1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



219 



natural comb. No. 6 Fr. is comb built out 

 from foundation made from plates; and before 

 it was drawn out it looked very much like 

 sample 7. The bees have apparently thicken- 

 ed the bases, because they were too thin at the 

 start. Even now they are no thicker than 

 those show n in 1 and 2, built wholly by the 



bees. They 

 have made 

 the walls so 

 thin and 

 gauze - like 

 that they 

 almost dis- 

 appear. In 

 fact, they 

 can just be 

 discerned. 



This and 

 former ex- 

 peiime n ts 

 show that we can stick as much wax as we 

 like in the walls, for it will be thinned down ; 

 but we must be carefid about getting too much 

 in the bases ; for while the bees may thin it 

 there, they 

 rarely d o ; 

 and the ex- 

 cess of wax, 

 therefore, in 

 the bases, 

 is simply 

 so much 

 waste prod- 

 u c t , and 

 who pars 

 for it ? The 

 bee-keeper and not the supply-dealer. 



Probably the new foundation will not run, 

 for the same superficial surface, any lighter 

 than foundation commonly in use. It is found 

 that, when foundation is too light, the bees 

 either tear it down or else the)' are very slow 

 to take hold of it. Although we have made 

 extra-thin foundation for years, running about 

 12 or 13 feet to the pound, the bulk of the 

 trade calls for ordinary thin, running 10 to 11 

 feet. A customer may order the extra-thin ; 

 but in nine cases out of ten, the following 

 year he will order the next heavier grade ; 

 but, as I said, the ordinary 10 and 11 foot-to- 

 the-pound surplus foundation now on the 

 market has almost no wall, but a great surplus 

 of wax in the base. 



No. 11 is the ordinary thin super, running 

 11 feet to the pound ; and No. 13, extra thin 

 running 13 feet to the pound, and is like what 

 is being turned out on rolls by foundation- 

 makers, including ourselves. If these be 

 drawn out into comb by the bees we shall 

 have the same thick bases as there shown, 

 without any apparent change. For instance, 

 the samples shown in the accompanying fig- 

 ures 15 and 16 show first the iounda'.ion and 

 then the comb after the bees have worked it 

 out. It will be observed that in the above 

 case the base is left almost untouched. 



The second sample, and last one shown, is 

 brood foundation worked out into comb, and 

 regarding it the same rule holds true as in the 

 case of that designed for the supers. We are 



indebted to the Canadian Bee Journal for 

 these last two engravings. We have other 

 cuts that show the^e things just as strongly, 



\ 

 / 

 \ 

 / 

 \ 

 J 



\ 



J 



> 

 \ 



\ 



h\G. 15. 

 and personally I am thoroughly convinced 

 that the foundation of the future should and 

 will have thinner bases. 



FIG. 16. 



Mr. Weed !has already made a set of small 

 plates that make the right kind of foundation; 

 and I also told him I thought he could make 

 a set of rolls that would make the same article, 

 or nearly that. He is skeptical about it, but 



