628 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



comb-honey hives of the 8 and 10 frame Dove- 

 tail patterns. This will leave the center 

 grounds for nuclei, swarms, special hives, and 

 test work. 



What we propose to do, and how we shall 

 go about it, I will not at this writing say; but 

 the apiary is established, and your humble 

 servant has been put at the head of both de- 

 partments; and if I live I hope to see man}' a 

 bee-crank (as well as poultry) who have been 

 " over the ground " in the past. 



Baltimore, Md. 



RIETSCHE AND FACTORY FOUNDATION COM- 

 PARED AGAIN. 



Which is the Cheaper for the Poor Man to Buy ? 



BY F. L. THOMPSON. 



Mr. Editor : — Inclosed find a sample of 

 foundation made on a Rietsche press. It is 

 part of a sample which came in a letter from 

 Herr Rietsche himself. I had not intended to 

 say much more on this subject; but on reflec- 

 tion I conclude it is too important to be allow- 

 ed to drop in its present stage. 



In his letter Herr Rietsche says that, given 

 the ability (to work the machine, I suppose), 

 his press turns out the exact thickness, and 

 consequently strength, of foundation desired 

 for use in the brood-nest. For example, the 

 smallest size, which is 22 by 17 centimeters 

 (8.(>6 X 6.69 in. ), makes 36 .sheets of a kilo of 

 wax, corresponding to a square surface of l.:>3 

 meters. The size for the normal German 

 frame (22x3.5 centimeters, longer dimension 

 vertical) makes 14 sheets to the kilo, or 1.1 

 square meters ; a press 2.') x 40 centimeters 

 makes !) or 10 sheets; or 9 to 1 meter; and so 

 on, the larger the size the thicker the founda- 

 tion, and conversely. Most bee-keepers, he 

 says, are of the opinion that foundation 

 should be no thinner than that proportion for 

 the brood-chamber, and that, for the ncrmal 

 German frame, it is much better to make only 

 12 or 13 sheets to the kilo, instead of 14. 

 Therefore, he concludes, home-made founda- 

 tion is entirely fitted to the needs of the 

 brood-nest, and" makes the bee-keeper inde- 

 pendent of the manufacturer, not to speak of 

 the facts that he can use up his own pure wax, 

 free from foul brood, and that he needs no 

 artificial helps, such as wiring, etc., to get a 

 beautiful comb built. 



It appears from this, that, when one wants 

 to wire his frames, he should specify the thin- * 

 ness of foundation he wants, as well as the 

 size, in ordering ; otherwise he will get a 

 machine making foundation thick enough to 

 dispense with wire. Perhaps this was the 

 reason the circular that came with your ma- 

 chine claimed no more for it than a square 

 meter of foundation to a kilo of wax. 



For myself I prefer wiring, for several rea- 

 sons, and am not suspicious of the puritj' or 

 cleanness of the foundation furnished by oiir 

 dealers. I favor the consideration of the 

 Rietsche press only because it saves money 

 and is easy to operate. 



The sample inclosed is stated to have been 

 made on a press which makes sheets measur- 

 ing 2.) X 20 centimeters ; hence, if the above 

 rule of proportionate thickness is exactly car- 

 ried out I judge it is a trifle thicker than that 

 made on the smallest press, which runs 1.35 

 meters to the kilo. Now, since the vertical 

 height of a sheet made on the smallest press 

 (evidently adapted to the standard " Halb- 

 rahmchen " or half-depth frame) is about 67o 

 inches, while the L. sheet is 1 j:^ inches, the 

 sample inclosed ought to represent about the 

 thickness Herr Rietsche would consider suit- 

 able to the L. sheet, 'a'itlwut iviring. In this 

 country, however, we had better assume that 

 full sheets would be wired. If so, we may 

 also assume that the thickness of 1.35 meters 

 to the kilo would be about right for the wired 

 L. sheet. If I figure rightly this is about 1]^ 

 sheets to the pound. Let us call it 7, and 

 assume further that we can do as well as a 

 ten-year-old boy at the Reichenberg conven- 

 tion, who, seeing the exhibition of foundation- 

 making, asked permission to try the machine 

 himself. His first sheet was a success, and he 

 kept on the whole afternoon, emplojnng 

 " scarcely a minute " for each sheet. Then 7 

 lbs. an hour are worked, or |1.12 an hour 

 saved (if that weight of foundation, made on 

 a mill, would cost 41 cents per lb. in quantity), 

 or |;8.96 a day at the least, with the probabili- 

 ty of at least doubling it — for Herr Rietsche 

 is too well known in Germany to make it at 

 all likely that he would make a statement of 

 the speed of his machine that no one but him- 

 self could possibly attain. 



I think something must have been decided- 

 ly wrong, either with the machine 5'ou tried 

 or the way it was worked; for in all my read- 

 ing of foreign journals I have not come across 

 a single hint that foundation could not be 

 made as thin as desired on a Rietsche press. 

 This nuich seems certain, that it will not do 

 for us Americans to be satisfied with our pres- 

 ent knowledge of the Rietsche press. We 

 must find out more about it before we drop 

 the idea. If I could save |:1.12 to $2.24 an 

 hour, I should be quite willing that the leases 

 of the cells should be considerabh^ thicker 

 than those in bought foundation ; and, for 

 that matter, is there any reason for supposing 

 that they can not be made thin ? Herr Alfon- 

 sus' statement, that foundation can be made 

 as thin on the press as on the null (on which 

 I based my first assumptions) may be accurate 

 when applied to the mill foundation that he 

 has .seen ; and whatever thinness that m;n- 

 have had, is likely to be thin enough for the 

 bases of the cells of brood foundation ; while 

 by altering the shape of the die surface (as 

 was done in making rollers for the Given 

 foundation], the amount of wax in the ivalh 

 may give the required weight and strength to 

 the foundation. However, this is all theor}- 

 with me, and I ask, for information, what is 

 the reason for assuming this can not be done 

 in a molding-press ? May not such an assump- 

 tion be something like assuming that Given 

 foundation could not be made on a roller mill ? 



Perhaps it is not altogether fanciful to sug- 

 gest further that the introduction of an easy 



