110 THE BUILDING OF BEES. 
“During my pleasant stay at your pretty villa, I spoke to you 
of the utilization of propolis in the varnish of our wooden ware, 
which resists the dissolving power of hot water so well. I have 
just found a description of the process, and will communicate it 
to you. 
“Propolis is purchased by hucksters, who pay five copecks—a 
little over two cents—and sometimes even less, for permission to 
scrape or plane the propolis from the walls of a hive that has 
lost its bees. The shavings, covered with propolis, are heated, 
put into a wax-press, and subjected to the treatment used in 
the extraction of beeswax; the propolis is then purified in hot 
water, to which sulphuric acid is added. About fifty per cent. 
of propolis is thus obtained, which sells at forty cents per pound. 
“This propolis is poured into hot linseed-oil and beeswax, in 
the following proportions: Propolis 1, beeswax 3, oil 2. Previ- 
ously, the oil should ‘ linger,’ as we say, on the stove, for fifteen 
or twenty days, that is, remain hot without boiling, to give itthe 
property of drying. The wooden ware is dipped into the above 
mentioned preparation, and must remain in it ten or fifteen min- 
utes, after which it is cooled, and rubbed and polished with 
woolen rags.”—(A. Zoubareff, St. Petersburgh, Sept. 26, 1882.) 
We would suggest to manufacturers of supplies, that the 
soaking or painting of wooden feeders, and of queen-cages, 
with a similar preparation, would prevent the warm feed 
from soaking into the wood. 
