Manual of the apiary

by Albert John Cook

The above methods are successful, but probably will receive valuable modifications at the hands of the ingenius apiarists of our land. Study in this direction will unquestionably pay, as the use of this material is going to be very extensive, and any improvements will be hailed with joy by the bee-keeping fraternity.

SAVE THE WAX.

As foundation is becoming so popular, and is destined to come into general use, it behooves us all to be very careful that no old comb goes to waste. Soiled drone-comb, old, worthless worker-comb, and all fragments that cannot be used in the hives, together with cappings, after the honey is drained out through a coarse bag or colander—which process may be hastened by a moderate heat, not sufficient to melt the wax, and frequent stirring—should be melted, cleansed, and molded into cakes of wax, soon to be again stamped, not by the bees, but by wondrous art.

METHODS.

A slow and wasteful method is to melt in a vessel of heated water, and to purify by turning off the top, or allowing to cool, when the impurities at the bottom are scraped off, and the process repeated till all impurities are eliminated.

A better method to separate the wax is to put it into a strong, rather coarse bag, then sink this in water and boil. At intervals the comb in the bag should be pressed and stirred. The wax will collect on top of the water.

To prevent the bag from burning, it should be kept from touching the bottom of the vessel by inverting a basin in the bottom of the latter, or else by using a double-walled vessel. The process should be repeated till the wax is perfectly cleansed.

But, as wax is to become so important, and as the above methods are slow, wasteful, and apt to give a poor quality of wax, specialists, and even amateurs who keep as many as ten or twenty colonies of bees, may well procure a wax extractor ([Fig, 70]). This is also a foreign invention, the first being made by Prof. Gerster, of Berne, Switzerland. These cost from five to seven dollars, are made of tin, are very convenient and admirable, and can be procured of any dealer in apiarian supplies.

Fig. 70.