27 



rearing is reintroduced to the colony as soon as the series of 

 queen cells have been removed from the comb on which they 

 have been built. Other series of queen cells can be obtained 

 by repeating the process. 



Note. — Care must be exercised to make the production of 

 queen cells coincide with the formation of nuclei 

 suitable for their reception. 



BEESWAX. 



Wax is not gathered by the worker bee, but is organically 

 produced in her body from honey and pollen, by secretion. 

 It is .formed voluntarily by the bees filling their stomac£s 

 with honey, hanging in the hive in chain-like clusters, and 

 remaining perfectly quiet for twenty-foiir hours. A good 

 deal of pollen is consumed to make up for the wear and tear 

 of tissue during wax secretion. During this period the wax 

 glands convert the honey taken into their bodies into liquid 

 wax, which exudes through tiny perforations into eight small 

 pockets, or moulds, situated on the underside of the last 

 four abdominal segments, where it hardens into small white 

 scales (Fig. 1). It is then plucked out, made plastic by the 

 admixture of saliva, and utilised for the building of the 

 comb, the hermetic seaUng of honey cells, and, with the 

 addition of pollen, for the porous sealing of brood' cells. Jt 

 is computed that from 10 to 20 lb. of honey are required to 

 make 1 lb. of wax. The work of wax secretion tells severely 

 upon the vital powers of the bee, and as wax is a valuable and 

 costly product, none of it should be wasted. 



How to Collect Wax. — When cleaning hives or appUances, 

 a box should be kept for the collection of all refuse and 

 burr combs. The scrapings from the floor board, which are 

 generally thrown on the ground during spring cleaning, 

 should be saved, although they contain a quantity of dirt 

 and propolis, for there is generally sufficient wax to make 

 it worth the trouble of collection and extraction. The 

 honey combs used for extracting do not wear out, but last 

 indefinitely ; brood combs, on the contrary, become thickened 

 by the cocoons and cast skins of the moulting larvee, and 

 must be continually renewed. Wax can therefore be- 

 obtained from old brood combs and the cappings from 

 extracting conabs. 



Methods of Extraction. — The extraction of the wax may 



be made by using: (1) The Solar Wax Extractor; (2) steam;, 

 (3) boiling water; or (4) the heat of the oven. 



