342 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



December 



the usual excitement incident to ordi- 

 nary robbing did not appear. These 

 combs emptied were then leveled 

 down by means of a little device illus- 

 trated and described in the bee pap- 

 ers. They were then set aside ready 

 for the next season. When the honey 

 flow came on the bees would enter in- 

 to these sections immediately and 

 commence storing honey. 



A number of years prior to Mr. 

 Taylor's advocacy of drawn combs it 

 seems that Mr. Samuel Simmons, of 

 England had been advocating some- 

 thing similar ; but at the time bee 

 keepers seemed to take very little 

 stock in these drawn combs, but with- 

 in the last year or so they have begun 

 to discover something of merit in 

 them. I must confess myself that I 

 could see very little advantage in 

 them, but when Mr. Wood, of founda- 

 tion fame, showed me in the apiary 

 how much more readily bees accepted 

 the drawn combs, or rather partly 

 drawn combs, than foundation, I be- 

 came convinced and have been an ad- 

 vocate of them ever since. I saw that 

 not in one case but in numerous cases 

 the bees would commence upon the 

 drawn combs at once, store honey in 

 them, and cap them over before they 

 would even touch foundation in sec- 

 tions next to them. 



It is generally admitted that more 

 extracted houey can be produced than 

 of comb. Just how much more no one 

 seems to know definitely. Some say 

 twice as much, some say a half more, 

 some only a fourth more. Well, then, 

 if more extracted houey can be pro- 

 duced than comb, why is it ? The ex- 

 planation is easy. In running for ex- 

 tracted honey extracting combs are 

 given. These the bees store with 



their first honey and keep on storing 

 until they are full. They do not even 

 have to stop to draw out foundation, 

 much less loaf around a few days be- 

 fore attempting to draw it out. How 

 is it in the case of comb honey ? A 

 super containing sections, said sections 

 containing full sheets of foundation is 

 given. But before the bees enter that 

 super they will crowd every available 

 cell in the brood nest, even building 

 combs before they will commence work 

 on the foundation above. In the 

 meantime the loafing habit is started 

 and swarming is likely to follow. The 

 fact of the matter is the bees seem 

 much to prefer to store nectar in cells 

 already drawn out, and it takes •pres- 

 sure, a great deal of it, to force them 

 into supers. When they once com- 

 mence drawing out the foundation, 

 then storing and the work on the oth- 

 er sections begins. 



Now then, suppose that instead of 

 those full sheets, we give them sections 

 containing drawn comb, or, preferably, 

 comb partly drawn out. What is the 

 effect? The bees commence storing 

 honey immediately. The loafing of 

 three or four days preparatory to giv- 

 ing it sections, and occasional swarm- 

 ing that is induced by this loafing, 

 will be largely avoided. 



"But," you say, "your theory is 

 all good enough, but how are you go- 

 ing to get the comb?" In the first 

 place I would save all unfinished sec- 

 tions and level them down by the B. 

 Taylor plan. In the second place the 

 future may give us an artificially 

 made comb as light and as thin in cell- 

 wall and base as the product made by 

 the bees. It should not be heavier 

 because then we should have the fish- 

 bone — a thing that can not be tolerat- 



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