WAX PRODUCTION* 



Ci-iAELES Stewart, Joiixstowx, N. Y. 



Wax has played an important part in the arts and sciences in 

 past ages, but beeswax from its jiecnliar qualities seems to be 

 preferred to either vegetable or mineral wax, and was regarded 

 by those who kept bees as an important item on the cash account. 

 It is now regarded by up-to-date apiarists more in the light of 

 a by-product from the fact that it pays lietter to run the bees for 

 honey than wax except in the Hawaiian Islands where they found 

 it profitable to use the very cheap grade of sweets gathered by the 

 bees for that pui-pose. 



It was once thought that the pollen gathered by the bee was 

 converted into wax but later it was proven that it was unneces- 

 sary to its production. 



In fact the bees gorge themselves with honey and cluster in 

 the hive until the wax exudes in delicate scales from the under 

 side of the abdomen, after which it is made into comb. Later 

 from this comb is obtained the beeswax of conmierce, and the 

 writer looks back over forty years of experience along this line 

 to secure the maximum amount of wax. 



The early methods of rendering wax by boiling the combs in a 

 sack in a kettle of water and applying pressure after melting was 

 wasteful and was succeeded l)y \'arious devices using steam, which 

 secured 70 to ^'^0 per cent, of the wax. Still too much to lose but 

 not so much loss as by the old method of biiilding a fire around 

 a large iron kettle and boiling the combs in this manner, when a 

 very large amount of the wax was lost by burning on the sides of 

 the kettle. 



Finally some genius thought of the method oi cider making 

 and built up layers of comb in burlap sacks with slatted wire 

 cloth lietween each layer. These were placed in a large, strong 

 galvanized tank with plenty of water on the stove and heat ap- 

 plied. After the mass had become thoroughly heated, a power- 

 ful screw pressure was applied and the wax rising was drawn off. 



* Given at the Fulton-Montgomery Counties Beelceepers' Convention, at 

 Amsterdam, X. "^'. 



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