1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1033 



ity, and most perfect adaptation to circum- 

 stances. Wax is produced by the l)ee at a 

 great expenditure of labor, material, and 

 strength. Well-informed investigators say 

 that " The costliness of wax to the bee, since 

 it can be produced only at the expense of 

 many times its own weight of honey or 

 sugar, has led to great economy, one pound 

 of it being molded into 35,000 worker-cells, " 

 while others have observed 50,000 made 

 from that amount. To help the bee in this 

 economy, apiarists have found it advanta- 

 geous to use machinery which shall work the 

 same material over and over. As the combs 

 become old they are melted, the pure wax 

 taken out and remodeled into thin comb- 

 building foundations. But this 

 is in no sense the manufactur- 

 ing of a new product, but an 

 extracting, purifying, and re- 

 modeling of the bees' own choice 

 material. It simply saves the 

 bees much ax'duous labor that 

 machinery can do easier and at 

 less expense, when we consider 

 the effect on the bee. 



No one is fool enough to 

 claim that a suit of clothes 

 made on a machine is any more 

 " artificial " than one sewed by 

 hand. It is simply economy of 

 labor. Yet hundreds of pex'- 

 sons have the incorrect notion 

 that thei'e is a honey-comb 

 made from wood pulp, punk, 

 putty, paraffine, or from ma- 

 terial other than wax. I say, 

 "fool enough" advisedly, be- 

 cause a wise man changes his 

 mind (when it becomes neces- 

 sary); but a fool never. It 

 would not be surprising in 

 these days of sensational jour- 

 nalism and of false nature- 

 stories if one should get the 

 notion that artificial comb hon- 

 ey really exists; but the fool 

 part comes in when a person, 

 totally inexperienced with bees, 

 stoutly and smilingly maintains 

 that there is such a thing as 

 manufactured honey in the 

 comb. I feel sure that the in- 

 imitable fool expression of such 

 a person is the origin of the col- 

 loquialism, "The smile that 

 won't come off." No use. Do not argue. 

 It won't come. " Why, I've seen it at the 

 stores. Grocer told me all about it — was 

 several cents cheaper. I tried it; we didn't 

 like it as well as the genuine" And then 

 the bee-keeper goes away, not a wiser but 

 a madder man, and wonders why the fool- 

 killer doesn't do his duty, and why every 

 one (except the bee-keeper) knows ail about 

 bees and their products. 



It is, however, true that there are many 

 interesting problems about comb-building 

 that even the experienced bee-keeper doesn't 

 know. To me one of the most interesting of 

 these problems has been the fact that bees 



carry along at the same time the comb and 

 the storage work in the sections in all stages 

 of progress. If an empty super were put on 

 a colony so strong that the bees "boiled" 

 up into all parts of the super, so that there 

 was no vacant "standing room " left in any 

 section, one would suppose that the work of 

 comb-building wovild begin in all sections at 

 the same time, and progress with about 

 equal rapidity. But it doesn't. A few sec- 

 tions in the center will be completed before 

 work has been started in some of the outer 

 sections, and nearly all gradations may be 

 observed between the extremes. From two 

 supers on a ten-frame hive I selected one- 

 half, that is, 3'2, as shown in Fig. fi, that ex- 



FlU. 7.— DRONE-CELLS USED FOR HONEY-STORAGE 

 It will be seen that the lower part of the openintr is capped first. 

 This, with the slant of the cell, keeps the new honey from running- 

 out. 



hibited seriatim every part of the progress 

 from the first extension of the suggestive 

 nest-egg starter to the completed fancy sec- 

 tion. Another sei'ies, almost as well graded, 

 could have been made up from the other 32 

 sections. Now, why was it that there were 

 not 32 or more one-eighth filled, then one- 

 qviarter filled, then one half tilled, and so on 

 gradually, rfZ/ advancing "right dress," and 

 about equally in a uniform line of progress, 

 till all had been brought to completion ? 



Drone-cells and worker-cells are made 

 from new wax, and are at first of pearly 

 whiteness, which soon becomes yellowish. 

 Queen-cells are made mostly from surround- 



