Fig. 61.—The Boardman solar wax extractor. (From Gleanings.)
The most approved method of rendering wax is, for moderate-sized apiaries at least, by means of the solar wax extractor ([fig. 61]), already mentioned under the head of "Implements." Its management is very simple. The machine is placed in the sunniest spot in or near the apiary, and all of the wax cappings, after having been drained of honey or worked over by the bees, as well as bits of comb, are thrown into the receiver above the wire strainer, the glass is adjusted, and the whole is turned so that the direct rays of the sun enter. More bits of comb are added from time to time during the day. The melted wax trickles through the strainer and collects in a tin placed at the lower edge of the tank or melter. The cake is removed each morning, it having cooled and contracted during the night sufficiently to cause the mass to cleave readily from the vessel.
The solar wax extractor can be used during four or five months of the year in the more northern States, and for a longer time in the South. To render wax at other times steam heat is best. When available a jet from a boiler may be connected with a barrel or vessel containing the combs and a large amount rendered in a short time. In smaller apiaries a steam extractor for use over a boiler on the stove may be employed ([fig. 30]). The manner of using these extractors is simple. The cappings and bits of comb to be rendered are placed in an inside basket made of perforated metal. Upon placing this over a water boiler, into which it tits closely, the steam rises through holes in the bottom of the upper can and readily penetrates the mass. The melted wax runs out through a spout at the lower edge of the upper can and is caught in a pan partly filled with warm water. As fast as the mass in the perforated can settles away more bits of comb are added. The dark residue remaining is composed of cocoons, pollen, and accidental impurities. These may, however, contain considerable wax which they have absorbed as it melted. This waste may be avoided in a great measure if the combs are broken up and soaked in rain water for twenty-four hours before melting.
Cakes of wax, if designed for the comb-foundation manufacturer, will be acceptable just as they come from the wax extractor, but if for the general market they should all be remelted in order to purify them. This must be done with care or the wax will be seriously injured. Iron vessels will discolor it, and as well or spring water frequently contains iron, the use of rain water, whenever it is to come in contact with the melted wax, will be found more desirable. It is best to melt the wax slowly, for if heated too rapidly the particles become disaggregated and take up a certain quantity of water, the mass loses its luster, and becomes pale and granular. In this condition its market value is low. Remelting slowly, especially in a solar wax extractor, will restore it.
These difficulties in purifying wax may be avoided if it is melted in a tin or copper vessel and in a water bath, that is, the melter is to stand within a larger vessel containing sufficient water to surround the former. As much wax as possible should be melted at one time, and when convenient the inner can is left standing in the water, so that the wax remains liquid some time, permitting the impurities to settle. These may be shaved from the bottom of the cake and remelted if they contain much wax.
CHAPTER IX.
REARING AND INTRODUCING QUEENS.
So much of the bee keeper's success depends upon the strength of his colonies, and this in turn upon the character of the queens heading these colonies, that he needs to be well informed as to what constitutes a really good queen and how to produce such, and, having this knowledge, it will be profitable to be constantly on the alert to see that all colonies are supplied with the best queens procurable. With a queen from a poor strain of bees, or an unprolific one from a good strain, a colony, even in a season of abundant honey secretion, will give little or no return, while the seasons are not frequent during which one given a fair start and having a large, prolific queen of an active honey-producing strain can not collect a fair surplus beyond its own needs. Admitting this, it will be plain to all that queen bees differ proportionately in value as much as horses or cattle, and the keeper of bees who does not know how to select and produce the best can not be called a bee-master.
When bees swarm they generally leave a number of sealed queen cells in the parent colony. With blacks and Italians there are usually 6 to 10; rarely more than a dozen. Carniolans generally construct about two dozen, but under favorable conditions can be induced to build 75 to 100 good cells at a time. Fig. 62 represents a comb from a hive of Carniolans which had built at one time 70 queen cells. Cyprians usually make 30 or 40 queen cells, but may greatly exceed this number under the best conditions, while Syrians nearly always exceed it, sometimes even building as many as 200; and the writer has seen 350 cells constructed at one time by a single colony of bees in Tunis. It might be thought that where so many were constructed only a small proportion of them would produce good queens. Such is not the case, however; for in general a much larger proportion of the cells formed by these eastern races produce well developed queens. But in all hives some queen cells are undersized. This may be because they are located near the bottom or sides, where space for full development is lacking, but in many instances it arises from the fact that they are formed last, and larvæ that are really too old to make full sized, perfect queens have to be used. These smaller cells are usually smooth on the outside and show thin walls. In selecting cells only the large, slightly tapering ones, an inch or more in length and straight, should be saved. Yet good queens may frequently be obtained from crooked cells, in case the latter are large and extend well into the midrib of the comb.
Fig. 62.—Comb showing worker brood and queen cells. (Original—from photograph.)