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For the American Bee Journal. 



Can we Compel Bees to Build only 

 Worker Comb? 



BY REV. L. L. LANGSTROTH. 



Mr. Alfred Neighbour sent me, in 

 1876, specimens of comb foundation 

 made from German plates purchased by 

 him in 1862. Giving some sheets to a 

 strong nucleus, in the height of the 

 honey harvest, I watched the successive 

 steps by which the bees prepared it for 

 the reception of eggs and honey. It 

 seemed to take them a little time to get 

 into their heads the idea of how to util- 

 ize it, and I saw perhaps the first bee, 

 who, having caught this idea, began to 

 put it into practical use. Desirous of 

 comparing the time required to fill a 

 frame with the foundation with that of 

 building new comb, I gave this nucleus 

 an empty frame, which they filled in less 

 time than they occupied in working 

 over the foundation — another illustra- 

 tion that it often costs more to alter an 

 old thing than to make a new one. 

 Hoping that when bees could gather too 

 little to induce them to work in wax, 

 they might profitably thin out the foun- 

 dation, I experimented further, but only 

 to find that they severely let it alone. 

 In 1875, Mr. "John Long" sent me foun- 

 dation of his own make. Being then 

 out of the bee business, he sent speci- 

 mens at my request to W. W. Cary, who 

 showed me one frame of beautiful 

 comb, finished by the bees, which satis- 

 fied him that the invention would be 

 very valuable. 



Perhaps the very different result of 

 our experiments was owing to the fact 

 that "JLongV foundation was much 

 more perfect than that made upon the 

 German plates.* While I believe that 

 foundation is on the whole a great suc- 

 cess, I am far from being convinced 

 that we should rely on it for all the comb 

 that we need. Even if this can now be 

 profitably done, how long will the price 

 of wax remain so low that we can en- 

 tirely dispense with the necessity of 

 having our own bees secrete it? "Mr. 

 Newman has given, on pages 355 to 357 

 of the American Bee Journal for 

 1878, some valuable statistics, showing 

 the very small yield of wax in our 

 apiaries compared with that of honey. 

 In some parts of Europe, where wax is 



* If I am rightly informed, " Long's" foundation 

 was on the improved plan of Samuel Wagner. At 

 some future time I propose to give the history of Mr. 

 Wagner's experiments with foundation. 



in such large demand for the ceremo- 

 nies of the Greek and Koman Catholic 

 churches, the yield of wax per hive is 

 enormous compared with what is ob- 

 tained by our improved methods. To 

 get, as is done in Greece, a larger yield 

 of wax than honey, spring pruning of 

 the combs is resorted to, and other rude 

 processes, which, if employed by us, 

 would make bee-keeping quite a losing 

 pursuit. Even if, for many years to 

 come, it shall pay such as can afford it 

 to use a full supply of foundation, how 

 many there are who have not the means 

 to procure it. It is, therefore, a very 

 important question, to know how to 

 manage so as to use a much smaller 

 quantity of foundation than is needed 

 to fill the frames. Now, the chief obsta- 

 cle to a partial filling of the frames is 

 the disposition of bees, especially the 

 Italians, to fill out the frames when only 

 partially supplied with foundation, with 

 drone comb. If this propensity can be 

 counteracted, without materially inter- 

 fering with the comb-building instinct, 

 we shall be able to increase or diminish 

 the amount of foundation used in our 

 apiaries. As the tendency of improved 

 bee-culture is to increase the yield of 

 honey and diminish that of wax, the 

 time may not be very far distant 

 when only so small a quantity of foun- 

 dation can be used, that we shall be al- 

 most as much at the will of the bees, in 

 the building of drone comb, as we were 

 before its invention. 



In a letter to Mr. Doolittle, I promised 

 to give a plan by which I thought the 

 bees could be compelled to build all 

 worker comb. The following extracts 

 from vol. 1, page 129, of American Bee 

 Journal for 1861, will show how I hope 

 to accomplish this : 



improved colvin guide fkames. 



To avail ourselves fully of the movable 

 comb principle, the bees must be compelled 

 to build all their combs not only straight, 

 but of uniform thickness. Every comb will 

 then fit, without trimming, any where in any 

 hive. For more than ten years 1 have kept 

 this point steadily in view, and after nume- 

 rous experiments, have become satisfied that 

 bees, it left to themselves, will never con- 

 struct their combs in the way desired. Even 

 if they make them of uniform thickness, 

 they will wave them more or less to give 

 them greater strength, just as iron is cor- 

 rugated for the same purpose. 



1 shall now give a description of a device 

 which I invented some months after Mr. 

 Colvin's, and which, if he should patent his 

 invention, can only be used with his per- 

 mission. My guides were tried last year 

 with considerable success; aud the mode of 

 making them was so improved by the Rev. 

 L. Wheaton, of North Falmouth, (Mass.) 

 that he met with uniform success. 1 have 

 still further improved and simplified their 



