10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1920 



this liave the effect of making Europe less 

 iiicliued to buy honey? We do not know. 

 Again, from Government market reports it 

 appears that the export shipments of honey 

 from this country have been comparatively 

 light. In the meantime it has been suggest- 

 ed that other countries which, on account of 

 wartime conditions, were unable to obtain 

 ships, have this year been sending their 

 stocks, held in reserve, to Europe, and that 

 this may possibly have lessened the demand 

 for American honey. We do not know. 



There have been a good many factors that 

 have been working; and what the result will 

 be seems to be somewhat shrouded in doubt. 

 There is some intimation that sugar may be 

 .scarce, even tho the life of the Equalization 

 Board should be continued and the price 

 held down. It is our opinion that the bee- 

 keepers of the country do not need to be 

 alarmed. If they do not lose their heads 

 and dump all their product on the market 

 at one time, it is our opinion that our do- 

 mestic needs will take up the honey unsold 

 in spite of what Europe may or may not do, 

 and in spite of what sugar may or may not 

 do. In the meantime the A. I. Koot Com- 

 pany has gone in for a heavy honey-adver- 

 tising campaign, taking as much as full- 

 page advertising in the Ladies' Home Jour- 

 nal and other magazines of its class. This 

 will mean that other bottlers will share some 

 of the benefits of this advertising. Honey 

 ought, therefore, to get on the table of the 

 consumer. What the future price of honey 

 in carlots will be is conjectural at this time; 

 but Gleanings does not expect that there 

 will be a slump in prices. 



MUCH INTEKEST has been stirred up in 

 England over the subject of comb founda- 

 tion made of metal 

 Metal Comb instead of beeswax. 



Foundation in Just how thick this 



Great Britain. metal foundation 



is, and how it is 

 made, we are not able to say; but apparent- 

 ly our British cousins, or at least some of 

 them, look with much favor on the new prod- 

 uct. New product, did we say? Eather it 

 is an old idea revived. Our Mr. A. I. Root, 

 for example, away back in 1878, 1879, and 

 1880 experimented with metal foundations 

 and was able to get combs built from them, 

 and, as the writer now remembers, brood 

 was raised and the bees stored honey in 

 them. But the coldness of the metal base, 

 and the expense of the product, caused him 

 to drop it. He then tried wood-veneer foun- 

 dation; but the difficulty of manufacturing 

 the article caused him to drop that likewise, 

 notwithstanding he succeeded in having the 

 bees build combs on it. During the past 

 summer our Mr. Mell Pritchard tried wood- 

 base foundation again, and succeeded in get- 

 ting combs. But the combs were not per- 

 fect, because the foundation, or, rather, the 

 cell-wall indentations on the wood veneer, 

 were inperfect. 



Verv recentlv various substitutes for wax 



in comb foundation have been tried out in 

 California; but with what degree of success 

 we are not yet advised. It appears that 

 while the combs built from "pure metal 

 foundation ' ' in England, have not yet gone 

 much beyond the experimental stage, the re- 

 sult seems to be hopeful. The claims made 

 for it are these: Durability, sterilization in 

 case of disease, safety of bees in moving, 

 and elimination of drone-cells. The claim 

 might also be made by our friends across 

 the big pond, that such combs would be 

 stronger for extracting, allowing of a higher 

 rate of speed in the extractor so that the 

 combs would come out drier. 



A recent talk with Dr. Phillips of the 

 Bureau of Entomology would indicate that 

 he does not believe in the practicability of 

 metal-comb foundation, as he thinks it will 

 dissipate the heat of a cluster of bees more 

 than the aluminum comb. 



The McDonald Metal Combs. 



There seems to be a desire if not a move- 

 ment on the part of beekeepers all over the 

 world for a foundation that will not stretch 

 while being drawn out into comb, so that all 

 the cells will be worker. There is no doubt 

 but that a comb that will stand rough usage 

 in the extractor, and that will admit of a 

 high rotary speed, is desirable. And this 

 brings up the question of the McDonald 

 aluminum combs. We have made no state- 

 ment concerning these, as we desire more 

 time to test them. However, a number are 

 asking what has been the result of our ex- 

 periments thus far. We can get the queen to 

 lay in them, and the bees will develop the 

 eggs into brood; but, apparently, neither 

 likes the metal combs as well as they do 

 those made entirely of wax. In one case 

 last summer, where we confined a colony on 

 nothing but metal combs the brood-rearing 

 was spasmodic and sporadic, and finally the 

 colony dwindled down to almost nothing. 

 There was no trace of any disease. We are 

 not saying that others can not succeed and 

 have not succeeded in getting brood in these 

 combs. It is our opinion thus far that the 

 future of the combs lies more in the storage 

 of honey for general extracting purposes. 



We have on the metal combs in winter 

 quarters two colonies, which we are watch- 

 ing with much interest. 



The metal combs turned out by the Mc- 

 Donald Aluminum Honey Comb Co., are a 

 marvel of mechanical perfection; and if the 

 bees will store honey in them as readily as 

 they will in combs of wax, there might be 

 a great future for them. Our experiments 

 thus far would lead us to feel, however, that 

 for straight brood-rearing or storage pur- 

 poses the bees prefer combs made of wax. 

 We may. however- revise this opinion later 

 on. Gleanings has all along pursued the 

 policy of watchful waiting. For the pres- 

 ent, at least, we do not wish anything said 

 above to be construed as saying that metal 

 combs will not be a success. We don "t 

 know. We are, at present, awaiting the ver- 

 dict of the bees. 



