Letters

Extracting wax efficiently

I am interested in the note on page 5 of the last issue concerning solar wax extractors. They are certainly wonderful little gadgets. However, it is important to understand that they are not very efficient. The wax they produce is of high quality and they are simple to operate. (Part of the high quality may be due to bleaching.) For these two reasons, their use should be encouraged. However, they do not remove all of the wax no matter how well built they are¹.

The only way one can remove 98 to 99 percent of the wax from old comb is to use steam, a press and to give the press time to work. In our experience it takes eight to ten hours to remove most of the wax. This is discussed further in the book that Coggshall and I wrote on beeswax². Insofar as practical beekeeping in Africa is concerned it is possible that one of the greatest things that could be done would be to build a stainless steel plant with good presses that could render (recover) what must be tonnes of beeswax lost because of inefficient harvesting methods. Also, Jim Nightingale in Kenya showed me his solar wax machine. He was buying the dregs from the local beer factory and rendering useful beeswax from it.

Professor Roger Morse, Cornell University, USA.

1. Lesher, C; Morse, R A (1982) The efficiency of solar wax extractors. American Bee Journal 122 (12) 820-821.

2. Coggshall, W L; Morse, R A (1984) Beeswax: production harvesting, processing and products, Ithaca, NY, USA: Wicwas Press 192 pp.

Criticals do not come singly!

It is a source of hopelessness and pity that we are unable to pay the subscription for the Newsletter nor do we have wax to send. I wish | had the ability to participate in this special moment but unfortunately, as our people say “criticals do not come singly”. Let me again hope that I may be so lucky as to be paid for and I pray that God save our very special Newsletter.

EL-Amin Mohammed Ahmed,

West Darfur, Sudan.

Volunteer

IBRA is about to commence a project in co-operation with the Government of Tanzania's Njiro Wildlife Research Centre at Arusha.

The project, which is funded by ODA, will focus on top-bar hive design.

It is hoped that a volunteer position will be available to work on this project, initially for a two-year period. If you have experience of beekeeping and are interested in this volunteer post, then please send your CV and other relevant information to Nicola Bradbear at IBRA.