50 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
WAX EXTRACTORS. 
A solar wax extractor is needed in every apiary; several are kept 
running in many large apiaries. Extractors which render wax by steam 
are also used. To the latter class belongs the improved Swiss wax 
extractor (fig. 36). This implement, invented in Switzerland and 
improved in America, consists of a tin or copper vessel with a circle of 
perforations in the bottom near the sides to let in steam from a boiler 
below, and within this upper vessel another receptacle—the comb 
receiver—made of perforated zinc. Its use, as well as that of the solar 
wax extractor, is described under the head of ‘‘ Wax production.” 
Within a few years wax extractors employing the heat of the sun 
and known as solar wax extractors have come into general use (fig. 61). 
The essential features in all the forms that have been devised are a 
metal tank with a glass cover and usually a wire-cloth strainer, below — 
which is placed the receptacle for the wax, 
the whole so arranged as to enable one to tilt 
it at such an angle as will catch the direct 
rays of the sun. The effectiveness of the 
Ve al » solar wax extractor is increased by having 
the glass doubled, and adding also a reflector, 
such as a mirror or a sheet of bright metal. 
An important advantage of the solar wax 
extractor is the ease with which small quan- 
tities of comb can be rendered. By having 
this machine much is therefore saved that 
might be ruined by wax moth larve if allow- 
ed to accumulate, besides serving at the same 
FiG. 3¢-_Execlsior wax extractor, time to increase these pests about the apiany. 
The wax obtained by solar heat is also of 
superior quality, being clean, never water-soaked nor scorched, and 
also light in color, owing to the bleaching action of the sunlight. 
The cost of a medium-sized solar wax extractor does not exceed that 
of the larger Swiss steam extractors, yet of the two the former is likely 
to prove by far the more valuable, even though it can be used only 
during the warmer months. 
al I 
QUEEN-INTRODUCING CAGES. 
In every apiary there should be several of these on hand. The best 
are such as permit the caging of the queen directly on the comb over 
cells of honey. A little practice will enable anyone to make very 
serviceable and cheap cages for introducing queens. From a piece of 
wire cloth having ten to twelve meshes to the inch cut a strip 2 inches 
wide; cut this in piecos 44 inches long, roll each piece around a stick 
to give it a cylindrical form, lap the edges, and sew with a piece of 
wire. Then in one end of this cylinder make slits three-quarters inch 
