1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



83 



except as a side issue; and side-issue bee-keep- 

 ing in the tropics, where web-worms crawl 12 

 months in the year, will never affect such 

 men as Coggshall nor O. O. Poppleton ; for I 

 suppose Mr. P. will be growing Florida oranges 

 in Cuba, and raising honey as a side issue; for 

 fruit is bound to win the day in Cuba. 

 Navasota, Tex., Jan. 7. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH DRAWN FOUNDATION. 



An Interesting Article. 



BY PROF. C. P. GIIXETTE. 



[The following is a paper read at the last 

 Colorado State Convention by the Professor of 

 Entomology, C. P. Gillette, at the State Agri- 

 cultural College. It was sent us in manuscript 

 by Mr. F. L. Thompson, who suggests that it 

 should have a wider circulation than it would 

 have by being a part of the report. — Ed.] 



Last spring I obtained a quantity of drawn 

 cjmb foundation from The A. I. Root Co., for 

 the purpose of comparing its use in sections 

 with the use of the ordinary thin foundation. 

 In order to make a proper comparison the sec- 

 tions were filled half with drawn and half with 

 plain foundation, the foundation extending 

 about two-thirds of the way down in the sec- 

 tion so that the lower third would be, in each 

 case, all natural comb. 



There was no question but that the bees 

 went to work more freely upon the drawn 

 foundation. Some of the colonies worked for 

 several days upon the drawn foundation before 

 beginning on the undrawn. They do not, 



The sections on being removed from the 

 hive were as white and beautiful as any, and I 

 doubt if any but the most notional would de- 

 tect an unpleasant flavor or thickness in the 

 comb. But if the honey be extracted and the 

 comb wasbed and examined, it will be noticed 

 that the lower half of the cells, and the sep- 

 tum, are of an amber or beeswax color, quite 

 in contrast to the exquisite whiteness of comb 

 that has been made entirely by the bees. 



I found that, after carefully removing the 

 cells from the septum in natural comb, it 

 would require an average of 18.8 square feet 

 of the septum to weigh a pound. From simi- 

 lar computations I found that the septum of 

 comb built from drawn artificial foundation 

 required only 13 square feet to the pound. At 

 the same time I found that the septum of the 

 artificial drawn foundation, after the removal 

 of the cells, would require 21.8 square feet to 

 weigh a pound, wLtich shows that the artificial 

 septum, before it is worked, is lighter than 

 the natural. This seemed to me to indicate 

 very strongly that the bees, instead of thin- 

 ning this foundation, really thickened it by 

 adding to it. 



To further' test this point, I took samples of 

 foundation of three different weights, one be- 

 ing a very heavy product of home manufac- 

 ture obtained from Mr. Frank Rauchfuss ; an- 

 other was a medium-weight brood foundation, 

 and the third was a good quality of very thin 

 foundation for use in sections. In each case 

 I carefully weighed accurately measured pieces 

 of the foundation before the bees had touched 

 it, and then similar pieces of the septum of 

 comb built on each kind of foundation, and 

 the following table shows the results : — 



WEIGHTS OF FOUNDATION AND COMB SEPTA. 



however, begin storing honey at once in the 

 partly drawn artificial cells. They never fail 

 to go over every part of the surface of the cell 

 with their mandibles, so biting and roughen- 

 ing it as to render it more translucent. After 

 the cells had b;en worked over, and before 

 they had been drawn out further, the thick- 

 ness was found to be reduced about ^ inch, 

 or, in round numbers, the whole thickness 

 was reduced one-sixth. 



Another advantage from the use of the 

 drawn foundation was in the tendency to 

 unite the sides quickly and completely to the 

 section without leaving holes for passageways. 

 Where there is a thin foundation only, this is 

 often done, but the bees seem to be loath to 

 tear down the comb cells for this purpose. It 

 was also noticed that in sections having drawn 

 foundation the combs were, on an average, built 

 more strongly to the sections and with fewer 

 passageways through the sides and corners. 



The table shows very conclusively, as do the 

 samples of foundation and comb septa that I 

 here show, that in cases where heavy founda- 

 tion, or even the thinnest of ordinary founda- 

 tion, is used, the bees thin the foundation be- 

 fore storing honey upon it. 



The added weight in cases of drawn founda- 

 tion seems to be due largely to thickened de- 

 posits made upon the septum along some of 

 the angles, and not to an even distribution of 

 the added wax. These thickened deposits 

 may he quite plainly seen by looking through 

 the comb toward the light. These deposits 

 are much more abundant in some pieces than 

 in others, and just what their occasion may be 

 I can not say. Perhaps the angles at the bot- 

 tom of the cells are not just as the bee would 

 make them, or perhaps there are other imper- 

 fections in the cell that the bees cover over. 

 Th°se deposits are absent in natural comb, and 

 I find very few of tin m in comb built from or- 



