THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEVit 



275 



will do with comb which remains long ou 

 the hive when propolis is comiug in from 

 the tields, hut no honey. The result of this 

 tlat Ijase, together with deep cells, being 

 thus objectionable to the bees, is that we 

 have comb honey, where any is completed, 

 that will resist the cutting of a knife, two to 

 one, what it did before the bees had access 

 to it. And for the same reason, a greater 

 bulk of wax and propolis accumulates in 

 the mouth in chewing any certain sized 

 piece after the bees have manipulated it, 

 than will be accumulated before the bees 

 touch it. To be sure, I could only test it in 

 a poor season, as we had such in this local- 

 ity, and I can readily believe that with a 

 rousing honey season, which compels the 

 bees to store honey in any nook or corner, 

 so to speak, the case would be different, and 

 the product, under such conditions, nice 

 and equal to that built ou foundation, or 

 in natural comb, as some have given testi- 

 mony. But it will be remembered that 

 many of us have testified with pride to the 

 fact that, with ' bait sections, ' we have 

 secured quite a little crop of honey in years 

 so poor that the bees did not scarcely touch 

 fonndation at all. and the main claim for 

 this new high cell-walled foundation was 

 that it would give us all ' bait sections, ' 

 and by thus furnishing the bees with sec- 

 tion* full of comb, swarming was to be re- 

 tarded, and a fair crop of honey secured, 

 even in a poor year. I am still of the opin- 

 ion that the grounds taken against this new 

 product last spring, were unwarranted, and 

 that the whole trouble hinges on the cell 

 walls being formed on a flat sheet of wax, to 

 which none took exceptions before they had 

 tried it. I am informed that Mr. Weed be- 

 lieves this high cell wall fonndation can be 

 made on natural bases, and if it can, I am 

 Btill oi>en for a fair test of the same again 

 so am not going to condem" the whole thing 

 from this one season's trial. Neither do I 

 believe that what we now have is an entire 

 failure, for those who nse bottom starters 

 in their sections will tind it a boon over 

 fonndation, in as much as it will stand up- 

 right, while so small a strip will be used 

 that the bees cin change the base, as they 

 do along the edges, where a larger piece is 

 nsed. If our season had bef>n one of those 

 where honey comfs in as if by magic, nn- 

 doubtedly my report would have been differ- 

 ent, and been more in agreement with 

 others who have reported a success ; but I 

 am glad, on account of these experiments, 

 that the season was poor, for thereby we 

 have found out ' whpre we are at ' in a single 

 season, whilp it might have taken longer to 

 remedy the defects, hnd it been otherwise. 

 While I am of the opinion that something 

 of value may come out of thi« high cell wall 

 foundation yet my nflvice would be to go 

 slow and careful in testing, using, or rut- 

 ting much money into machinery ff>r its 

 manufacture, for. so far. nothing different 

 from this would be warranted. " 



Perhaps some of my readers will expect 

 me to say " I told you so." Not so. My 

 only objection to the article was that I 



thought that it would make the side walls 

 tough and leathery. I am not aure yet that 

 such will be the case, but I did not dream 

 that in some cases the bees would add to the 

 septum in trying to change the base to a 

 natural shape, thus making a terribly 

 thick septum. The Root's are now at work 

 trying to make this style of foundation with 

 a natural base. If they do not succeed, the 

 mattar will be dropped. If they do — well, 

 time will tell what will be the result. 



The Latest ii Regard to the Deep-Cell 

 Foundation. 

 An objection to the deep-cell foundation 

 as come from an unexpected direction. 

 The bees in their attempts to change the 

 base really add to the septum in some 

 instances, making it very thick and 

 tough. While at the Buffalo convention I 

 assisted at the consumption of a section 

 of honey built from deep-cell foundation. 

 While the side-walls had not the flakiness of 

 natural comb, yet they were not so very bad, 

 but the septum was very tough and hard. 

 Mr. Doolittle says that the bees also have 

 the bad habit of sometimes leaving one 

 side of the foundation untouched, while the 

 other is drawn out and filled with honey ; in 

 short, there seems to be a "right" and 

 "wrong" side to it. Mr. Root told me 

 that they should drop the matter unless they 

 could succeed in making a foundation with 

 a natural shaped base. Here is what appears 

 in (rleauings for Sept. 1. 



" Since our last issue, but before it reach- 

 ed Mr. Doolittle, we have received a letter 

 from our Borodino correspondent, sending 

 in his report of the new drawn foundation. 

 He finds it no more nuickly accepted by the 

 bees than foundation, nor finished any 

 sooner, and that, after being completed, it 

 has a ' resistance in cutting far greater than 

 that built on common foundation. ' He 

 winds up, ' I had hoped it would be a boon 

 to bee-keepers. ' It will be remembered 

 that Mr. Doolittle was very favorably dis- 

 i)()spd toward the new article when it was 

 first introduced: and, so far from believing 

 it would work di'^aster to the industry, he 

 expressed himself as believing it would be 

 a great stride forward. 



A«the results secured by Mr. Doolittle are 

 so different frfim those obtained by us, Dr. 

 Mason. Burt. Ipcr, and others, we l)egan a 

 careful and more thorough investigation. 

 Mr. Weed and I overhauled our sections 

 coi'taining comb honey that the bees had 

 made off from the new foundation: for it 

 will be remembered that, in our eating- 

 tests on the two different lots (see page 529), 



