THE BEE- KEEPERS ' R E VIE W, 



199 



All who have read our little book, " The 

 Production of Comb Honey,''' know that we 

 secure more honey in the super, and some- 

 times more in the aggregate, by allowing 

 newly hived swarms to build their own 

 combs in the brood nest. Nearly :{,000 cop- 

 ies of this book have been sold, and no one 

 who has put in practice its teachings has re- 

 ported a loss of honey as the result, while 

 many have reported a gain. It is true that 

 some have objected to the plan on account 

 of not securing such perfect combs — too 

 much drone comb or combs irregularly 

 built — but more of this anon, the point we 

 wish to bring out now is that there are condi- 

 tions under which bees may build comb at a 

 profit. 



One of the principal arguments used in 

 favor of foundation is that large quantities 

 of honey are saved that otherwise would be 

 consumed in the secretion of wax. We have, 

 however, but little faith in some of the asser- 

 tions about the large amounts of honey thus 

 consumed. The most carefully conducted 

 experiments upon this point, with which we 

 are acquainted, are those made by Mr. P. L. 

 Viallon and Mr. E. E. Hasty. The former 

 concludes, from his experiments, that, when 

 bees have their liberty, not more than six 

 pounds of honey are consumed in the secre- 

 tion of one pound of wax ; while the latter 

 says : " In planning work in my own apiary 

 I consider a pound of wax as the equivalent 

 of about three pounds of honey." We be- 

 lieve that the use of foundation often, per- 

 haps we ought to say usually, results in a 

 profitable saving of honey that would have 

 been consumed expressly for. wax produc- 

 tion ; but we believe this saving has been 

 exaggerated. As we look at it, the profits of 

 using foundation arise not so much from 

 the saving of honey that otherwise would be 

 used in the elaboration of wax as in the 

 quickness with which it enables the bees to 

 furnish storage for honey. When bees are 

 gathering honey slowly, the wax that they 

 secrete without consuming honey expressly 

 for that purpose, probably furnishes suffi- 

 cient material, and there is probably abun- 

 dant time, for the building of comb in which 

 to store the honey. As the flow of honey 

 increases, the handling of larger quantities of 

 nectar increases the natural or involuntary 

 wax secretion ; but, as the yield of honey 

 increases a point is reached when honey 

 must be consumed expressly that wax may be 

 secreted. It is quite likely that, at this point. 



foundation may be used at a profit. When 

 the yield is so great that the bees cannot se- 

 crete wax and build comb with sufficient 

 rapidity to store all the honey they might 

 gather, then foundation is certainly used at 

 a profit. Furthermore, we have seen the yield 

 of honey so bountiful that even foundation 

 did not answer the purpose ; the bees could 

 not draw it out fast enough to furnish stor- 

 age for all the honey that could have been 

 brought in. At such times drawn combs are 

 needed. 



Perhaps some are ready to ask : " Well, 

 what are your deductions from all this theo- 

 rizing? What would you have us do?" 

 During the warm, working season we would 

 have the bees always building comb some- 

 where. Wax is worth saving, and is always 

 a strictly cash article. Better than this, 

 we never saw the time when a frame of 

 worker comb would not sell readily for ten 

 cents. If raising extracted honey, an empty 

 frame may be given in the super. Why not 

 put it in the brood nest ? All right, if the bees 

 don't fill it with drone comb and the queen 

 fill the comb with eggs. We once tried this 

 plan, just before swarming time, with about 

 twenty colonies, and every frame was filled 

 solid full of drone comb and every comb 

 filled with brood. If the bees hadn't the 

 swarming fever this might not occur. If 

 space for comb building were given in the 

 super, and a queen excluder used, no drone 

 brood could be reared, even if drone comb 

 were built. In raising comb honey, one 

 row of sections in a case might be furnished 

 with starters only. By the way, for our own 

 use, we should prefer these very sections in 

 which the bees had built their own combs. 

 And this reminds us that our old friend, M. 

 M. Baldridge, is very earnest in advocating 

 the non-use of foundation in sections. His 

 reason is that the honey is free from " fish 

 bones." "Chestnuts?" Yes, *' chestnuts;^' 

 but show us the bee keeper who does not 

 prefer, for his own eating, naturally built 

 coml) honey to that liuilt with foundation. 

 A correspondent, we think it was Mr. Petty, 

 mentioned, a few months ago, seeing comb 

 honey on the market labeled, "Built with- 

 out foundation." While we are advocating 

 the building of some comb honey without 

 foundation, if necessary to allow natural 

 comb building, and know that honey so 

 raised is superior 1 >ecause of the tenderness 

 of the comb, we douV)t the policy of educat- 

 ing the public upon this point. In fact, we 



