 of bee-keepers on this continent. Like 

 all unsolved, yet important problems 

 in apiculture, it will not " down " 

 until the whole round of experiment- 

 ing has been completed, and not even 

 then, unless the necessary means for 

 its cure have been discovered and 

 successfully applied. To this noble 

 element, in the mental " make up," 

 characteristic of Americans, we owe 

 the grand triumphs in science, art, 

 and invention, which, in the aggre- 

 gate, places the United States far in 

 the " lead " of all nations on the 

 globe. Were it not for this untiring 

 disposition on the part of our api- 

 arists, to seek out and corret the evils 

 which have beset our chosen pursuit, 



