54 



THE AMERICA fV BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 26, 19CS. 



bees would do a little experimenting before settling- dowu 

 into the belief that the cellar must never be opened for 

 airing while the bees are in it. McHenry Co., 111. 



91 



Old Comb Foundation as Good as New. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLB. 



THE old idea that we must have comb foundation that is 

 just off the mills for use in the apiary seems to be 

 springing up again, if I can judge from my corres- 

 pondence. One wishes to know if it is a fact that such 

 foundation is better than that a year old, or only some one's 

 "think so". And another writes : 



" Would you please let me know through the American 

 Bee Journal if it will be just as well to fasten the founda- 

 tion in the frames and sections during the winter months, 

 while I have plenty of time, as to do the same just before it 

 is needed, using new foundation ? If the latter, then I must 

 do the work when I am crowded with the bees, just when I 

 can least afford to spare the time. If I could fix things this 

 winter when I have nothing else to do, having everything 

 in readiness when the bee-season opened, I could do the 

 work at a much less cost to me." 



During the years which have passed since I began to 

 use comb foundation I have experimented largely in this 

 matter, and have become thoroughly convinced that all talk 

 about old foundation not being as good as new — about how 

 it becomes hard and dry so that it can not be easily worked 

 by the bees — is a fallacy. To be sure, on these cold, win- 

 try days all foundation does look hard and dry and anything 

 but inviting to the bees, or to myself either ; but just wait 

 till some hot day in June or July and then go up to the 

 upper room of your building, where it is stored away, or 

 where the frames are filled with it ; yea, open up your sur- 

 plus arrangement of sections and take a look at it, and if it 

 is not too soft and pliable to handle easily, then your store- 

 room and your experience will be different from mine. 



Why I have alluded to an upper room or attic is this : 

 Cold foundation has a whitish, hard appearance, while 

 foundation in a heat of 100 degrees, Fahr., has a yellow, 

 oily appearance, and when it appears thus it is pliable to 

 handle and inviting to the bees. Now take a piece of foun- 

 dation fresh from the mill, and take it into the cold room, 

 and you will at once say this new is more acceptable to the 

 bees than a like amount of foundation which is from one to 

 three years old, with which you are making a comparison. 

 But take the same new piece into the attic on a hot July 

 day, and hold it by the side of the old, and you will con- 

 clude at pnce that both are alike inviting to the bees. 



Again, take the old on some cool day in June, when it 

 looks so uninviting, and lower a frame filled with it down 

 into the center of the brood-nest. Leave it five minutes, 

 then go with a piece of that fresh from the mill (or as fresh 

 as can possibly be to the one who buys his foundation), open 

 the hive and lift out the frame you set in a few minutes be- 

 fore, when, presto ! the old and the new have become alike 

 again, and the bees have already begun to manipulate that 

 which is in the frame. 



In other words, when placed in the hive the foundation 

 assumes the same yellow, oily, soft, pliable nature after a 

 minute or two that it has in the attic, or when first leaving 

 the mill. And if this is a fact, which, from all of my ex- 

 periments I know it to be, will any one tell me why it is not 

 just as acceptable to the bees as that fresh and new from 

 the mill ? Under these conditions no one can tell the new 

 from the old when the different pieces have been shuffled 

 together, unless some special mark has been placed on one 

 of them. 



To show that I am not writing one thing while practic- 

 ing another, allow me to say that all the foundation used in 

 both sections and frames in my apiary during the past IS 

 years was placed where it is to be used by the bees during 

 the months of December, January, February and March, 

 and both the supers of sections and the hives of frames so 

 filled are stored away for use when the hurry of the sum- 

 mer's work with the bees is on. In this way I have all in 

 readiness, at the " ends of my fingers ", for use just when 

 they are needed, so that there need not be even an hour's 

 delay. 



This matter of old foundation not being as good as new, 

 is like many another matter which has been started without 

 due consideration being paid to it ; and, being once started, 

 it keeps on its rounds through the papers and on mortal 

 lips, going around and around, as on an endless chain year 



after year, decade after decade ; bobbing up its head again 

 after a quarter of a century has passed, till nearly all the 

 world thinks it must be a fact, 



PROVE FACTS FOR YOURSELF. 



And now, Mr, Editor, with your permission I wish to 

 say a word or two about taking what any one says or writes 

 as an establiihed Jact. I am not against any or all heeding 

 what is said or written sufficiently to experiment thereon, 

 for even a theory advanced by some may, and often does, 

 prove a reality when put in practice by others. But no man 

 or woman should be only an imitator of some one else. Set 

 your own mind at work, and it will prove to your own self 

 what is right and what is wrong, if you will let your hands 

 obey its teachings by way of doing a little experimenting 

 on a small scale. 



Don't depend upon what Messrs. Dadant, Townsend, 

 York, Root, Hutchinson, Doolittle, or any one else tells you 

 unless it is right in line with what you want, and proves as 

 they say under _j/o«r own manipulation. If you want some- 

 thing different from what they do, please tell me what there 

 is to hinder JOM own self trying what you want, and then if 

 it proves, after trial, to be just the thing for you, tell the 

 world about it so that Dr. Miller, Hasty, Doolittle, etc., can 

 take advantage of your experiments as you have been tak- 

 ing advantage of theirs, and thus shall come a mutual 

 benefit to the whole fraternity. 



Dadant would never have been a Dadant had he been 

 like a Doolittle, nor a Townsend a Townsend, nor a Dr. 

 Miller a Dr. Miller. Don't be afraid of a little experiment- 

 ing on your part ; only take my advice and not go in too 

 heavy at first. Two or three colonies are enough for the first 

 trial, and if such a small experiment tells you you are on 

 the right track, then use more until the thing is proven ; 

 when, after that, you can safely devote the whole apiary to 

 the matter. It is needless to sacrifice a whole apiary to any 

 single experiment, as some seem prone to think they must 

 if they experiment at all. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



No. 2. -What is the Best Bee-Hive? 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 

 (Concluded from page 3S.) 



THAT the crosswise frame and the closed-end frame 

 should not find favor in Texas or any other locality 

 where the winter is not a serious item should not hold 

 the attention a minute. We, in the North, have another 

 problem on our hands altogether. We have a long, cold 

 winter followed by a lingering spring, and not infrequently 

 we have raw, chilly days in the summer months. The aver- 

 age bee-keeper perhaps gives too little heed to this matter 

 of conserving the heat of the colony, to planning a hive 

 which will meet the needs of the bee as well as those of the 

 bee-keeper. In prosperous seasons bees will give good re- 

 turns in any sort of rattle-trap of a hive, and in mild win- 

 ters they get along well, though their keeper (?) has done 

 little to further their comfort. But the bad season comes 

 when only the best colonies pay for their salt, the cold win- 

 ter falls when only the best-kept colonies see the next sum- 

 mer. It is for such that we must plan. 



Does the hive that you keep meet with these require- 

 ments ? Did your bees winter well last winter ? Do you 

 succeed in getting a surplus in the poor season ? If you 

 can answer yes with satisfaction then you perhaps will not 

 be interested to better your hive, but if you do not answer 

 yes then study the hive you use. 



In a spring free from cold spells, and through a sum- 

 mer of prosperity a hive with its free-hanging, lengthwise 

 frames will beyond doubt hold its own with one in which 

 the frames are closed-end and crosswise. It is during the 

 winter and the spring that the great superiority of such 

 frames becomes apparent. 



Think for a moment of the bees on a free-hanging, 

 lengthwise frame in winter. The ends all come to the en- 

 trance, and the cold wind is free to go up along the sides of 

 every layer of bees as they lie between the combs. Each 

 inter-comb space is a part of the united interior of the hive. 

 Now consider the closed-end frame. In this case each inter- 

 comb space is a space by itself, which communicates with 

 the rest of the space of the hive only below and through 

 the pop-holes along the edges of the comb. Now set this 

 frame crosswise. Only the first comb is next to the en- 

 trance, and any wind to get about the cluster of bees must 

 turn an angle of 90 degrees. It will not do this, because in 



