AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



179 



the brood from chilling, and honey 

 enough is coming in so there is no dan- 

 ger from robbing. 



If the bees do not fill the hive, put in 

 a division-board to confine the bees and 

 heat to the brood-combs. 



Move the other hives away from the 

 one to be transferred. Italian bees or 

 hybrids vi^ill take care of moths. 



Chicago, Ills. 



Best FouMallon for Use In Sections. 



Itesults of JSxperiments at the Michigan Apiary. 

 BY K. L. TAYLOR, APIARIST. 



Ever since I first began to use it ex- 

 tensively, now fifteen years ago, comb 

 foundation has been to me a matter of 

 much interest and thought. I have 

 often noticed that much interest is taken 

 in the best methods of extracting the 

 wax from old combs, and in machines 

 that will make the thinnest foundation, 

 but that little care has been exercised 

 with regard to the best methods of ma- 

 nipulating wax to be used in making 

 foundation so as to secure the readiest 

 acceptance and the most thorough ma- 

 nipulation on the part of the bees; and 

 that to the interrogatory — Does the thin- 

 ness of foundation bear any relation to 

 the thinness of the septum of the 

 comb made from it ? — I have heard 

 hardly an inquiring answer ; neverthe- 

 less I have all along felt a great interest 

 on these points which experiments con- 

 ducted in a small way had served greatly 

 to increase, so it was but natural that 

 when I found myself in a position where 

 I could afford to do it somewhat exten- 

 sively, I became interested in the forma- 

 tion of plans calculated to bring out, if 

 possible, the truth on these and kindred 

 points. 



The plan adopted was to procure a 

 conveniently large variety of founda- 

 tions made for use in sections by procur- 

 ing from several makers samples of each 

 kind made, and comparing them by put- 

 ting them into cases alternately with no 

 separators, and giving them as thus ar- 

 ranged to the bees to work out and fill. 

 It was thought that results might be 

 obtained in two ways : First, it seemed 

 reasonable to suppose that those sorts 

 that were most acceptable to the bees 

 would be drawn out first and most rap- 

 idly, and consequently when capped 

 would contain the most honey, and that 

 the preference of the bees could easily 

 be detected by weighing the finished sec- 

 tions ; secondly, by measuring the thick- 



ness of the bases of the cells of the comb 

 produced, it seemed clear that if any 

 sort were to • any considerable extent 

 better adapted to its purpose than the 

 others, that fact would be clearly re- 

 vealed. 



For the purposes of the latter case I 

 have so far been unable to see that the 

 plan pursued could have been improved, 

 but in the former case there is some de- 

 gree of disappointment, from the fact 

 that it gradually became evident that 

 the plan pursued was defective so far as 

 the purpose sought was concerned in at 

 least two particulars, viz., in attempting 

 to compare too many kinds at once in» 

 one and the same case, for it is evident 

 if three sections containing foundation 

 equally good were placed side by side, 

 and the trio was flanked on either side 

 by sections with inferior foundation, the 

 two exterior ones of the trio would de- 

 rive an advantage on the side of the 

 inferior ones which the central one con- 

 taining equally good foundation would 

 be deprived of, and then sections of the 

 usual width, seven to the foot, were 

 employed in the experiment which it be- 

 came evident in the progress of the 

 experiment were too wide to yield to the 

 full the natural effect of difference in 

 the foundation, for I saw in several 

 cases that the bees worked out some 

 kinds of foundation sooner and more 

 rapidly than others at first, but when 

 these reached about the thickness re- 

 quired for brood they were delayed to 

 some extent, and more force was put on 

 the kinds that lagged, to bring them up, 

 so that in this way the results sought 

 which would perhaps be abundantly re- 

 vealed by the use of thinner sections 

 were, to a large extent, concealed. 



The remedy which should be applied 

 in further experiments of this character 

 seems to me to be evident; each sort of 

 foundation which it is deemed desirable 

 to compare with others, should be com- 

 pared with each of them separately, 

 and the sections should be so thin that 

 the usual thickness of comb desired by 

 the bees would a little more than fill the 

 section's proportionate amount of space. 



I have been asked whether in publish- 

 ing the results of these experiments I 

 should give the names of the manufac- 

 turers of the different foundations used. 

 The object of the experiments is to ob- 

 tain for the use of bee-keepers generally 

 as much new and valuable knowledge 

 with regard to their tools and business 

 as possible, and it is evident that in the 

 particular experiments of which I now 

 write the value of the results depends 

 almost entirely upon a knowledge of the 



