152 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



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FIG. 1. — DRAWN COMB FROM A FULL SHEET OF FOUNDA- 

 TION FASTENED ON ALL FOUR SIDES. 

 Note the bulge near the bottom, and also the one near the right 

 side. Occasional buckling of the foundation causes this. 



FIG. 2. — SECTIONAL VIEW 

 OF FIG. 1. 



that could be desired — beautiful slabs of 

 honey without hole or blemish to mar their 

 beauty. But here the (as yet) inevitable sag- 

 ging propensities of all surplus foundation 

 on the market, in hot weather, are a factor 

 with which we must reckon. Perhaps the 

 engravings will help to explain what I mean 

 by this. 1 am sorry to say that, at this date, 

 I have no examples of the results on the fin- 

 ished comb ; but from my supply of bait 

 combs many sections like those illustrated 

 might be shown. In Fig. 1 the bulge at the 

 bottom is very plain, as well as the bulge 

 about eight cells removed from the right- 

 hand edge of the section. 



Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the comb shown 

 in Fig. 1. This shows even more plainly the 

 result of the sagging of the sheet of founda- 

 tion. 



Perhaps some one may say the foundation 

 was of poor quality; but it was as good as 

 can be had. In hot weather any foundation, 

 light or heavy, will sag, and even horizontal 

 wires but two inches apart will not prevent 

 that sagging. Unless Mr. Hand's method 

 will remove the difficulty, the greatest fault 

 with any method requiring that foundation 

 be attached on three or four sides is the ex- 

 pense and the amount of time required to do 

 the work. 



It will not pay the extensive producer to 

 devote a great deal of time and labor to the 

 fastening of foundation to three or four 

 sides of the sections, as the pi'ice of the fin- 

 ished honey is not raised in any degree over 

 that of comb honey produced in sections 

 containing full sheets of foundation fastened 

 in the ordinary way. Nor is it a fact that 

 sections and supers prepared in the ordina- 

 ry way require very careful handling at any 

 time. When we can have a really non-sag- 

 ging foundation, and when the honey will 

 sell for enough more money to pay for the 

 extra work. I may again use some method 

 of using a full sheet of foundation attached 

 on three or four sides. 



Meridian, Ida., Dec. 36. 



[Gleanings would be glad to receive re- 

 ports from any who may have tried full 

 sheets of foundation fastened on all four 

 sides of the section. What percentage of 

 the finished sections are irregular on account 

 of the buckling of the foundation? If the 

 sheets are warm when put into the sections, 

 is there as great a tendency toward buck- 

 ling when the supers are put on the hives? 



If comb honey built from foundation fas- 

 tened on all four sides could be sold at even 

 one cent more a pound, this extra price 

 would more than justify the time spent in 



