The sections, after grading and scraping, are to be placed in clean shipping cases having glass in one or both ends ([fig. 14]). Several of these may be placed in a single crate for shipment. To prevent breaking down of the combs it is best to put straw in the bottom of the crate for the shipping cases to rest on, and the crates should be so placed as to keep the combs in a perpendicular position. The crates are also likely to be kept right side up if convenient handles are attached to the sides—preferably strips with the ends projecting beyond the corners. Care in handling will generally be given if the glass in the shipping cases shows.
Fig. 14.—Shipping cases for comb honey.
Owing to the appearance of statements of a sensational character to the effect that complete honey combs are manufactured by machinery and filled with sweets lower in price than honey (glucose, cane sugar, or mixtures of these), then sealed over and sold in the market as genuine honey, a strong suspicion exists regarding the comb honey commonly offered for sale. Wide circulation has been given to these wild stories by sensational newspaper writers, and even monthly periodicals, usually far more discriminating and accurate, have repeated them. Some writers have even tried to locate the "comb honey factories" in given cities, but investigation has always shown that the locations were mythical. The forfeit of $1,000 which a reputable firm has had standing for fifteen years past for a pound of manufactured comb honey of a nature to deceive the buyer still remains unclaimed.
The National Bee-Keepers' Association, at its annual convention held in St. Louis in 1904, offered also a like forfeit of $1,000 for satisfactory proof of the existence of such a thing as manufactured comb honey. But no claimant has come forward, notwithstanding the $2,000 which awaits his proof. The fact is, there is no truth in the "yarn," and no one has thus far shown the thing possible. The comb honey in the markets is pure and wholesome—a healthful and nourishing sweet, easier to digest than cane sugar or any of the sirups so commonly sold. It is worth a place on the tables of all who can afford to use it.
No method has yet been brought forward which will enable one, at the present relative prices of honey and wax, to turn the whole working force of the bees, or even the greater part of it, into the production of wax instead of honey; in fact, the small amount of wax produced incidentally in apiaries managed for extracted or for section honey is usually turned into honey the following season; that is, it is made into comb foundation, which is then employed in the same hives to increase their yield of marketable honey. It is even the case that in most apiaries managed on approved modern methods more pounds of foundation are employed than wax produced; hence less progressive bee keepers—those who adhere to the use of box hives and who can not therefore utilize comb foundation—are called upon for their wax product. As each pound of wax represents several pounds of honey, all cappings removed when preparing combs for the extractor, all scrapings and trimmings and bits of drone comb, are to be saved and rendered into wax. This is best done in the solar wax-extractor (fig. 15), the essential parts of which are a metal tank with wire-cloth strainer and a glass cover, the latter generally made double. The bottom of the metal tank is strewn with pieces of comb, the glass cover adjusted, and the whole exposed to the direct rays of the sun. A superior quality of wax filters through the strainer.
Another method is to inclose the cappings or combs to be rendered in a coarse sack and weight this down in a tin boiler partly filled with rain water or soft spring water and boil slowly until little or no more wax can be pressed out of the material in the sack. Melting in an iron receptacle makes the wax dark colored. A special utensil made of tin, for use as a wax-extractor ([fig. 16]) over boiling water, can also be had. The bits of comb are placed in this, in an inside can having fine perforations, through which the steam from below enters and melts out the wax, which drips from a spout into another receptacle partly filled with water, from the surface of which the cake of wax may be removed when cold.
| Fig. 15.—Solar wax-extractor. | Fig. 16.—Steam wax-extractor. |