410 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



Brood Foundation— -Most 



Ecnomical Weight 



to Use 



By the Editor. 



A READER of the American Bee 

 Journal asks what is the most 

 economical weight of. founda- 

 tion to use for brood-combs. 



It was at one time thought good 

 economy to use only very narrow 

 strips in the frames, just enough to 

 insure the building of straight combs. 

 Numerous tests, both scientific and 

 .practical, have proven that beeswax 

 costs the bees so much in honey that 

 it is advisable to save as much as 



FIG. 1. — The lump at the outer edge of the 

 cell, first stage — longitudinal section en- 

 larged 35 diameters. 



possible in this line and use, not only 

 full sheets of foundation in the 

 brood-frames, but a weight of foun- 

 dation that will, as nearly as practi- 

 cable, enable the bees to build the full 

 depth of the cells out of it. Although 

 the bees are sometimes so hurried by 

 the honey crop that they fail to 

 make use of all the available wa.x in 

 the foundation, they usually do 

 lengthen the cells to a great extent 

 out of the foundation. This is readily 

 seen if we take up and examine a 

 comb which is being built out of 

 foundation. 



However, in order to ascertain how 

 much wax is required in the founda- 

 tion to secure the entire depth of the 

 comb from this wax, it was necessary 

 to make careful experiments. The 



FIG. 4. — Intersection of three cells — section 

 through the thin part of the line A-B in Fig. 

 2. 



Foloppe brothers, of Champosoult, 

 France, undertook it several years 

 ago. These experiments were pub- 

 lished in the May, 1911, number of the 

 American Bee Journal. We will sup- 

 ply the answer to the question made 

 above by quoting the most interest- 

 ing parts of these experiments. 



In order to obtain a positive result, 

 Messrs, Foloppe relied on two points, 

 the color of the comb secured and its 

 weight. 



The first requirement was a color- 

 ing pigment which would stain the 

 foundation permanently, but would 

 not give any odor or flavor objection- 

 able to the bees. It needed, also, to 

 be of a consistency that would not 

 permit it to "run" or soak from the 

 foundation to the new comb produced 

 by the bees. After securing this pig- 

 ment, sheets of different weights were 

 made of stained wax and given to the 

 bees. The result was that the foun- 

 dation approximating about S'/z Lang- 

 stroth sheets to the pound proved the 

 most economical, as it furnished wax 

 enough for the entire comb. Heavier 

 sheets supplied enough for the cap- 

 pings. Lighter sheets required some 

 new wax of their own production. 



Weighing the frames and founda- 

 tion before the experiment and also 

 afterwards confirmed this, for with 

 the six-sheet foundation, less than 

 one per cent was added to the weight 

 of each frame during the process of 

 stretching the sheets into full combs. 



There was, however, a particularity 

 about this test which suggests to us 

 the possibility of securing the same 

 result from a slightly lighter grade of 



FIG. 5. — Intersection of three cells — section 

 through the middle of the lump 'on the line 

 C-D in Fig. 2. 



foundation. The sheets used in the 

 test were made on the European 

 foundation press. This instrument 

 makes much less perfect sheets than 

 our American mills. It leaves more 

 beeswax in the base of the founda- 

 tion. It must be, therefore, more dif- 

 ficult for the bees to draw out the 

 cells. For that reason we believe 

 that a weight of about O'/i to 7 Lang- 

 stroth sheets to the pound would still 

 secure a good result and permit of 

 all or nearly all the comb being made 

 out of the sheet. 



A very interesting remark made by 

 these careful experimenters was the 

 discovery that, in drawing the foun- 

 dation the bees do not pull it out- 

 ward perpendicularly to the depth of 



FIG. 2. — Lump on the edge of the cell — secona 

 stage — longitudinal section enlarged 35 di- 

 ameters. 



FIG. 3.— Third stage. 



FIG. 6. — 1-art of wall of a cell showing the 

 lines left by the work of the bees. Those 

 lines are at right angles with the cell-wall 

 indicated by the arrow — enlarged 45 diame- 

 ters. 



the cell, but that on the contrary they 

 do their work in a circular way, ma- 

 nipulating the wax after the method 

 of the potter, who shapes his vase on 

 a turning table. This gives much 

 greater solidity to the work than a 

 straight pull would give. The direc- 

 tion of the bees' work in stretching 

 the cells may be readily noticed in 

 the highly magnified portion of cell- 

 wall shown in figure 6, the arrow 

 imbedded in this cell-wall indicating 

 the direction of the cell's depth. The 

 ridges, which show plainly, display 

 the work of the bees and its direc- 

 tion. As they thin out the cell base 

 or sides, they keep pushing before 

 them a part of the plastic wax and 

 carry it out in a ridge or lump which 



