May 17, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTDRB AND COTTAGE QABDENER. 



wet oast of plaster, against which the bar or frame was so placed 

 that the wax sheet produced, while it freely left the plaster, ad- 

 hered most firmly to the dry wood, and was in the exact position 

 it required as the midrib of the comb to be formed npon it, and 

 was in addition embossed with the rhomboidal forms which con- 

 stitute the bases of bees* cells, since the cast was itself taken 

 from a German engraved plate. Using these guides I soon 

 found that the rhomboids just referred to hardly seemed to the 

 mind of the bees, and measurement revealed the fact that the 

 German plates gave the cell bases of too small a size, making 

 fifteen and a half cells to the 3 inches, while the comb from a 

 considerable number of hives gave a mean of fourteen and two- 

 thirds cells in the same space, from which mean none of the 

 examples differed materially. In order to accomplish the double 

 object of giving bees cells of the exact magnitude and sheets 

 made in the manner already explained which should fill or 

 nearly fill their frames, I commenced attempting to prepare 

 casts from natural comb, and succeeded by means sometime 

 since explained in a contemporary and also in my " Practical 

 Bee-keeping," but which space forbids me now to more than 

 outline. 



Having selected old and tough comb, all worker, and as flat 

 as I could find it, I cut down the cell walls on one side till the 

 work commenced to get ragged, when I poured melted tallow 

 into the tnmc.ited cells and then cut again until the cell wall 

 had been almost wholly removed. The tallow held the pupa 

 skins against the knife, and the work progressed most neatly. 

 Removing the tallow and flattening the comb, and subsequently 

 taking a cast in plaster, I got a matrix for my sheets which 

 enabled me to obtain results I may now detail. Placing a frame 

 containing one of these sheets in the middle of a stock I found 

 in twenty hours that the comb was completed and the middle 

 part was filled with eggs. The cast was not prepared until the 

 time for profitable swarming last year had passed; but in the 

 latter part of June I obtained a swarm by purchase and placed 

 it in a Cheshire hive, every frame of which contained these 

 sheets to the depth of 6! inches. In three days the hive was 

 nearly filled with comb, while at the evening of the twenty- 

 third day after hiving brood was hatching from the bottom edge 

 of more combs than one, and the bees at once accepted a super 

 which was placed over them. The combs were all absolutely 

 flat, and the hive did not contain I believe ten drone cells, A 

 great point had now been gained, for every bee-keeper of ex- 

 perience knows the vexatious difficulty of getting rid of excess 

 of drone comb. In the height of the honey season it is all but 

 impossible to get bees in stocks to build cells of worker size. 

 Cut out drone combs you may, but in nineteen cases out of 

 twenty you will only have them replaced. 



Meanwhile the Americans had been busy, and by the kind- 

 ness of my friend Mr. Hunter I received a supply of the re- 

 nowned Long's foundations, the beaatiful finish of which is 

 well nigh perfect. The '2-feet rule at once showed the cells to 

 be too large for raising workers, since thirteen and a half only 

 are given to the 3 inches. The size is, in fact, as nearly as may 

 be half way between worker and drone, twelve cells of which 

 give the same total diameter. A little calculation rendered ap- 

 parent the immense disadvantage this excessive largeness of the 

 cells would be to the bees during wintering, but I placed at once 

 an experimental sheet in the midst of a strong colony. The 

 bees, although fed, commenced working upon it tardily, whilst 

 the next hive seemed to take my sheet, made from natural comb 

 with hearty goodwill, finishing three while the Long's founda- 

 tion was only about half complete. Eggs were slowly laid in it, 

 and now more than half the bees produced are drones. Nor is 

 this the only disadvantage : the sheet gives much trouble by a 

 disposition to plait at the lower edge. Since my sheets, if put 

 into the hive bent and crooked, are made perfectly flat by the 

 mere weight of the adherent bees, why are impressed sheets 

 cockled and warped under the same influence ? I can only at 

 present speculate upon this point, but I believe the following is 

 the reason. All substances, unless absolutely non-elastic, when 

 bent under pressure are put under a certain amount of molecular 

 strain, which operates in tending to rpstore straightness to them 

 when softened. If a sheet of wax be bent it will be found, espe- 

 cially when warmed, to tend towards its original form. The 

 impressed sheet is stretched and bent backwards and forwards 

 when the form of the cell bases is given to it. It is fixed at the 

 top to the bar in the hive, and the warmth of the bees whilst 

 elaborating the comb allows the sheet to reduce the bending it 

 has received, and so to become longer than the part of it attached 

 above. It can only dispose of this greater length by assuming a 

 waved form from end to end. My sheets, on the contrary, are 

 made in the form they are subsequently to assume, and conse- 

 quently no disposition to elongate exists. 



But the most serious charge brought against foundations is that 

 they are commenced at the bottom and break away. In reply to 

 this I can only say mine are always commenceil at the top, and 

 that I had the opportunity at the Alexandra Palace last autumn of 

 showing to many prominent bee-keepera a large number of combs 

 commenced only, but with the top row of cells all well advanced. 



This is BO uniformly the case that I have been much puzzled as 

 to the cause. I have tried a number of experiments which have 

 to a large extent, if not wholly, made this point clear, while they 

 have brought out some very curious facts with regard to the 

 construction of comb itself. These experiments show con- 

 clusively, I think, that the form hitherto given to comb founda- 

 tions both by Germans and Americans is not that which most 

 helps the bees, nor is it that to which a study of comb structure 

 would have led. Upon this matter, together with my droue 

 comb foundations for supers, I hope in the future to dilate, 

 merely now contenting myself by saying that the only super I 

 have had as yet started has its row of cells contiguous to the bar 

 nearly finished, while the rest of the cells are all but UBtonched. 

 As I disposed of the hive working it I retain it as a spechnen, 

 and shall be pleased to show it with many others, and any of 

 my hives with their combs formed upon the sheets I have been 

 describing, on Saturdays May 12th or 19th to any brother bee- 

 keeper who may be interested in the advance of apicoltuie. 

 — F. Cbeshibe, Avenue House, Acton. 



SECTIONAL SUPERS. 



The importance of this subject to the bee-keeper will doubt- 

 less excuse my returning to it, for the experience of the various 

 honey shows of the last three years has proved that the days 

 of large weighty supers are doomed, the first object of the bee- 

 master who hopes to make profit of his hives being to raise a 

 product that will command the best market price, which the 

 large bell-glass or wooden box of honey does not. Neither does 

 the strained honey satisfy the fastidious taste of the wealthy 

 epicure. American bee-farmers are years ahead of us in the 

 discovery of what is needed for the desirable end. Their super 

 patterns are legion, but all tend to the same object — to produce 

 clean well- filled combs of attractive appearance, and small 

 enough for the retailer to sell without cutting. 



Mr. Boot of Medina, Ohio, whose apiary was figured in this 



Journal a few weeks back, has favoured me with samples of his 

 latest sectional supers, which in simplicity and iuexpensiveness 

 will be hard to beat. Fig. -18 illustrates the section box, and 



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fig. 49 the manner in which they are placed in the frames with 

 which the hive is filled. I should, however, say that both hive 

 and super are exactly alike; the former, filled with ordinary 

 frames, being used as a breeding box ; the latter, filled with 

 wider frames and sectional boxes, as a super. When supplied to 

 the bees each section is fitted with a piece of clean comb, natural 

 or artificial, without which, of course, no dependanoe could be 

 placed that the bees would build in order. On examination of 

 tig. 48 it will be seen that all four sides are neatly morticed, and 

 they tire merely held together by the mortices; but being all cut 

 by circular saw to gauge, such is the accuracy that the whole 

 is quite firm and every piece interchangeable. The top is 

 grooved to fix the guide comb, and the section boxes are sold 



