Dec. 7, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



643 



The folding is best done with a Hubbard machine. The 

 next best is a mallet or a hammer with a wide, flat head. 

 The operation is done on a bench or table, the section being 

 folded against a block of wood nailed to the bench, so as to 

 secure a square joint. 



Fastening Comb Foundation in Sections. 



In wetting the sections for folding, it is impossible to 

 prevent the water from spreading more or less through the 

 wood and thus dampen more or less the surfaces to which 

 the wax must adhere. Now the wax will not " stick " well 

 to a damp surface, and the foundation should not be put in 

 the sections until they are perfectly dry. 



The Parker foundation fastener, and others acting by 

 mere pressure, are not very satisfactory. They will work 

 only when the wax is quite soft. When I need only a few 

 sections I sometimes use the point of a knife or of a screw- 

 driver instead of a Parker fastener, but it is only a make- 

 shift at the best. 



The Daisy fastener is all right— it is a daisy, sure 

 enough, except, perhaps, that the plate should be arranged 

 so that the dripping wax should come to the front and help 

 fasten the next piece instead of running off. For small 

 starters, say half sheets at most, there is a still better way. 

 Just put a small tin dish, that you can make yourself, over 

 a lamp or oil-stove. Taking the starter in the hand apply 

 the bottom of it against the dish so as slightly to melt it, 

 then apply it promptly to the section at the right place. 

 The process is even quicker than the Daisy method, but is 

 not practicable with full sheets. 



Fdli, Sheets vs. Starters in Sections. 



If only starters are used, I prefer to have them of a 

 triangular form rather than a straight, narrow strip Ex- 

 actly how it works I can not tell, but the sections are better 

 filled. At least it seems so tome. But I would advise using 

 full sheets whenever possible. They will be built into 

 combs much faster, and that means more surplus, and, to 

 some extent, less clogging of the brood-nest, and therefore 

 less tendency to swarm. 



The next question is. How full — that is, how near the 

 wood along the sides and bottom must the sheet come ? Of 

 all the distances about V of an inch seems the worst of all, 

 as far as my experience goes. The bees draw the founda- 

 tion, and then seem unable to reach properly the middle of 

 the comb and extend it to the wood, something like this : 



The best results are obtained by having the foundation 

 reach ivithin one-eighth of an inch of the wood. The bees 

 will usually fasten it at once to the wood all around, and 

 then but little bulging will take place — not enough to injure 

 the sections, since the outer surfaces follow the separators. 



OO 



^-•^"^^ ■e'''"^^^ /^ Board 



Section over block 



If a dearth of honey follows putting on the sections, the 

 bees sometimes gnaw out the edges of the sheets instead of 

 fastening them. Fastening all around will avoid that. 

 Furthermore, it is claimed that when the foundation is 



fastened all around with melted wax, the comb will never 

 break off from the wood, no matter how far they are shipped. 

 I fasten only at the top. 



I have not been able to put in foundation with the 

 Daisy fastener so that it would come within one-eighth or 

 less of the bottom. The hot. plate melts sometimes more, 

 sometimes less of the sheet, usually entirely too much. I 

 prefer to use the melted-wax plan. A dozen square blocks 

 just the size of the inside of a section, and half the thick- 

 ness, are nailed to a board. Pieces of foundation are placed 

 on the blocks, and the sections slipped over. The melted 

 wax (just enough, and no more) is poured then, say at the 

 left-hand corner, and let it run to the bottom corner of each 

 block. To pour the wax, I use a spoon made of tin which 

 has a kind of spout shape with a very small hole (H), per- 

 mitting the use only of the quantity of wax needed, and yet 

 operate rapidly. If it is desired to fasten all around, the 



other corner is treated the same, and then the board turned 

 upside down, and the other two sides fastened in the same 

 way. 



Sections and Separators. 



The first 2 or 3 years of my bee-keeping I used bee-way 

 sections with plain separators. Then Oliver Foster began 

 advocating 4-bee-way sections without separators, chiefly 

 on the ground that the bees could cluster better, and there- 

 fore secrete wax and build comb better. That is true to a 

 large extent, but it depends upon the circumstances. With 

 strong colonies and quite warm weather the difference does 

 not amount to anything. Under the opposite circumstances 

 it might make all the difference between a crop and nothing. 

 If separators are omitted, use the 4-bee-way sections, by all 

 means. The sections will be built far more evenly and reg- 

 ularly than with the 2-bee-way sections. 



I have used the 4-bee-way sections without separators 

 since then until now. I am now replacing them with the 

 feuces and plain sections. One reason is that even with 

 the 4-bee-ways the sections of honey are not quite as regu- 

 lar as desirable for the best results. The other is that the 

 plain sections are easier to handle. I don't know whether I 

 can make this point understood or not. In handling sec- 

 tions it is not always possible to keep them perfectly even, 

 sometimes they are little out of line with one another. In 

 such cases a plain section is not liable to damage the next, 

 while the corner of a 4-bee-way section will almost inva- 



riably gouge into the next one. Perhaps this figure may 

 help the reader to understand what I mean. 



Soft and Hard Comb Foundation. 



The European writers tell us that the soft comb foun- 

 dation made by the Rietsche press, plaster molds, etc., does 

 not stretch and bulge like the hard ones — that is, the Weed 

 and other hard rolled ones. The explanation given is that 

 in the hard-rolled, compact foundation the wax is in an ab- 

 normal condition, and that the heat of the hive causes the 

 wax to expand back to its normal condition, and thus cause 

 the bulging and stretching. 



Recently it has been asserted that by heating the hard 

 fouhdatiod as much as possible, and keeping it at that point 

 a few ttiomentS (I suppose 10 or 15 minutes) it becomes as 

 soft as the molded foundation, and stretches or bulge* but 



