FuBRrARV, 1922 



G T. E A N T N G S IN BEE C U L T U R E 



79 



WOOD BASE FOUNDATION 



Is This the Solution of the Long 



Standing ProbUm of Durable Non 



Sagging Combs ? 



By H. H. Root 



THE sociiriuji 

 of 11 o a r 1 >■ 

 ]i r 1' c (' t 

 combs, that will 

 stand the heat 

 of the sumiiior 

 witliout sagging 

 or breaking, is a 

 problem nearly 

 as old as bee- 

 keeping itself. Ill the days of the box hive, 

 beekeepers fastened wooden sticks about 

 one-half inch in diameter thru the middle of 

 the hive to support the combs, these sticks 

 running horizontal!}' in different directions 

 thus crossing each other. 



After Langstroth first brought out the 

 movable-frame hive in 1853, both he and 

 Quinby tried out 

 wooden bars run- 

 ning thru the mid- 

 dle of the frame 

 either vertically 

 or horizontally to 

 help support the 

 combs, as well as 

 f u r n i s h winter 

 ])assageways thru 

 Crimpin? machine used by the combs. Quin- 

 Moses Quinhy in 1870 for bv reported that 

 making the cells of his metal without such sup- 

 combs. 1 1 X 



ports he had trou- 

 ble from combs heavy with honey breaking 

 down in hot weather. 



Working further on this problem in 1870, 

 Quinby made metal combs quite similar to 

 the metal combs now being tried out again 

 in this country and in England. To make 

 tliese metal combs Quinby built a machine 

 to crimp the thin tin stri]is which were used 

 in building up these artificial combs. From 

 the accompanying illustrations, taken from 

 a revised edition of Quinby 's book, it will 

 be seen that these metal combs, made more 

 than 50 years ago, were assembled in almost 

 exactly the same 

 way as the alumi- 

 num combs of to- 

 day, the difference 

 being that t h e 

 cells on each side 

 of the septum 

 were made up sep- 

 arately and at- 



t a C h e d to the Diagram showing how the 

 sheets of tin cnmped metal was placed to- 

 , . , , , ,, gather by Quinbv to form 



which formed the the metal combs, 



septum. This is 



the principle now used in England in man- 

 ufacturing the ' ' Semi-Comb. ' ' The alumi- 

 num combs made in the United States have 

 a septum incorporated in the strips of metal 

 by the manner in which the metal is crimp- 

 ed, so that the cells on both sides, as well as 

 the septum, are assembled at once. 



In the early days of comb foundation, 

 which came into use in this country in 1876, 

 A. I, Root (.'onductcd muny e.xperi"ieiits to 





s t r (■ II g t h (■ n 

 (■ o 1)1 1) s t () pre- 

 vent sagging or 

 breaking out in 

 t ii e extractor. 

 In these experi- 

 ments he tried 

 imbedding cloth, 

 paper, wood ve- 

 neer and other 

 material within the foundation, but gave up 

 all of these in favor of wires stretched thru 

 the frames similar to the way this is done 

 today, except that he used vertical wires to- 

 gether with a support made of folded tin 

 in the middle of the frame. 



Dr. Miller used small wooden splints, 

 which were impregnated with hot wax and 

 imbedded in the foundation vertically, to 

 strengthen and support the comb. While 

 these prevent the sagging of the combs they 

 do not strengthen them sutficiently for the 

 rough use they usually receive in the ex- 

 tractor. 



Different Methods of Wiring Frames. 

 If there is a form of wiring a frame that 

 we hnvo not tried, it is a fdrni that none 



11 



4, 



i.«"^':E,£^jtLr^. 



Foundation 

 base. 



with wire cloth incorporated in tl 

 This has not proved successful. 



have thought of. We have tested every 

 conceivable form of horizontal wiring; we 

 have tried vertical wiring — five, seven and 

 nine vertical strands — and we have tried a 

 combination of the tw^o, both horizontal and 

 vertical. For two seasons we have been 

 using what is known as the California plan. 

 In addition to the four horizontal wires, a 

 diagonal wire extends from the bottom of 

 one end-bar, up across two tacks in the top- 

 bar and down to the bottom of the other 

 end-bar, the end-bars being notched to per- 

 mit the diagonal wiring. This plan makes 

 a much stronger comb; but, unless all the 

 wires are perfectly imbedded, deformed or 

 drone cells are formed at the intersections. 

 We have tried again the tin stays that A. I. 

 Root used years ago, as well as the vertical 

 wood splints advocated by Dr. Miller. 



Some of these plans are good so far as the 

 prevention of stretching and consequent 

 building of drone comb are concerned, but 

 in none of them are combined all the good 

 qualities that should ])rovail in a durable 

 comb. 



Two ycart) ago we began experimenting 



