AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 67 



tion obtained from manufacturers is invariably impressed 

 with the bases of worker-cells, so that it is impossible, unless 

 by accident some portion has stretched, for the bees to build 

 other than worker-comb on it. 



Securing control over breeding is not the only advantage 

 gained by a free use of comb-foundation. For instance, a 

 fair swarm of, say, 5 lb. weight hived upon ten sheets of 

 comb-foundation in a Langstroth hive will have in twenty- 

 four hours, in an average season, several of the sheets 

 partially worked out and a goodly number of eggs deposited 

 in the cells, and in thirty-six hours the queen can hence- 

 forward lay to her full extent. In from a week to nine days 

 (depending upon the weather) the whole ten sheets will be 

 worked out into worker-combs, and a great deal occupied 

 with brood and honey, and the hive will then be ready for 

 the top or surplus honey super. In twenty-two or twenty- 

 three days young worker-bees will begin to emerge, and 

 from this on the colony will grow rapidly in strength from 

 day to day. 



Contrast this favourable condition of things with what 

 takes place when only narrow strips of comb-foundation are 

 furnished. It will take under the same conditions a similar 

 swarm from four to five weeks to fill the hive with comb, and 

 then there will be a large proportion drone-comb, which is 

 the very thing to guard against. Consider what the differ- 

 ence in time alone will make in the profitable working of a 

 hive, especially in a short season. Then, again, with regard 

 to the difference in the initial expense betw^een using full 

 sheets and strips, which seems to influence many beginners 

 in favour of the latter system : Even in that there is a gain 

 in favour of the method I am advocating. For instance, the 

 cost of filling the ten frames with sheets of best comb- 

 foundation would be (including the expenses of getting 

 them) about 4s.; in small quantities and with strips — say, 

 two sheets — lod. : an apparent saving in the first instance 

 of 3s. 2d. We must then consider the matter from another 

 point of view. 



The consensus of opinion among the most experienced 

 bee-keepers is that there is an expenditure of about 12 lbs. of 

 honey in making i lb. of wax — that is, the bees consume 

 that quantity of honey before secreting i lb. of w^ax. The 

 ten sheets of comb-foundation weigh I5 lbs. and cost 4s. 

 For this there would have to be an expenditure of 18 lbs. of 

 hone3', wdiich, at the average w^holesale price of 4d. per lb., 

 is 6s., so that there is a saving of 2s. in favour of the full 

 sheets, to say nothing about all the other advantages gained. 



This shows clearly enough, I think, the advantage of 

 making the fullest use possible of comb-foundation." 



