202 A Modern Bee-Farm 



Aids to Production. 



The apiarist who has all the colonies and all the combs he 

 requires is the one who will make, the production of wax 

 profitable. He will have a great deal from cappings ia 

 extracting, and many an odd piece, all of which should be 

 placed in some convenient receptacle till enough is obtained 

 to run down. There are the queen cells even ; shavings from ,, 

 combs when reduced to brood thickness in spring ; also the 

 scrapings from the tops of frames, not including the propolis. ' 



Then, again, new worker combs can be produced in spring ; 

 between the others containing brood, while feeding dry sugar, 

 at a great saving over foundation ; the apiarist then being 

 able to run down his more irregular combs, or those that are 

 getting too old ; or, as is sometimes the case, the wax being 

 perished, such would only be torn down by the bees, as they 

 do not appreciate combs that have been out of use for a whole 

 season, and if possible all should be passed through the hive 

 every year to keep them in good order. 



During the' season that bees are storing heavily I have 

 reason to believe that the secretion of wax is continually -going 

 on, and if the scales cannot be utilised they are allowed to 

 drop and be carried out as so much refuse. Now the space 

 allowed below the brood chamber provides that full employ- 

 ment shall ever be given should it happen from any cau^e that 

 the supers are not removed in due time and the bees there 

 kept busy. Thus we have another step towards the produc- 

 tion of wax. When one desires 



To Produce Wax in Quantity, 



a colony must be run for extracted honey, and at suitable 

 intervals alternate the combs of brood or stores with starters ; 

 -only in the frames. Between the stored combs- these would 

 be built rather thin, but the sealed combs are to be removed 

 arid the honey extracted as soon as the new ones are built to 



