ilO -tUE BUtLDlNG OK BkES. 



"During my pleasant stay at your pretty villa, I spoke to yoil 

 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, wliich sells at forty cents per pound. 



" This propolis is poured into hot linseed-oil and beeswax, in 

 the following proportions : Propolis 1, beeswax J, 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 it the 

 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. Zoubarefl', St. Petersburgh, Sept. 20, 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. 



