THOUSAND ANSWERS 21 



established beekeeper may not produce enough wax for his own 

 foundation, and again he may. If he works for extracted honey, 

 and has reached the point where he makes no more increase and 

 needs no more combs, he may have a surplus of wax from his 

 cappings, and probably will have; even if he renews his combs, 

 the melted combs should furnish wax for the new ones. Upon 

 him the comb-honey man may depend for his wax. There are 

 also beekeepers who use little or no foundation, and such men 

 are likely to produce surplus wax by means of the combs they 

 melt up from the diseased colonies. 



Q. What is the best method of producing beeswax? I want 

 beeswax instead of honey. (New York.) 



A. So far is I have ever learned, those who make a business 

 of producing wax rather than honey have done it by feeding back 

 the honey, thinned, as fast as the bees built combs and stored it. 

 But that was in places very far from market, where the honey 

 would not pay for transportation and wax would. It is not likely 

 that you can make it. pay in your region. 



Q. Please tell me how I can purify beeswax. I can melt it and 

 get it out of the combs by the hot water process, but after I get 

 it melted I cannot get the dirt separated from the wax, as under- 

 neath the wax there is some kind of fine dirt; that is, the dirt 

 does not settle to the bottom of the vessel that the water and 

 beeswax are in. I would like to know some way to get this dirt 

 out of the wax, and will you please give me a way to mould the 

 beeswax into one or two pound blocks? 



A. Your wax is only following the general rule. A large part 

 of the impurities, while heavier than wax, are lighter than water, 

 so they settle between the water and the wax. In other words, 

 you will find a layer of sediment on the under surface of the cake 

 of wax when it cools. There is not much difference between the 

 weight of the wax and the sediment, so that it takes it a long 

 time to settle. So if the wax cools very rapidly, much of the sedi- 

 ment will be mixed up with it. Your effort must be to keep the 

 wax in the liquid state a long time; or, as it is often expressed, 

 you must let the wax cool slowly. One way to do this is to cover 

 up warm with blankets or something of the kind. If the amount 

 of wax is small it will be longer cooling if you have a good deal 

 of water under it. Another way, with a small amount, is to put it 

 in the oven of the cook-stove, leaving the oven door open until 

 the fire begins to die down in the evening, then shut the door and 

 leave it until morning. Put the stove handle in the oven, and 



