October, igog. 



American Hee Journal 



who report success with stings apply 

 them in such heroic doses that some 

 might think the remedy worse than the 

 disease. 



Honor to Whom Honor. 



On page 300, C. P. Dadant speaks of 

 percolating syrup " by the method first 

 recommended " by me. That was not 

 original with me. I don't now believe 

 there's any great advantage in it. Sugar 

 stirred in water till dissolved is as good 

 as anything. 



On page 310, James Wolfe mentions 

 the " Miller division-board feeder." G. 

 M. Doolittle was the man bright enough 

 to think that up. 



Marengo, 111. 



Section Comb Foundation- -A 

 Review 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A few evenings ago a bee-keeper 

 called me up over the long-distance 

 telephone to ask how long comb foun- 

 dation for the sections had been known, 

 as he and another bee-keeper had been 

 in a dispute over the matter. I told 

 him that I thought it was about the 

 year IST-x Afterward I was not so sure 

 about the matter, so I hunted up what 

 I could in my old diaries regarding 

 this. Then I thought perhaps there 

 were others of our younger bee-keep- 

 ers who would like to know regarding 

 this foundation which has become an 

 article of commodity till hundreds of 

 thousands of pounds are used through- 

 out the world. 



Near the close of the honey season 

 for IST") I received from William Hoge, 

 of New York City, a package of comb 

 foundation to use in the surplus boxes, 

 as sections were not then known by 

 that name, he saying as an e.xplanation, 

 that a great saving was to be made by 

 the use of it, as the bees would draw 

 the side-walls out ta full-length cells, 

 thus making the combs out of the wax 

 in the foundation. As it was then 

 claimed that it took at least 20 pounds 

 of honey to make one pound of wax as 

 produced by the bees, a saving of $4 

 per pound was gained, as honey sold 

 readily at 2o cents per pound in those 

 days, and a pound of foundation cost 

 but $1. This was supposing, of course, 

 that the pound of foundation would 

 hold as much honey after being drawn 

 out as would a pound of natural comb, 

 and as it looked reasonable at first 

 sight, I tested the matter by buying a 

 few pounds. 



As the honey season was very nearly 

 over when the foundation came, I had 

 to feed some extracted honey to get 

 the sections containing the foundation 

 sealed over, when I had as nice looking 

 sections of honey as I ever saw built 

 with natural comb. However, I was 

 soon convinced that the claim of sav- 

 ing to the bees was erroneous, as upon 

 cutting, or rather trying to cut, these 

 sections of honey the knife would stop 

 when it came to the foundation, and 

 upon examination (which was done by 

 a little scraping and washing) I found 

 I had my original piece of foundation 

 untouched, except as the bees had 

 added their wax to it in building on 

 the cells. 



The next year more was used, and I 

 procured some "from another party, as 

 by this time others had begun to make, 

 but with the same results. 



That fall I began to expostulate with 

 one of the largest manufacturers, rea- 

 soning that after awhile our honey 

 market would be spoiled if we persisted 

 in using such thick stuff as a base to 

 the comb in our surplus comb honey. 

 Time passed on, but complaints began 

 to come in about the heavy wax; or 

 what was termed " fish-bone," in the 

 center of "some of the comb honey on 

 the market, so I again expostulated to 

 the manufacturer, but was met with the 

 reply: " It is utterly incomprehensible 

 the way you stick to your old notions 

 on foundation ; it has filled the markets 

 with the most beautiful comb honey so 

 far seen." 



Soon after this the American Bee 

 Journal lifted up its voice of warning, 

 and bee-conventions resolved against 

 its use for comb honey for the market 

 to such an extent that some of the 

 large honey-producers began to study 

 on the matter of making a very thin 

 foundation to overcome this difficulty. 

 As a result, the Van Deusen flat-bot- 

 tomed foundation appeared before the 

 public, when we had foundation so 

 thin that it took from 10 to 12 square 

 feet to make a pound, while the old 

 Hoge foundation gave less than .5 feet 

 to the pound, and none of the other 

 more than 6 feet. This seemed to be 

 successful as far as fish-bone was con- 

 cerned, but as the bees had to change 

 the flat bottoms into a lozenge-shaped 

 septum, it began to be whispered that 

 this was not accepted as readily by tlie 

 bees as foundation with a natural- 

 shaped septum. However, this was far 

 ahead of any brought before the public 

 so far, and thus it could be readily seen 

 that we were making progress. 



Then the first made was of bleached 

 wax. as we thought only zvhiU' wax 

 could be used, and this was much 

 harder than that which was unbleached, 

 so it appeared to a still worse advan- 

 tage in eating the honey than the softer 

 yellow wax of the present day would 

 have done. 



In 1880 still another advance was 

 made, as a Mr. Vandervort succeeded 

 in making a machine which would turn 

 out foundation with the lozenge-shaped 

 base, running as high as 12 square feet 

 to the pound, which caused the North- 

 eastern Bee-Keepers' Convention, in 

 1881. to give preference to that over 

 the flat-bottomed. 



Later on a Mr. Given, of Illinois, 

 came forth with a press which gave 

 thin foundation by a strong pressure 

 of the wax when it was soft and pliable 

 under the proper temperature, while all 

 the previous makes had been swedged, 

 as it were, by passing it through metal 

 rollers having the foundation impress 

 on them. This pressed foundation was 

 claimed to be so much softer than the 

 swedged, that the bees worked it 

 enough more readily to pay for the 

 foundation in the extra amount of 

 honey stored in it; and also that they 

 drew out and used all the wax in botli 

 septum and si<le walls. 



Next came Mr. Foster, of Iowa, with 

 his moulds, upon which melted wax 

 was poured ,when the moulds were shut 

 up under pressure, and in this way 



foundation was cast in a similar way to 

 that in which our fathers cast bullets 

 for their rifles. This last was claimed 

 to be the most soft and pliable of any- 

 thing so far, so that the bees would 

 take to it as " a duck takes to water." 



Then came still other so-called im- 

 provements, such as making the base 

 of the cells Tery thin while the side- 

 walls were heavier, so that the bees 

 were sure to economize the wax in 

 these side-walls by making thin cell- 

 walls, etc. ; till when the nineties came 

 on apace we had section foundation as 

 near perfection as it seemed possible 

 for comb honey, the base of some of 

 it being actually thinner than that of 

 natural comb. 



Having thus wrought out the problem 

 of perfect comb foundation for our sec- 

 tion honey, the question which next 

 came up was, will it pay fo use it? To 

 this nearly every bee-keeper in the 

 United States gave an afiirmative an- 

 swer; but there were a few who had 

 their doubts about it, even although the 

 price had been reduced from $1.00 a 

 pound down to a little more than one- 

 half that. These few claimed that the 

 difficulty about this financial part of 

 the matter was, that at times the bees 

 only add their wax on the rudimentary 

 cell-walls of the foundation, not draw- 

 ing the cell-walls out at all, for when 

 honey was coming in rapidly there 

 was an involuntary secretion of wax to 

 an extent great enough to build all the 

 needed combs, and therefore this wax 

 was added to the cell-walls, or wasted 

 by being dropped on the floor of the 

 hive, or in building burr and brace 

 combs, which were a nuisance to the 

 apiarist when he wished to manipulate 

 the hives from any cause ; so that comb 

 foundation was of no value for any- 

 thing further than starters for the sec- 

 tions. However, as these downpours 

 of honey cannot be calculated on very 

 often, there is no one of the present 

 day but who considers it as economy 

 to use sections filled with this extra- 

 thin foundation. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



Apiculture and Apiarian 

 Pathology 



BY R.\LPH BENTON. 



As an industry based upon a knowl- 

 edge of the structures and habits of an 

 insect. Apiculture can be most profit- 

 ably studied after one or more courses 

 in Entomology have been pursued. 

 While such courses are not prereq- 

 uisite for work in general apiculture, 

 they do become prerequisite for the 

 advanced courses in apicultural prac- 

 tice. Students are therefore advised to 

 pursue courses in Entomology either 

 Ijefore entering upon or parallel with 

 the earlier courses in Apiculture. 



Courses 13 and 14 pursued by lower 

 division students in the colleges of 

 general culture count as prescribed 

 work in natural sciences in those col- 

 leges. They are especially suitable as 

 preparation for nature study work, and 

 as such should be preceded or accom- 

 panied by Entomolgy 1, Section II de- 

 voted mainly to a study of the honey- 

 bee. 



The growing demand for specialists 



