48 



Beekeeping 



(the common septum) but on all the edges of the comb there 

 may often be noticed a sloping of the outer ends of the cell 

 walls toward the edge of the comb (Fig. 36, c). Where drone 

 and worker cells join, the bees overcome the lack of conform- 

 ity by building transition cells (Fig. 36, 6 and e, Fig. 37) of 

 irregular shape. Such cells usually cannot be used for brood- 

 rearing. Attention should perhaps be drawn to the differ- 

 ence between vertical and horizontal sections of comb (Fig. 

 36, a, b and d). An examination of a comb will show these 



illustrations to be 

 correct, although 

 many authors of 

 books on bees 

 persist in labeling 

 drawings like Fig. 

 36, d as vertical 

 sections. In ad- 

 dition to the ir- 

 regular transition 

 cells, the cells at 

 the. junction of 

 the comb to its 

 support are quite 

 irregular. 



The combs of 

 the natural nest 



are often not straight but are bent and curved in various 

 ways. The several combs may be parallel or, if this is 

 not the case, the irregular spaces may be filled with short 

 combs. Notwithstanding the irregularity of the whole 

 comb, individual cells of the comb are commonly quite 

 uniform. This regularity has been greatly overestimated, 

 however. Reaumur went so far as to advise that the 

 width of a cell be adopted as a legal unit of measure, but 

 even a cursory examination of naturally built comb will 

 show how impractical this would have been. There are also 

 in bee-lore traditions of the marvelous accuracy with which 



FIG. 37. Piece of new comb showing transition 

 cells. 



