USE OF FOUNDATION 115 



chamber, but fully believes that without them 

 honey production is seldom profitable. That 

 he practices what he preaches is evidenced by 

 the fact that as this is wi^tten he is just finish- 

 ing the preparation of more than twelve hun- 

 dred frames of full sheets for use in one small 

 apiary to replace discarded combs, and to pro- 

 vide reserve extracting combs. Without a 

 large working force, big crops can never be 

 harvested. The rearing of several thousand 

 worthless drones to consume the honey, take 

 the attention of the workers and get in the way 

 generally, does not tend in this direction. 



FouxDATiox IX Sectioxs. — Some kind of 

 starter is absolutely essential to getting the 

 bees started to work in the comb-honey supers. 

 It is very common practice to use a three-cor- 

 nered piece of thin foundation no more than 

 two inches across and sometimes much smaller. 

 It is difficult for the bees to work to advantao-e 

 on such small starters. Full sheets which lack 



