1884 



GLEANI^^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



803 



FOUNDATION AND COMB HONEY. 



KUIENU HUTCHINSON DECIDES NOT TO USE FOUN- 

 DATION IN THE BROOD-APARTMENT. 



N believiug that the use of foundation is un- 

 profitable, in most instances at least, Mr. Doo- 

 little for a long stood alone; but during- the 

 past season, two or three have come to Iiis sup- 

 port. I, too, wish to place myself by his side, 

 perhaps not exactly in line, but near enough to give 

 him good hearty support. 



My first swarm, last June, was hi%^ed upon empty 

 combs, the second upon frames of wired founda- 

 tion, the third upon frames having "starters" of 

 foundation one-half inch wide. This manner of 

 hiving was continued until fifteen swarms had been 

 hived, when the hiving upon empty combs was 

 abandoned, as the bees would fill the combs with 

 honey in a very few days — fill them so full that the 

 queen found but little room to lay, then they 

 " loafed " a long time before commencing work in 

 the sections, and when they did finally begin it was 

 in a slow, easy sort of waj-. Swarms hived upon 

 foundation, or upon empty frames, would each 

 have a case of 38 one-pound sections nearly finished 

 before those hived at the same time upon empty 

 combs had fairly started in the sections. In the 

 former case the honey was stored in the sections; 

 ill the latter it was deposited in the brood-nest. 

 Perhaps some one will ask why I did not extract the 

 honey; and in reply I will say that I was not rais- 

 ing extracted honey; if I had been I should have 

 had my hives and fixtures more conveniently ar- 

 ranged for that purpose. The bee-keeper who has 

 only a few colonies can extract from the brood- 

 nest, if necessary; but the man who is running a 

 large apiary for comb honey does not wish to be 

 " bothered " with any such operation, and I do not 

 think it is advisable that he should. I have said 

 nothing in regard to the bees again filling up the 

 brood-combs with honey should it be extracted, in- 

 stead of going to work in the sections, because I do 

 not /f HOW that they would. It appears reasonable, 

 however, to suppose that they would. 



When the use of empty combs was discontinued, 

 swarms were hived alternately upon foundation 

 and upon empty frames until perhaps fifteen more 

 swarms were hived, when sickness in my family 

 rather upset things in the apiary, and seven or 

 eight swarms were hived in succession upon foun- 

 dation, and then an equal number hived in succes- 

 sion upon empty frames; thus it will be seen that, 

 taking the whole season through, an equal number 

 of swarms were hived upon foundation and upon 

 emi)ty frames; but, a small majority of those hived 

 ui)on foundation were earlier swarms, which does 

 not make the experiment so conclusive as it would 

 have been had they been given foundation and 

 empty frames alternately, throughout the entire 

 season. An exact account was kept of the honey 

 that was taken from each hive; and upon compar- 

 ing results it was found that those swarms that had 

 been given foundation had, upon an average, 

 stored two pounds more honey per colony than those 

 hived upon empty frames; but the two pounds per 

 colony could be more than accounted for by earli- 

 ness of some of the swarms hived upon foundation. 

 When hived upon foundation, no honey can be 

 stored until the foundation is drawn; and just as 

 soon as any of the cells are even partly drawn, the 

 aueen is ready with her eggs, aud, as the bees are 



working in the boxes at the same time, they are not 

 inclined to crowd the queen. I say the bees are 

 working in the boxes at the same time, because I 

 always give them access to the boxes at the time of 

 hiving; and when the brood-frames are filled with 

 foundation (not eomhs), or are empty, the bees have 

 always taken possession of the boxes, and com- 

 menced working in them at once. On page 405, cur- 

 rent volume, you, friend Root, say: "I wouldn't 

 put the sections over any swarm until they had got 

 pi-etty well started on the brood-combs, and the 

 queen had commenced laying eggs; otherwise the 

 whole family might move up into the sections, and 

 begin housekeeping." My advice would be, put the 

 sections on at once, and keep the queen down with a 

 queen-excluding honey-board. Further along upon 

 the same page you say, in substance, that you would 

 give a swarm as many sheets of foundation as it 

 could cover and work upon. I could not agree 

 with this, if working for comb honey. If the advice 

 were followed, where would be the force to work in 

 the boxes? But I entirely agree with your remarks 

 in regard to the energy with which a colony works 

 when building natural comb. 



When bees are hived upon empty frames, it is ev- 

 ident that no honey can be stored in the brood-nest 

 until comb is built; and as fast as it is built, the 

 queen occupies it with eggs, the honey being stored 

 above in the sections, which, being filled with foun- 

 dation, are more quickly filled with comb.- With 

 this method I have found a queen-excluding honey- 

 board a necessity, as the foundation in the sections 

 is drawn into comb sooner than comb can be built 

 in the brood-nest; and the queen, unless restrained, 

 will at once begin laying in the sections. 



It is possible,— yes, pro^a/)!t',— that in the produc- 

 tion of extracted honey it would be advisable to 

 hive a swarm in a hive the brood-nest of which is 

 filled with empty frames, and the super with frames 

 of fdn., or frames of comb — a queen-excluding 

 honey-board being placed between the two apart- 

 ments. 



I do not think there is any question but that the 

 use of fdn. facilitates the building of comb. During 

 an abundant How of honey, bees can gather honey 

 faster than they can build natural comb in which to 

 store it; and at such times I think even Mr. Doolit- 

 tle would advise its use in the siu-plus department, 

 to a certain extent at least, provided there were no 

 empty combs for that department. Mr. Doolittle, 

 however, would probably not wait until the " honey 

 shower" was upon him, but would have the combs 

 all ready, they being built previously, and in a less 

 expensive manner than to have bought fdn.; at 

 least, Mr. Doolittle says he can have combs built 

 cheaper than to buy fdn., and I lielieve no one has 

 proved that Mr. D. is mistaken. 



Somebody may ask if the bees did not build con- 

 siderable drone-comb when not furnished fdn. No, 

 they build scarcely any. With me, newly hived 

 swarms having laying (pieens do not build drone- 

 comb, .lust b(<forc the bees began swarming I se- 

 j lected 25 of the best colonies, and inserted an empty 

 j frame in the center of the brood-nest of each. I 

 j did this l)ecause I wished for an abundance of 

 I superior drones. I think queen-breeders have not 

 ! paid enough attention to this point; but, never 

 mind about this now; it will suffice to say. that I 

 secured the desired result; ttl^ge empty frames 

 were filled from top to bottom with drone-comb, 

 and the CQi\ibs filled with di-one bi-ood. The bees 



