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.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Solar wax-extractor.]
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Steam wax-extractor.]
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.