WINTER MANAGEMENT. 251 
fresh hive. The bees are fed on syrup containing the 
same ingredient—which keeps the syrup from candy- 
ing, and serves also as an antidote against the above 
disease. 
Melting of Combs.—This is one of the tasks that 
will be most conveniently carried on at this period, 
and there is then the additional advantage that 
there is no fear of the bees coming in to annoy the 
operator. Here, again, the editor will make free to 
quote from one of his own additions to “The 
Apiary,” though, as will at once be seen, the passage 
therefrom is only re-written from the directions of 
others :- 
*“Comb for which there is no use as such should 
be melted down into cake wax. Brood comb which 
has undergone its five years or so of service will 
probably not repay the trouble, and should therefore 
be thrown away. But if in good condition it should 
be put into a clean saucepan with plenty of soft 
water, and gently boiled or simmered over a clear 
fire till it is melted, when the wax will rise to the 
top. It must then be run through a strainer (never 
mind a little water going with it) into a stoneware 
or earthen pan, the sides of which have been 
greased to prevent adhesion.* The refuse is then 
collected in a coarse bag and boiled again, a flat 
iron or other heavy weight being placed upon it to 
hold it down, and a plate or other false bottom 
beneath it to prevent its burning. By working this 
* Tf wax of the finest quality is desired, the portion obtained at this 
stage in the operation must be kept by itse.f, and, after being covered 
well up, must be set in a spot so warm as only just to permit of an ex- 
tremely gradual solidification. 
