THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



259 



space, uot at the time needed, is filled with 

 chiiff cushions to prevent the loss of heat 

 which would otherwise result from so much 

 exposed wooden wall. Tlie valuable novelty 

 of the thiut^ is the old dish-pan. A cheese- 

 cloth is drawn over the top, not so tight but 

 it can be dented in some, aud the material 

 to be melted is heaped upon the cloth. The 

 wax works through in th'^ course of time, 

 while propolis scarcely any of it runs 

 through. What little does drop remains on 

 the sli;^htly slanting bottom, and does not 

 run through the hole into tlie wax-pan below. 

 The solar is no good for old brood comb; 

 but it just occurs to me tliat I have never 

 tried it oq drone brood. Maybe the roasted 

 brood will furnish grease enough to prevent 

 the wax from soaking into the refuse, and 

 score a cheerful success on that kind of 

 material. Complaint is made of other so- 

 lars that they are hard to clean. Mine cleans 

 in a jiffy. Leave it till next morning when 

 cold, and the cloth can be peeled off from 

 the propolis aud refuse, like the enamel 

 from the top of a hive. The cloth is fastened 

 to the dish-pau by a lot of great tacks which 

 rest in corresponding holes in the rim of the 

 pan. Removiug the tacks releases the cloth 

 aud its load of refuse at once. 

 Richards, Ohio, Oct. 9,*18yi. 



Making Small Quantities of Excellent Wax 

 With Little Labor and Few Utensils. 



CYULA LINSWIK. 



*E HA^'E a steam wax extractor. 

 I mention this at the outset, that 

 no one may conclude that it is 

 from necessity rather than choice that we 

 render our wax in the primitive way which, 

 at the editor's request, I am about to de- 

 scribe. 



Our refuse comb is seldom allowed to ac- 

 cumulate in large quantity, and I cannot 

 remember that an ounce was ever destroyed 

 by the larvte of the bee moth. When our 

 collection of cappings, gleanings from the 

 hives, extracted combs not quite so good as 

 they should be, etc., etc., has become suffi- 

 ciently large to warrant our taking the time 

 and trouble to put it in shaiie for storing away 

 safely, we usually dedicate some cool, rainy 

 morning to the work. We begin by building 

 a tire in the old kitchen stove ; aud as the 

 kitchen is an old, unused ai)artment adjoin- 

 ing our work-sliop, there is no intrusion 

 upon household comfort. In two bright tin 



pans upon the capacious top of this stove, 

 we melt all our refuse comb. There are no 

 dead bees or brood in this comb, and we 

 take reasonable precaution to keep it free 

 from dust. A liberal allowance of water — 

 hot water if we have used proper forethought 

 — is put in the pans, and enough comb is 

 added to fill them as nearly full as may be 

 safely handled. 



From the moment the melting begins, the 

 wax is under constant supervision — one pan 

 standing in a somewhat cooler place than 

 the other. We hasten the melting process a 

 little by punching holes through the thicker 

 portions of the comb, and occasionally pres- 

 sing it down beueath the surface of the 

 liquid. If due attention be given the fire, 

 which should be steady but not too hot, and 

 if doors and windows be closed so that no 

 cool draught strikes the surface of the wax, 

 the contents of the first pan will soon be 

 ready for straining. But should there be 

 discernable the slightest film of cooled wax 

 upon any part of the surface, it is not hot 

 enough to strain out well and requires more 

 heating. 



It is now poured through new cheese-cloth 

 into another bright tin pan. At this stage 

 of the process an assistant is needed. The 

 refuse is lifted up in the cloth, each gathering 

 up one end and with a little care at first that 

 none of the contents escape over the edges, 

 the mass is squeezed by twisting the ends of 

 the cloth in opposite directions. If thi be 

 done in a warm place — opening the cloth and 

 stirring its contents once and then re-twist- 

 ing hard — if it be done as quickly and vigor- 

 ously as possible, finishing the operation 

 while the refuse is still nearly boiling hot, 

 there will not be enough wax left in it to 

 sigh over. 



W'hen cooled the wax is not in what we 

 consider salable shape, but it is ready to 

 pack away for months, sometimes for years. 



When ready to offer it for sale we re-melt 

 it very carefully, but in much the same fash- 

 ion as before, except that we use less water. 

 We put several of the thin cakes together, 

 using them in such proportions that the 

 finished cakes may be somewhat uniform in 

 size. This time we strain the wax through 

 muslin considerably thicker than cheese- 

 cloth. We cool it very slowly that the cakes 

 may not crack — usually covering the pans 

 during the cooling i)rocess. The pans are 

 the same used when we melted the comb; 

 they never need washing. They are simply 



