1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



397 



on the great lakes; hence the advisability of 

 putting queen-cage candy in some sort of 

 container that will prevent it from getting 

 away and playing havoc with the bees. — Ed.] 



WAX -PRODUCTION 



Is it a Profitable Business in the Tropics? 



The AVax-press vs. the Honey-extractor 



for Getting Honey out of Combs. 



BY C. F. HOCHSTEIN. 



In December 15th Gleanings I read with 

 interest an article from Mr. W. K. Morrison 

 on the production of wax in the tropics, the 

 West Indies especially. Now, I have been 

 experimenting on this wax-producing busi- 

 ness for some years, right here in the West 

 Indies, with all kinds of systems and all 

 kinds of hives, and the results of my experi- 

 ments so far have been a failure financially. 

 My experiments so far clearly show that, in 

 a winter location like mine in Cuba, where 

 the surplus-honey ti>)w is from October 1 to 

 April 1, if honey will net the bee-keeper 

 even no more than a cent a pound he will 

 come out better financially than producing 

 wax at thirty cents a pound during the same 

 time. 



I will now give the reason for this, and 

 point out how the bees will work in follow- 

 ing Mr. Morrison's system in this location. 



Let us take a brood-chamber boiling over 

 with bees the first of October; put on a hon- 

 ey-board, then a super with starters one inch 

 wide. If the weather at this time is cool the 

 bees will be loath to go above the honey- 

 board, but will stick honey in every cell in 

 the brood-chamber as fast as the bees hatch 

 out. The result of this will be that, in a 

 short time, the brood-chamber will be full of 

 honey, with no bees. 



On the other hand, should the weather be 

 warm at this time the bees will commence to 

 stick in brace-comb between the top-bars and 

 the honey-board. When this space gets 

 pi'etty well filled they will crowd up above 

 the honey-board and build brace-comb to 

 the bottom-bar, then combs from the bot- 

 tom-bar up, and fill these same combs with 

 honey as fast as the building of them goes on. 



After they get the super about a third fill- 

 ed in this manner, then they will commence 

 on the starters. These they will commence 

 to draw out, putting honey into the cells be- 

 fore they are half drawn out. That is the 

 way the bees work here in using all starters 

 from foundation in the super. If a drawn 

 comb, cut down so as to leave a one-inch 

 starter in the same is used, they will work 

 just the same, with the exceptioui of cleaning 

 out the honey and carrying it below. Now, 

 any bee-keeper who has ever had a super 

 full of frames, with combs built from the 

 bottom-bars up, can imagine what a mess he 

 would be in, running his supers in this man- 

 ner. 



I have tried to meet this objection half 

 way by using five full combs and four frames 



with starters in them, interchanged in a ten- 

 frame super. This worked a little better, 

 but even here the bees would fill the drawn 

 combs nearly full of honey before starting 

 to draw out the starters. I also reversed the 

 conditions, putting the brood-chamber above 

 and the siiper with starters below, and a hon- 

 ey-board between; but this would not work 

 either, as the liees would carry the honey up 

 and crowd out the queen from laying. 



From my former experiments, the conclu- 

 sion I have come to regarding the profitable 

 production of wax over honey is that it will 

 have to be done in a one-story hive, divided 

 into two parts, and in a summer location — I 

 mean where the surplus honey-flow comes in 

 summer. If nothing happens to the contrary 

 I shall try it this summer. I have a suitable 

 hive planned for the purpose. 



I want to learn all the short cuts possible, 

 to save work. I don't care to work like a 

 "house on fire." 



Why doesn't Mr. Morrison tell us more 

 about his bag act? What kind of bags does 

 he use? How many combs does he put into 

 a bag? Does he put the same bag into the 

 press? How long does he let them drip? 

 What has he under the bags to catch the 

 drip? What kind of house does he uje for 

 the purpose? I know it is almost possible to 

 build a bee-proof honey-house; but it certain- 

 ly is not possible to build an ant-proof house 

 in Cuba. 



I should think it would take a regular hip- 

 podrome to put all the paraphernalia in need- 

 ed to hang up 75 or 100 bags with 75 to 100 

 tubs under them to catch the drip; and I 

 should judge that the wear and tear of bags, 

 the honey they soak up, what honey sticks to 

 the tubs and pails, what the bees and ants 

 get, and what drops from the starter left in 

 the frame from the time it is cut until it is 

 put back on the hive would more than pay 

 the wages of a couple of men to extract it 

 and barrel it at one handling. 



I can not understand, either, how Mr. 

 Morrison can get his honey to drain out of a 

 bag. I have had cappings and chunks of 

 honey all mashed and cut up fine, in an un- 

 capping-box, with a wire screen \ inch mesh; 

 have left the cappings in this box two and 

 three weeks at a time, and the honey would 

 not all drain out. Remember, our honey 

 crop comes in cool weather. 



Then it looks to me as though a man could 

 uncap, extract, and cut out a given number 

 of combs a good deal faster than he could 

 cut them into a bag, let it drip, take it down, 

 put it into a wax-press, press it, take it out, 

 etc. Query: How many combs can Mr. 

 Morrison handle per hour, from hive to bar- 

 rel? 



I am afraid if I had to do all this slashing, 

 mashing, and hanging up, when I got through 

 some one would have to put me into a wax- 

 press and squeeze the honey out' of me and 

 my clothes. I have studied on this matter 

 of wax-production here, in order to do 

 away with hired help as much as possible, 

 and because there are some good bee-loca- 

 tions to be had in places where it would 



