i^iS'j BKa^Kf^KlERS' REVIEW. 



75 



How he feeiJs and thus ijets hi* fonndation 

 drawn iu half-depth frames. Wheu drawn, 

 the Cuuib is out out and titted iuto the sec- 

 tions in sucli a niauner as (o leave a small 

 passatie-hole iu each of the four coruers of 

 each section, etc. 



I hope some of the readers of (ileaninfjs 

 will test these plans the coining season, and 

 re(>ort their success. 



Of course, wheu the perfect comb becomes 

 a fact, conil) made by machinery, so 

 light that it can not be detected iu the 

 houey afterwards, aud also sold reasonably 

 cheap, then we need not trouble ourselves 

 auy more to olitain it by feeding or other- 

 wise. All will depend on what will be the 

 cheapest way to attain the same or the best 

 result. " 



The editor of Gleauiugs comments as 

 follows: — 



[ I had not thought of it before, but I do 

 believe that American consumers, so far 

 from disliking the so-called fish-bone, as 

 as a resultant from the use of foundation in 

 sections, actually do like it. It gives them 

 something to chew. The fact of the mat- 

 ter is I suppose, the average consumer does 

 not know how honey in natural comlis does 

 taste. If he ate the honey of his fathers, he 

 has forgotten how it chewed: and as prac- 

 tically all comb honey of to-day on the 

 market is built from foundation, the con- 

 sumers do not know that there is any differ- 

 ence between comb honey from foundation 

 and that which was made without. But 

 thisis true: The fishbone is just so much 

 waste and somebody has to pay for it. We 

 have made foundation with no side walls 

 whatever — jnst the mere rectangular bases 

 united together, and we have also mwde 

 fonndation with very little ^:ide wall. While 

 it is perfectly practical to make both of 

 these articles, they have given dissatisfac- 

 tion to bee-keepers, owing to the fact that 

 they would sag or stretch In the hive: we 

 are, therefore, in the new pro'uct — that is, 

 the new deep-cell-wall foundation — to make 

 an article that will not satr — the ability to 

 resist stretching being due to the deep cells 

 rather than to heavy side walls or thick 

 bases. — En. ] 



I do think that it is a good thing to utilize 

 the buckwheat flow, or any other flow of 

 honey that is of a low quality, for getting 

 combs drawn out to be used during the 

 white honey harvest, but I must protest 

 against the idea advanced that consumers 

 prefer i\\e honey with a heavy "fishbone, " 

 because it gives them something to "chew 

 on. " If honey were eaten alone the " fish- 

 bone "would not be so very objectionable, 

 as the " gob " of wax could be easily spit 

 oat after the sweetnes- had been chew- 

 ed out, but when eatint: lioney with other 

 food, as biscuit, for instance, these chunks 

 of leathery wax become mixed in with the 

 food, and it is very diflicult, and far from 



an edifijiiKj operation, to extract them from 

 the food. There is no use of talking, no one 

 wants " fishbone " in houey, and I am sorry 

 to see a disposition to try and induce bee- 

 keepers to ^/ux A- that it is all right— that it 

 is desirable. If bee-keepers can be led to 

 believe that " fishbone " is a good thing in 

 honey, it will be one step iu making them 

 believe that the new artificial comb, even if 

 it should prove to be oW "fishbone," is a 

 good thing. I am sorry to say it, but it 

 seems to me, boys, that you are leading in 

 the wrong direction. 



The Difference Between Comb and Beeswax. 

 In the Canadian Bee Journal for March, 

 Bro. HA)lterman has the following to say on 

 this subject. 



" Last month just at the moment of going 

 to press, I received news which I felt justi- 

 fied me in announcina that comb was being 

 made with deep cells. It was not produced 

 in a way to make it at all sure that an article 

 of so great a value could ever be sold at a 

 price to be of practical value to bee-keepers, 

 I did not think anyone would doubt its 

 utility. Comb foundation has been a study 

 with me for years. I believe I was the first 

 one to publicly and extensively experiment 

 with comb foundation, and the work was 

 undertaken wheu I was head of the apiarian 

 committee of the Ontario Agricultural and 

 Experimental Union. Let us look at tiie 

 cause of fish boae in houey. Comb founda- 

 tion as made at the present time, may have 

 aud generally has too much wax in the base 

 and always has a great deal more than it 

 naturally has iu the side wall. Why is this ? 

 Because we have not had the appliances by 

 means of which we could put it in depth of 

 w>a// aud a certain strength was required in 

 the sheet, and to get it we had to put it in 

 the base, or a little better, the thickness of 

 tlie side wall. Next let us examine the way 

 iu which the bees ntiliz:^ the foundation. I 

 have seen the base untouched and again 

 thinned to the weight of the natural. I have 

 seen the side wall utilized to a greater or less 

 extent, but I have yet to see the first sample 

 in which the wax iu the side wall and close 

 to the base is touched. There appears to be 

 something there which the bees cannot ma- 

 nipulate. When some have artrued that they 

 want plenty of wax in section foundation, I 

 have taken this trrouud and I think tests 

 and reasons will bear me out. Picture to 

 yourself, or next summer examine comb 

 foundation when the bees are working it 

 out. aud they have a flattened surface upon 

 which to rest wheu working out the comb 

 foundation. You will see that not many 

 bees can work at the foundation, their bod- 

 ies cover a very large portion of comb com- 

 pared with the amount of comb their mau- 

 dables can at the same time grasp and work 

 out. If the houey flow is light, or the 

 swarm weak, there is no hurry aud the bees 



