448 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



proposition — Our supplies cost us 

 more aud we get less for our honey. 

 The Rocky Mountain region is the 

 land of the specialist, if this were 

 not the case our average crop 

 would be smaller. — W. F. 



Denver, the great NATIONAI. con- 

 vention city for 1915. 



You have been planning on an 

 outing all these years. Now is 

 your best opportunity. Attend the 

 National convention in Denver 

 next February. You will have the 

 "time of your life." 



Would you like to shake hands 

 with many you have read about 

 during the years past? Then turn 

 out to the National convention at 

 Denver next February. 



Denver, the center of the great 

 Alfalfa region of the central west 

 and with a large crop of honey as 

 an encouragement, will turn out the 

 largest National convention in 

 years. Will you be one of them to 

 enjoy the pleasure and profit of this 

 great meeting? 



Wax Rendering Service Station 



Massachusetts to help her bee- 

 keepers in the rendering of old 

 comb. 



A new service station for Massa- 

 chusetts beekeepers has recently 

 been announced by Dr. Burton N. 

 Gates^ Associate Professor of Bee- 

 keeping, Massachusetts Agricultural 

 college. The college at Amherst has 

 installed a steam operated equip- 

 ment which is showing high per- 

 centage yields. For instance, one 

 trial in rendering nineteen Lang- 

 stroth combs, gave approximately 

 six pounds of wax. 



Already considerable quantities 

 of comb have been rendered and 

 arrangement is made for much more 

 yet the capacity of the press is sev- 

 eral hundred pounds a day. We sug- 

 gest that those having work to be 

 done write to Dr. Gates request- 

 ing this service, whereupon he will 

 send full particulars and an appli- 

 cation blank to be filled out and re- 

 turned before the wax is shipped. 

 Dr. Gates especially requests that 

 beekeepers refrain from shipping 

 materials previous to notifying him. 

 It should also be emphasized that 

 it is not desirable to furnish comb 

 containing honey, not alone from 

 the standpoint of leakage in trans- 



portation, but because it hinders 

 efficient rendering. The . service is 

 offered at a nominal cost merely 

 covering expenses, a charge of five 

 cents per pound of rendered pro- 

 duct. The beekeeper, however, is 

 expected to pay transportation 

 charges which are slight. 



We believe this idea of a central 

 service station to be a step in the 

 right direction toward the handling 

 of apicultural products. Moreover 

 from the success of this project al- 

 ready, we are certain that bee- 

 keepers appreciate the opportunity 

 afforded them. Dr. Gates informs 

 us also that from time to time as 

 circumstances and facilities permit, 

 the wax working operations will 

 be improved and extended, not 

 merely comb rendered into com- 

 mercial wax but commercial wax 

 clarified and prepared for various 

 markets and their demands. 



We would remind the beekeepers 

 that there is a neat income from 

 scraps of comb, scrapings and burr- 

 comb. This margin is especially pro- 

 fitable when the toilsome and dis- 

 agreeable work of rendering- can be 

 avoided at a slight expense. Con- 

 sider also the short distance of 

 transportation as well as the addi- 

 tional yield of wax possible in 

 comparison with the small percent- 

 age obtained by the usual, laborious 

 home process. Odds and ends of 

 combs should no longer be used to 

 feed the bee moths. "Save the 

 pieces" and have them extracted at 

 the central station. 



We would suggest that old comb 

 may best be stored by tamping it 

 solidly into a tight barrel or box; 

 the more compact and harder it is 

 tamped the less likely bee moths are 

 to injure it. Take a piece of two- 

 by-four or other heavy tamp and 

 pound down the scrap as it is thrown 

 into the barrel. The bee moth will 

 not trouble wax stored in this 

 v/ay, especially if the material is 

 allowed to freeze once during the 

 winter. It is surprising what an ac- 

 cumulation may be made even in 

 a small apiary. In the larger apiary 

 it will well repay the beekeeper to 

 sort his comb into two grades 

 bright and dark. Especially hand- 

 some wax is obtained from cappings 

 or bright new comb. We commend 

 the new service station to the at- 

 tention of beekeepers. Savings in 



