BEEKEEPING IN ARKANSAS 23 



uncapped with a sharp knife that has been heated in hot water, 

 or preferably with a steam heated knife. The uncapping is done 

 over some vessel that receives the cappings. These are later 

 melted up, or placed in a solar wax extractor. 



Honey from different sources is often kept separate. This 

 is especially important if there is a small amount of bitter weed 

 honey, or some other honey with a disagreeable flavor. Extract- 

 ed honey should be freed from particles of wax, either by strain- 

 ing it thru a cheese cloth, or allowing it to stana till the wax 

 particles have all come to the surface. If stored in a dry place 

 good extracted honey will keep for years. 



Comb Honey. The production of comb honey oan be han- 

 dled successfully only by experienced beekeepers. Since this 

 publication is intended for beginners in beekeeping this subject 

 will not receive any further consideration here. Anyone who is 

 interested may get the desired information by referring to 

 Farmers' Bulletion 1039 (this may be secured by writing to the 

 Experiment Station or to the U. S. Department of Agriculture). 



Wax. Beeswax is an important by-product in the apiary, 

 if the cappings cut off at extracting, scraps, and broken combs 

 are rendered to wax. This by-nroduct will perhaps pay for 

 most of the bee supplies. Wax extractors and presses of various 

 types are on the market. A simple method of extracting small 

 quantities of wax is by the use of a shallow pan or dripping pan. 

 A hole is made in one end of this pan, the wax is placed at the 

 other end, and the pan is placed in the oven so that the hole in 

 the pan is outside of the oven over some other vessel containing 

 a small amount of water. The other end of the pan should be 

 raised an inch or two so that the molten wax will drain thru the 

 hole at the other end and drip into the water: 



Wax rendered in solar extractors has a better color than 

 when rendered as described above. A solar extractor may be 

 bought from dealers in beekeepers' supplies for a reasonable 

 price. It can easily be made out of two small dry goods boxes, 

 a sheet of tin, and a piece of window glass. One objection to the 

 solar extractor is that much of the wax remains in the combs 

 after heating. This is especially true when old combs taken 

 from diseased colonies are being rendered to wax. 



Queen Rearing. If done on a large scale and for the pur- 

 pose of supplying the trade this requires special training and ex- 

 perience. Several texts are available for those interested in the 

 subject. 



Italianizing. The beekeeper who has an apiary of black 

 bees and can spare money more readily than time will perhaps 

 do best to purchase Italian queens (untested) one for each col- 



