HONEY -COMB. 



201 



IIONEY-COMB. 



FIC4. O. — A STUDY IN CELL-MAKING. 



Note that the cells are made independent of each other, and that it is the refuse wax, like di-op- 

 pings of mortar in brick-laying, that seems to tumble into the interstices to fill up. 



have found it advantageous to use machin- 

 ery by which the same material can be 

 worked over and over. As the combs be- 

 come old they are melted, the pure wax tak- 

 en out and remodeled into thin comb-build- 

 ing foundation. But this is in no sense the 

 manufacture of a new product, but an ex- 

 tracting, purifying, and remodeling of the 

 bees' own choice material. It simply saves 

 the bees much arduous labor that machinery 

 can do easier and at less expense, when we 

 consider the effect on the bee. 



No one is so foolish as to claim that a suit 

 of clothes made on a machine is any more 

 " artificial " than one sewed by hand. It is 

 simply economy of labor. Yet hundreds of 

 persons have the incorrect notion that there 

 is a lioney-comb made from wood pulp, 

 punk, putty, parafflne, or perhaps material 

 other than wax. We say " foolish enough " 

 advisedly, because a wise man changes his 

 mind (when it becomes necessary) ; but a 

 fool, never. It would not be surprising in 

 these days of sensational journalism and of 

 false nature-stories if one should get the 

 notion that artificial comb honey really 



exists ; but the foolish part comes in when 

 a person, totally inexperienced with bees, 

 stoutly and smilingly maintains that there is 

 such a thing as manufactured honey in the 

 comb. We feel sure that the inimitably 

 foolish expression of such a person is the 

 origin of the colloquialism, " The smile that 

 won't come off." No use. Do not argue. 

 It won't come. " Why, I've seen it at the 

 stores. Grocer told me all about it— was 

 several cents cheaper. I tried it ; we didn't 

 like it as well as the genuine.'' And then 

 the bee-keeper goes away, not a wiser but a 

 madder man, and wonders why tlie fool- 

 killer doesn't do his duty, and why every 

 one except tlie bee-keeper knows all about 

 bees and their products. 



It is, however, true that there are many 

 interesting problems about comb-building 

 that even the experienced bee-keeper doesn't 

 know. To us one of the most interesting of 

 these problems has been the fact that bees 

 carry along at the same time tlie comb and 

 the storage work in the sections in all stages 

 of progress. If an empty super were put on 

 a colony so strong that the bees "boiled" 



