THOUSAND ANSWERS 
63 
boiler or other vessel on the stove, weight clown the sack, work- 
ing it occasionally with a stick, and skitn off the wax as it rises. 
With old combs, in which many generations of bees have been 
reared, it hardly pays to render the wax without water, for a 
Flu. 13. — A modern wax-rendering equipment. 
great deal of it is soaked in the cocoons and cast skins of the 
larva:. Soaking these in water first, prevents the wax adhering to 
the residue, or slumgum, as they call it. 
But in these latter days it’s hardly worth while for you to fuss 
extracting wax from your combs when you can send the combs to 
those who advertise to receive them and extract the wax for you, 
(and they’ll get out more wax than you will), and allow you pay 
for the combs in wax or foundation. 
Combs, Straight. — Q. I have one colony with combs built 
crosswise. How would you manage to get them straight? 
A. It may be part of the frames are straight and the others 
only a little crooked. In that case you might be able to cut away 
the attachments and straighten the comb into its own frame. If 
