212 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



is coming in plentifully the sections should 

 always be on the hive, and the matter of 

 whether they should be filled with founda- 

 tion or not depends on whether we use foun- 

 dation or empty combs below. If we use 

 foundation in both the sections and the 

 brood frames during a good flow of honey, 

 we may be assured that we are doing so at 

 the entire loss of it in one or the other place, 

 for the Ijees always secrete wax enough at 

 such times to furnish combs for either the 

 one or the other, and if not used must l)e 

 surely wasted ; the wasting of this wax 

 meaning the same as the wasting of the 

 same amount of foundation and the time 

 and trouble of putting it in the frames or 

 sections. Does any one doubt this 'i Let 

 him look at the bees during such times of 

 plenty, and he or she will doubt no longer. 

 The wax pockets have each a wax scale in 

 them which is plainly seen as the bees hang 

 on the limb of a tree or on our swarming 

 basket. 



In the past it has been my practice often 

 to hold swarms out on limbs of trees from 

 one to four hours, according to different 

 experiments I wished to make, they being 

 thus held by placing the queen in a cage 

 with them. They could hot go off as long as 

 the queen was caged, for should they try to 

 do so they would return as soon as they 

 found the queen was not with them. In all 

 of these cases of holding swarms, when 

 honey was coming in from the fields, there 

 would be little lumps of wax all along on 

 the under side of the limb or swarming 

 basket, and where the swarm was held as 

 long as four hours, these lumps of wax 

 would begin to assume the form of comb. 

 If I hived such swarms, in a hive having 

 both the hives and sections tilled with comb, 

 I would find the bottom board to the hive 

 well covered with wax scales the next morn- 

 ing, while the combs which I had given 

 would be all plastered over with wax scales, 

 partly or wholly welded on here and there 

 promiscuously on the outer edges of the 

 cells. On an old black comb this is very 

 noticable, but with new white combs it is 

 not so plainly seen. Even bees in the field 

 after honey, have wax scales on them in 

 times of plenty, as Prof. Cook tells us 

 about, and it seems folly to me to use foun- 

 dation in all parts of the hive when the bees 

 are all prepared to build comb in this way. 

 It is even worse than folly, for the bees are 

 not often content to allow this wax to be 



wasted by tumbling it to the bottom of the 

 hive, and so they use it on the combs and 

 foundation, making them twice as thick and 

 heavy as they should be to be relished by the 

 consumer of honey ; hence the term " fish 

 bone " was given to the foundation in honey 

 in former years. 



Understand me : I do not say that all 

 foundation was formerly made as thin as it 

 should be ; but I do say, that the allowing of 

 no space in which the bees could build comb 

 had considerable to do with this state of 

 affairs. Instead of the bees drawing out the 

 foundation as it was expected they would, 

 they simply added their wax to it by welding 

 it to the side walls of the foundation, using 

 their own wax for the cells from there out, 

 entirely, so that after a section was com- 

 pleted this wax could be scraped off, when 

 we had the foundation as perfect as it was 

 when first placed in the sections. I became 

 so disgusted with this matter when 1 first 

 used foundation that I declared that I would 

 never use any more ; but after finding the 

 way of using empty brood frames when the 

 sections were filled with foundation, I have 

 taken back what I said. 



I once took a piece of foundation out of a 

 filled section of honey, scraped the honey 

 off, washed and dried it. sent it to the maker, 

 together with an unused piece and asked 

 him which had been used and which had 

 not. He sent them back saying " I cannot 

 tell." From the above I now hive colonies 

 or swarms on frames having only starters in 

 them, where I fill the sections with founda- 

 tion, and use only starters in the sections 

 where I use frames of comb or foundation 

 in the brood chamber. 



BoKODiNo, N. Y., Nov. 2r>, 1890. 



Compliments to a Venerable Falsehood. 



E. E. HASTY. 



RjHE venerable F. seems to have but one 

 \p fact to stand on, and that is this. 

 When bees in warm weather are shut 

 up, or subjected to such unnatural condi- 

 tions as annoy them seriously, they will con- 

 sume large amounts of feed, and secrete 

 very small amounts of wax. Cause why ? 

 The feed is used to repair the waste which 

 worry makes in their own systems, and in 

 giving themselves the dysentery. Suppose, 

 friend Hutchinson, you should seize a num- 

 ber of young men and women, should insult 

 them, and make them thoroughly mad, with- 



