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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



well Oil toward completion, the case was 

 lifted, and a case of new sections, filled 

 with Dadant's extra thin foundation, 

 was put in its place, and then a bee- 

 escape board was placed on it, the 

 lifted case, with its bees and honey, was 

 placed on the escape-board and left there 

 until the bees had all passed through 

 the escape below. This case >vas then 

 given to one of the feeding colonies to 

 be completed, and the trial colony was 

 left to go to work on the new sections. 

 The feeding went on regularly at three 

 pounds a day, diluted with one and one- 

 half pints of water. It required 41 

 pounds of honey to complete the 32 

 sections. 



The second case was prepared with 

 starters only, of the same make of foun- 

 dation, the feeding was kept going with- 

 out intermission, and it required 30 

 pounds to finish up the 32 sections,' 

 showing that there was a loss somewhere 

 in the first experiment. 



A third trial, with starters only, was 

 made, and it required just the same as 

 the preceding trial — 30 pounds — to com- 

 plete the 32 sections. In the aggregate 

 there was fed 101 pounds of honey, and 

 96 sections were completed — an average 

 of 333^ pounds to the case of 32 sections. 



Were I to stop here, these figures 

 would be mislea'ding, as the idea is 

 abroad that a one-pound section means, 

 in fact, one pound of honey, which is by 

 no means the case. The sections used 

 were 1^ inches in width, and fitted 

 closely between tin separators. The 

 cases were accurately weighed before 

 they were given to the bees, and 

 weighed again after they were taken off 

 of the hive. In net honey, and wax 

 added by the bees, the sections averaged 

 exactly 12 ounces — 24 pounds to the 

 case of 32 sections. 



It will be seen that the 3 cases of 

 sections of 32 each, contained 72 

 pounds of honey net weight, and it re- 

 quired 101 pounds of liquid honey to 

 produce the 72 pounds of comb-honey. 

 But as a matter of fact, these 12-ounce 

 sections represent in the trade one jjound 

 of lioney each, as they are sold by the 

 piece for as much as heavier sections 

 built without separators, and as a mat- 

 ter of profit, this is the way to put it. 



Upon this basis, I produced 96 sections 

 (12 ounces each), worth, at 14 cents 

 each, $13.44, at a cost of 101 pounds 

 of extracted-honey at 10 cents, worth 

 $10.10; leaving a profit of $3.34, less 

 the cost of sections and foundation 

 starters. 



In conclusion, I wish to say that I 

 have had too much experience to be 



carried away by the results of an ex- 

 periment of this kind as it cannot be 

 known how much honey (if any) may 

 have been carried by the bees from a 

 brood-chamber crowded with pealed 

 honey, during the time these sections 

 were in process of completion, but I 

 think there are more chances in favor of 

 loss in this direction than gain, and if 

 I live, I hope to be able to repeat these 

 experiments on a larger scale in the 

 future.* 

 Christiansburg, Ky. 



Cell of tie Honey-Bee, 



W. H. RAI6ENT. 



When we behold this little insect con- 

 structing its cell, to contain its Winter 

 stock of honey — constructing it of that 

 form which is demonstrably the strong- 

 est, and the most convenient — it seems 

 the extravagance of absurdity to suppose 

 that the instinct by which it is directed 

 is the offspring of ignorance. 



The phenomenon, indeed, is one of the 

 most extraordinary that the animal 

 world presents to our contemplation. It 

 must be evident to every one who has 

 given the least attention to the obvious 

 properties of different figures, that there 

 are only three which will admit the 

 junction of their sides, without any 

 vacant spaces between them, all the 

 figures being equal and similar, namely, 

 the square, the equilateral triangle, and 

 the hexahedron ; of these the last is the 

 strongest and most convenient. 



In this form, then, we find that all the 

 cells are constructed. This is a curious 

 and wonderful fact ; and what is quite 

 remarkable, the middle of every cell on 

 one side is directly opposite to the point 

 where the three partitions meet on the 

 opposite side. By this position the cell 

 receives additional strength. 



This is not all. If human ingenuity 

 were to contrive a cell, which would 

 require the least expenditure of material 

 and labor, it would be a question not 

 easily solved, at what precise angle the 

 three planes which compose the bottom 

 ought to meet. 



The late celebrated mathematician, 

 Maclaurin, by a fluxionary calculus, 

 determined precisely the angle required; 

 and he found by the most exact men- 

 suration the subject would admit, that 

 it is the very angle in which three planes 

 in the bottom of a cell of honey-comb do 

 actually meet. The same curious fact 

 was ascertained by a German mathema 



