Jan. 26, 1899. 



AMERICAiN BtH JOUKNAL, 



55 



mark. In an experiment to find the amount of honey nec- 

 essary to produce a pound of wax, four pound.s of bees were 

 kept in a building, in hives, for three weeks. Some of 

 them then accidentalh' escaped, and instantly went back to 

 their old location. 



C. H. Gordon then spoke of his intention of starting,'' a 

 semi-monthly bee-paper for the West, and his confidence in 

 its success. 



H. Rauchfuss — It all depends on what the paper will be. 



Pres. Aikin — Mr. Gordon consulted me on the subject. 

 I told hiui it would unquestionably be a great thing for Col- 

 orado, tho I would not vouch for the Association. 



Mr. W. L. Porter then read the following paper, on 



The Wax-Extractor. 



In all branches of business, .success and prosperity 

 come from saving of small things. It is .so in bee-keeping-. 

 The honev has its origin and is stored ill the most tiny 

 drops in the flowers ; the wax is secreted and formed in 

 minute scales on the bee's body ; and both, in their aggre- 

 gate, amount to an enormous sum. From this we may learn 

 a valuable lesson — that no matter how small a thing is, if it 

 has value it is worth preserving. 



The solar extractor is an invention which separates the 

 wax by the sun's rays. In this bright, sunny climate there 

 are many days in the summer when it can be used to an ex- 

 cellent advantage ; and every bee-keeper who has a few 

 colonies of bees should be the owner of one. To get the 

 best results from the machine, it should be placed in a shel- 

 tered place where it will have the reflection of a fence or 

 building. The machine should be loaded in the morning, 

 with the glass and pan tipt to the south, by placing in the 

 pan a layer of broken comb cappings from extracting 

 honey, or the scrapings of sections, etc. The sun will do 

 the rest, and at night a beautiful yellow cake of beeswax 

 will be secured. 



It should be of the right capacity for the work. For a few 

 colonies — any number up to 50 — a small machine will do ; 

 one like the Simplicity, with g-lass 16x22 inches, is ample. 

 But as the colonies increase, greater capacity of glass is 

 needed. I have made a very eft'ectualone this summer from 

 a hot-bed sash. 3x6 feet, with a strip of corrugated iron for 

 a pan. 



One of the difficult problems with me has been to keep 

 the residue from sliding on the pan, and either going into 

 the wax-pan or damming up the screen and preventing the 

 wa.x from going through. To prevent this, I have found it 

 an excellent plan to place a sheet of wire cloth on the bot- 

 tom of the pan. with a few small cleats under the wire to 

 give drainage. The roughness of the screen prevents the 

 residue from sliding, and lets the melted wax drain throug-h 

 at once. When the wax is all out, the wire can be raised 

 out, and a quick .shake will throw all the residue into a box 

 whereat can be kept for kindling the fire, for which it is 

 excellent. 



Bee-keepers .should be careful to save everything that 

 has wax in it, as the demand for wax is constantly on the 

 increase. W. L. Poktek. 



Mr. Foster — I had difficultj' in getting- the wax into 

 shape, until I used the plan of the Rauchfuss brothers. 



F. Rauchfuss— The only point about that is the way the 

 wax is caked. All other extractors have but one pan. Ours 

 has a series of pans connected by overflows. This keeps 

 the honey and sediment practically in the first pan. The 

 best time to open and fill the solar extractor is early in the 

 morning, to keep out the flies. If opened at any other time, 

 flies and bees will be trapt and will become imbedded in the 

 wax. One of our 4x4 feet extractors last season remelted 

 900 to 1.000 pounds of wax. 



H. Rauchfuss — The pans that form the wax have to be 

 exposed to the sun until evening-. 



F. Rauchfuss — It has never been advised to place an 

 obstruction in front of the screen ; but if there is nothing 

 but the wire screen at the end of the pan, a great deal of 

 fine sediment will go through. To avoid this, place some 

 slumgum in front of the screen. 



Mr. Adams — I discarded wire screens, and used a piece 

 of glass in front of the screen. 

 T Mr. Porter — Have you ever tried a wire screen on the 

 bottom of the tray that holds the comb ? I have discarded 

 wire screen at the end. I use a piece of common wire 

 screen. 



Pres. Aikin — I tried a piece of wire screen on one por- 

 tion of a 6x6 extractor. But then I was melting a great 

 many combs. I found that .sediment so entirely clogg-ed the 

 screen that the wax flowed over. I have anticipated using 



four or five meshes to the inch. Not much will go through 

 if it is not stirred ; but it ought to be stirred if old combs 

 are melted. Still, the screen i,s a good thing. In building- 

 a wax-extractor, do not build too small. A large one does 

 not cost much mere. You can put a large load in and let it 

 stay a long time. It will surprise you to see how much 

 drains out after several days, or even a week. 



Mr. Foster — I use a hot-bed o'ixlO feet, and put all my 

 dishes in. I use the same thing to raise cabbage-plants in 

 spring. 



Mr. Sylvester — In stopping the debris, I have found it a 

 success to use excelsior for a dam. 



A Member— What do you make your pans of ? 



Pres. Aikin — I use tin pans. You must not use rusty 

 tin or iron, especially if there is water with the wax. 



H. Rauchfuss — Wliat discolors the wax in melting with 

 water ? Wax produced by the .solar extractor, when re- 

 melted with water, turns g-reenish. 



Pres. Aikin — I suspect that we darken wax by using 

 water. It may be iron in the water. I do know that the 

 blackest combs, when melted by dry heat, yield nice yellow 

 was. But if you melt the same old comb.-, in water, you get 

 dark wax. That is a point in favor of the solar extractor. 

 Altho I have melted tons of wax, I have never succeeded 

 with water as I have with the solar. 



Mr. Gordon — Cannot darkened wax be restored in the 

 solar extractor ? 



Pres. Aikin — To a limited degree, as the result of 

 bleaching. 



Mr. Adams — I have tried sheet-iron, g-alvanized iron, 

 and tin. Wax is blackened by sheet-iron, and sticks to gal- 

 vanized iron. 



Mr. Foster — Can we depend on the solar extractor, 

 when properly workt, to get out all the wax that can be 

 obtained ? 



Pres. Aikin — If you build a /)/,!,'- solar you can. You 

 can't g-et enough wax out of the residue it leaves to pay for 

 the trouble of working it. You can with pains get a little 

 more wax. but it will be as black as my boot. 

 [Coulinued next week.l 



York's Honey Almanac is a neat little 32-page pamph- 

 let especially g-otten up with a view to create a demand for 

 honey among- should-be consumers. Aside from the Alma- 

 nac pages, the forepart of the pamphlet was written by Dr. 

 C. C. Miller, and is devoted to general information concern- 

 ing honey. The latter part consists of recipes for use in 

 cooking and as a medicine. It will be found to be a very 

 effective helper in working up a home market for honey. 

 We furnish them, postpaid, at these prices : A sample for 

 a stamp ; 25 copies for 40 cents ; SO for 60 cents ; 100 for 

 $1.00; 250 for *2.25 ; 500 for $4.00. For 25 cents extra we 

 will print your name and address on the front page, when 

 ordering 100 or more copies at these prices. 



The Omaha Convention Report ran through 14 num- 

 bers of the Bee Journal, beginning with the first number in 

 October, 1898. Now we have on hand quite a number of 

 complete sets of that report, which we will mail for just 10 

 cents each. That is, 14 copies of the American Bee Journal 

 for only a dime. There are doubtless a good many of our 

 new readers who will be glad to get that fine report. 



Langstroth on the Honey = Bee, revi-sed by the Dadants, 

 is a standard, reliable and thoroughly complete work on 

 bee-culture. It contains 520 pages, and is bound elegantly. 

 Every reader of the American Bee Journal should have a 

 copy of this book, as it answers hundreds of questions that 

 arise about bees. We mail it for $1.25, or club it with the 

 Bee Journal for a year— both for only $2.00. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. Better order at once, if you want a copy 

 of this song. 



