ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEiPERS' ASSOCIATION 



121 



: Dr. Miller — I want to say that I pre- 

 sented that point to Mr. Cowan. In 

 his book he says that all wax fs yel- 

 low, and I asked him whether the 

 scales were. He said, "Yes, they are 

 yellow. It is a thing you cannot see 

 the color in it." But Mr. Wheeler sees 

 tihe color in the scale. If you see the 

 color in the scale, there is no disputing 

 that. Here conies another question I 

 might ask Mr. Dadant: Have you 

 ever seen a sample of white wax that 

 you had reason to believe was not 

 bleached? 



Mr. Dadant — ^Well, we receive a 

 number of tons at a time, of Cali- 

 fornia wax, and when you break the 

 cakes, they would ibe as white as 

 white could be. I would not think 

 bee-keepers, as a, rule, would bleadh 

 their wax; it is too expensive — too hard 

 to do. Migiit have been run through 

 a solar extractor once and bleached, 

 but it is reasonable to believe they do 

 not bleach it. "We receive big quanti- 

 ties of this wax almost as white. 



Dr. Miller — I have had a little cor- 

 respondence with Mr. Cowan about 

 that. I took some virgin comb that 

 was built, and melted a little of it to- 

 gether, and sent him a sample, and that 

 was white, and no disputing it at all. 

 If you have it white after it is in the 

 comb, certainly there is reason to be- 

 lieve it was white in the scales, and 

 that sample, I know, was white. I 

 have had more than one sample that, 

 when melted up, was white. Mr. 

 Diadant, if he could tell us, that would 

 be satisfactory proof. If you knew 

 that the white wax you receive was 

 not bleached. 



Mr. Dadant — It might have been 

 bleached, but I have reason to believe 

 that bee-keepers seldom go to that 

 trouble and expense. You take cap- 

 ping wax, it is light, anyhow; espec- 

 ially California capping wax — from 

 light-colored flowers, alfalfa, or white 

 sage. If run through a solar extractor 

 once, it might be enough to bleach it 

 perfectly wih'ite. 



Mr. Wilcox — There is always a 

 chance for the best of us to be mis- 

 taken. I heartily agree with Mr. 

 Holtermann, that we may be mistaken 

 as to some of these things, but in re- 

 gard to the color of wax, which is so 

 positively testified to — in my locality, 

 all wax secreted through dandelion 

 blossom is of grayish color, rather 

 dark, indicating that it has been col- 



ored from the combs in the hive, or 

 some of it from a foreign substance, 

 after it has (been secreted from the 

 pollen. I have seen no wax built yel- 

 low in the spring, in the early spring, 

 that was not of that darkish color, 

 unless it was a new swarm, in which 

 case it would be white; but if old 

 combs are in the hive that are colored 

 it is evidence that it is colored from 

 something in the hive; new wax- 

 scales, I believe, are generally white. 



Mr. Whitney — ^It seems to be an in- 

 teresting question. It would seem to 

 me that the food the bee gets would 

 have something to do in coloring 

 the wax. Now, you know how^ fan- 

 ciers who have white fowls do. They 

 won't feed their chickens yellow corn, 

 because they say it will color the feath- 

 ers. Neither will the cattle man, who 

 is desirous of producing a white line 

 of beef, feed yellow turnips, or some- 

 thing of that kind, because it does af- 

 fect the flesh. Why should not the 

 feed affect the scales of wax? It seems 

 to me that during the time when the 

 bees are finding nothjng but dandelions 

 they might produce yellow wax; if it is 

 white clover season, or they are feed- 

 ing on basswood or something of that 

 kind, I would think the wax would be 

 pretty white. 



President York — Can you tell the 

 source of wax; that is, from what kind 

 of honey it came ? 



Dr. Miller — I was going to make a 

 partial answer to Mr. Wheeler's ques- 

 tion. I think we know very well that 

 there is a difference, and if you will 

 take the ground that all wax is the 

 same color, and then try to decide 

 whether white or yellow, you will fight 

 all day; there is a very marked difEer- 

 ence in color of wax, and I have no 

 doubt there is a difference in the 

 color of the scales. Wax is of different 

 colors; there is a wax I think that is 

 green; wax that is red; wax that is 

 yellow; wax that is white. Really, in 

 answer to that question is that it is of 

 different colors. 



Dr. Bahrer — W^hen first secreted? 



Dr. Miller — ^When first secreted. 



Dr. Bohrer — And before put into 

 comb? 



Dr. Miller — ^Yes, because if it were 

 not that way, the working over would 

 not make it into different colors. 



Mr. Trickey — As to Mr. Holtermann's 

 suggestion as to the coloring of wax 

 from the different colored pollens, es- 



