848 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUBE. 



May 



MAKING FOUNDATION "WITH A THIN 



BOARD FOR THE BASE OF THE 



CELLS. 



ALSO HAVING SAID BOARD COVERED WITH CELLS 

 ON ONLY ONE SIDE. 



a EAR SIR:— To-day I send you by mail a pack- 

 ag-e containing a fraction of a frame in- 

 tended for extracting, having a thin board 

 for the base of cells, and cells on only one 

 side. I send, also, a piece of thin board with 

 comb foundation, on same principle as the above. 

 Frames with board and ceils of the same kind as 

 the first-mentioned sample were constructed by 

 me by slicing off the cells from one side of the old 

 comb, and attaching to the board by melted wax. 



The first week in January I put a few frames of 

 this kind in the center of a good colony of bees, to 

 experiment with. They were accepted by the 

 bees, and some were filled with honey that I fed 

 the bees. The foundation put in on the same plan, 

 and at the same time, was not drawn out much by 

 the bees, owing to the very cold weather and un- 

 seasonable time. 



My idea was, to invent a comb for extracting 

 that has cells on one side only, the other side form- 

 ing a smooth straight division-board. 



Thin boards of some soft wood ^a inch thick, 

 nailed, when furnished on one side with comb, to 

 2 outside edges of the frame, I found answered my 

 purpose best, although tin or some other material 

 may be used. This board foundation T make in the 

 following manner: 



I take two of these thin boards, previously cut to 

 right size; hold them tight together with my hand, 

 then dip them in the hot wax, and I then have two 

 boards, each waxed on one side. I leave the two 

 boards together when dipped, and run them 

 through the foundation-mill in that way. The roll- 

 ers of the mill will, of course, have to be set apart 

 to admit the two boards, getting the machine out 

 of gear; therefore the machine will have to be 

 changed, so as to keep it in working order when 

 the rollers are set apart. A Given press, I think, 

 would answer very well in pressing one board at a 

 time. This new device, I think, will prove to be of 

 great value in extracting honey on a large scale. 

 The main object is to prevent the queen from lay- 

 ing eggs in combs designed for extracting, which I 

 believe will be accomplished by this new plan. 

 But this is not all. The comb, having cells on one 

 side only, will simply have to be uncapped and ex- 

 tracted on one side; and as the other side of the 

 comb has a straight board surface, the next comb 

 facing it will, when capped or sealed, be as straight 

 as a board, and the removing of the capping, as 

 compared with bulged-out combs, is an easier and 

 quicker job. Although no wiring is needed, the 

 frames and combs will be very solid and firm, and 

 great force and speed can be used in extracting 

 them. 



I conceived this plan by reading a German bee- 

 journal, in which I found it stated that Mr. Koerbs, a 

 German bee-keeper, had found out a new kind of 

 foundation which the queen would not use for lay- 

 ing eggs in; but Koerbs was keeping his invention 

 secret. This notice set me to thinking, as I have 

 long wished for a plan to keep the queen out of the 

 extracting-chamber, without using any bother- 

 some excluders. About January Ist I had worked 

 out and perfected the new device as given above. 



April 1st, of this year, however, 1 read in another 

 number of the above-mentioned bee-journal, that 

 Mr. Otto Shulz, of Germany, has procured a pat- 

 ent for Germany and Austria, on the same princi- 

 ple, differing from my invention only in the mode 

 of construction. The patent, as I understand, was 

 granted him Jan. 31, 1888. 



My object in writing this is to show that I can 

 make alBdavit, and prove by witnesses, that I made 

 and perfected my invention about Jan. 1, and be- 

 fore I heard or knew of any other similar device, 

 and is original with me. Therefore I send you, Mr. 

 Root, samples, description, and facts, and would 

 ask the favor of you to insert this in Gleanings. I 

 do not wish to secure the exclusive right to the new 

 device in this country, and I hope by publishing it 

 in your paper to prevent other parties from get- 

 ting a patent on the same in this country, and have 

 it free to all who wish to use it. 



Julius Hoffman. 



Canajoharie, N. Y., Apr. 10, 1888. 



Friend H.,if you htive l)een conversant 

 with our ABC book, you will remember 

 that, a few years ago, we gave a very strong 

 recommendation to combs built out on thin 

 wood, and foundation with wooden ])ases 

 was made and used by a good many. But 

 in our case, the queen raised brood on the 

 wooden board as well as anywhere else. 

 We have also, at different times, tried 

 combs built on tin, cloth, paper, wire cloth, 

 and every other substance imaginable. 

 None of these things are practicable. A 

 thin wire stretched once in two or three 

 inches answers the purpose better than any 

 other arrangement. They were discarded 

 mainly because of the great quantity of wax 

 that was necessarily used in the l)Ottoms of 

 the cells where they are attached to the 

 board. There is no" way to save this wax 

 except having the bases made of wax, like 

 natural comb. The idea of having the cells 

 on one side of the board and not on the oth- 

 er, I am sure is not patentaljle. The fol- 

 lowing article, bearing on this subject, is 

 from no less a personage than C. J. H. Gra- 

 venhorst, of Wilsnack, Germany. 



COMB WITH CELLS ON ONE SIDE. 



A KIND LETTER FROM C. J. H. ORAVENHORST. 



fNE day in the month of September, last year, 

 I received a letter from a friend, a bee-keep- 

 er, Mr. Koerbs, at Bad Berka, in Tern, Ger- 

 many, in which he told me he has been suc- 

 cessful in producing a new comb foundation. 

 For a few years he had his invention subjected to 

 test, and found that it works very well. Careful ob- 

 servation of the bees, suggested by a remark in the 

 third and fourth edition of my book, "The Practical 

 Bee-keeper," had prompted him to make experi- 

 ments. His new combs, Mr. Koerbs told me, had 

 the following advantages: I. They were made of 

 extra-fine beeswax by means of a hand-press, and 

 were not used by the queen for breeding, even if 

 the combs were inserted in the brood-nest. 3. They 

 were very durable. 3. The most delicate combs 

 would stand the use of full force in extracting the 

 honey. 4. The honey is extracted very quickly, 

 the operation requiring scarcely half the time it 

 takes to empty other combs. 5. In bad seasons 



