410 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



turns ill proportion to the outlay. 

 Yet anotlier fact, and not so " happy'" 

 a one is. tliat tliose who engage in the 

 liusiness, and neglect the bees in their 

 wants, are very sure to lose all the 

 time and money which they invest. 



Mr. D. states that in order to secure i 

 straight combs in the brood frames, 

 lie has ■• found a guide of some kind 

 an absolute necessity." And, al- 

 thougli he recommends "the plain strip 

 of wax •• on the under side of the top- 

 bar of the frame .... as being 

 the best,'" yet he admits that his 

 choice of a guide is a practical failure; 

 for he states in the very next sen- 

 tence that he has " found that no 

 guide can always be depended Lpon,as 

 the bees are sometimes very obsti- 

 nate, and will leave the guide so 

 as to build crooked combs, if they do 

 not go directly across the frames. 



Jslv. D. starts out in his article by 

 ■stating a truth; viz: "To have all 

 our combs built true, in the frames, 

 so that each comb is as true as a 

 board, is certainb/ worth v-orking for:" 

 (the italics are mine) and now. as he 

 admits that his kind of a comb-guide 

 is sometimes a failure, he has vir- 

 tually admitted that it will pay to try 

 some other; and he cannot claim that 

 he has thoroughly tested good sheets 

 of foundation ; for he says, " I have 

 never used 10 pounds of" foundation 

 in brood frames since I have kept 

 bees.'' It seems rather strange that 

 Mr. D. should assume to set himself 

 in judgment against an article so 

 highly recommended and so univer- 

 sally used as is comb foundation ; and 

 theii with the same dasli of his pen. 

 write that he had never used 10 pounds 

 of it ; which is virtually admitting 

 that his opinion in regard to the mat- 

 ter, is of no practical value whatever. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, in his •• Bee- Keep- 

 ers' Guide,'" page 20s, in speaking of 

 the usefulness of comb foundation, 

 says : •• The most promising use of 

 foundation, to which there can be no 

 objection, is in the brood-chamber. It 

 is astonishing to see liow rapidly the 

 bees will extend the cells, and how 

 readily the queen will stock them with 

 eggs if of the right size, o cells to the 

 inch, . . . " . The advantage of 

 foundation is, lirst. to insure worker 

 comb, and thus worker-brood; and 

 second, to furnish wax so that the 

 bees may be free to gather iioney.'' 

 Mr. D. thinks we " cannot afford to '" 

 do this. 



" Prof. Cook also says : " AVe proved 

 in our apiary the past two seasons, 

 that by the use of foundation, and a 

 little care in pruning out the drone- 

 comb, we could limit, or even exclude 

 drones from our hives." Mr. 1). says 

 that all colonies having straight 

 worker combs will be ■■ profitable. "' I 

 have owned several foundation mills, 

 and have made several different kinds 

 myself ; and have used much of di^er- 

 erit kinds of foundation for several 

 years. I have tried the experiment 

 thoroughly with 100 colonies, which 

 Mr. D. recommends in his closing re- 

 marks, and from actual and thorough 

 experiment. I do know that it would 

 pay me to purchase foundation at S2 

 per pound rather than to do with- 

 out it. 



Again, Mr. D. says that he hives 

 his swarms on 9" frames (Gallup 

 frames of course, as he uses that kind), 

 and in 2 days he opens the hive and 

 finds that the bees liave made a start 

 in -5 frames. Why! Mr. D., a good, 

 new colony of bees and only '• a start '' 

 in o frames in two days '? If you will 

 come to see me work, this season, I 

 will show you that such swarms as I 

 put on 10 frames, each nearly full of 

 foundation, will, in 2 days, have all 

 of them '^-i finished, and -5 of them 

 complete. 



Again, let me suppose that the 

 weather is such that you cannot go 

 through those new colonies until the 

 fifth or sixth day, and then if you find 

 that the colony had turned out to be 

 one of that "obstinate "' kind which 

 cuts down the guides and builds the 

 combs across the frames, — how much 

 would you lose in the operation 'r" Do 

 von not think that in that case it 

 "would have been good economy to 

 have put the swarm on frames ^vell 

 provided with foundation "r' 



A wise and careful bee-keeper 

 would not be apt to so manage as to 

 lose from 2 to days' work of a new 

 colony in the time of a good honey 

 flow;"and that is just the time tliat 

 swarms are cast. I have often put 

 swarms on 10 frames as nearly full of 

 foundation as the bees could work 

 them to advantage, and in examining 

 them days afterward. I found every 

 frame full" of comb, every comb com- 

 plete, and but a few cells"that did not 

 contain either brood, eggs, or honey. 

 Let me say, also, that in all which I \ 

 have used" foundation. I have never 

 known a colony of bees to build combs 

 in a different direction than that in 

 which the foundation was put in for 

 them. It is true that if the sheets of 

 foundation are so placed in the hive 

 that the distance between them is too 

 great, then the bees will be very 

 likely to build thin sheets of comb 

 betw"een them. It is also true tliat 

 some kinds of foundation, if put in 

 nearly large enough to fill the frame, 

 will, "many times, sag and warp while 

 the bees are working them out. Mr. 

 D. says : " It pays the apiarist to 

 look at each colony hived on empty 

 frames, while they are building 

 combs, as often as once in three days. 

 If any combs are found going wrong, 

 they can be bent back in line very 

 easily."' I would like to have ^Ir. I), 

 tell us whether a comb a little out of 

 a true plane built on comb founda- 

 tion, is not as " easily " straightened 

 as is one built after one of his favor- 

 ite comb-guides 'r' 



I have had several thousand combs 

 built on foundation, and I do not now 

 remember that I everfoundone, when 

 finished, so badly warped as to spoil 

 it: and I have never examined a col- 

 ony ior the purpose of straightening 

 the combs ; I pay no attention to that 

 work until I have the combs out for 

 some other purpose. 



Mr. D. says that until he is better 

 satisfied that comb foundation pays, 

 than he has been from past experi- 

 ments, he expects to build all his 

 combs in the future, after the plan 

 which he has given. I would like to 

 ask Mr. D. how he expects to become 



better satisfied that comb foundation 

 pays while he refuses or neglects to 

 give it a full and, fair trial 'f 



Mr. I), states that he would like to 

 have all the " advocates of founda- 

 tion " trj- an experiment, as given in 

 his closing remarks, and see which of 

 the two colonies comes out ahead. I 

 would like to have yir. D. try 2 or 3 

 swarms hived on a full set of Gallup 

 frames, half of those frames furnished 

 with 2 sheets each of foundation, and 

 each sheet 2% inches wide and 3 

 inches deep. This would leave a little 

 open space between the sheets in the 

 centre, and also between their outer 

 edges and the end-bars (these sheets, 

 6 square feet to the pound, will give 

 good results). Furnish the other half 

 of the frames with his simple wax- 

 guides, and hang those fimiished 

 with foundation in one end of the 

 hive, and the empty frames in the 

 other ; then open the" hive every day 

 until all the combs are complete, and 

 see which progresses the fastest from 

 first to last, and also where the most 

 eggs are deposited from first to last. 



Trv another swarm on like furnished 

 frames, hanging those with and those 

 without foundation alternately 

 through the hive, and then examine 

 them daily as above. Xotice in the 

 latter also, whether he does not suc- 

 ceed as well in securing straight 

 combs, and in the rio;ht direction, in 

 his emptv frames as he would if he 

 had hung them between full combs. 

 And finally, will Mr. I), tell us how 

 large voung-swarms he gets down 

 there in Borodino ":* I would laugh to 

 see him crowd a good colony of bees 

 up to the capacity of •') Gallup frames 

 after being hive 2 days here in Wis- 

 consin. 



Orion, Wis. 



rnr the American Bee Journal. 



Overstocking a Locality. 



W. F. K.\NZLER. 



1. All persons have the right to 

 keep bees on their own premises. 



2. If a man has an aversion to bees 

 and bee-stings, he will not keep bees, 



3. Any man who likes bees and their 

 handling, will keep as many colonies 

 as he can profitably care for. 



4. Xoman knows overstocking by 

 his own experience— concerning the 

 number of colonies : for if he keeps a 

 certain number of colonies, he, at the 

 same time and place cannot keei) a 

 lesser or higher number. For in- 

 stance : If he keeps 20 colonies, he 

 cannot keep 5, 100. 200 or .300 colonies 

 at the same time in his yard ; neither 

 can he know what these o. 100. 200 or 

 .300 would vield in the same season ; 

 but he knows only the yield of his 20 

 colonies. 



•5. Therefore, if we cannot prove 

 overstocking, bv our own experience, 

 we can only speak of it by guessing 

 at it— it is nothing but guess-work, or 

 an imaginary evil. 



0. In a good season my bees will 

 produce as good an average as my 

 neighbor's; i. e.. provided we both 

 have the same skill, hives and strains 

 of bees, regardless of the number of 

 colonies. 



