THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



249 



which there is a large space between the top 

 bars and the sections, there may be more ad- 

 vantage in the brace combs than some of us 

 imagine, but advantage or no advantage, 

 brace combs built against the sections or 

 the receptacle in which they are placed can 

 never be tolerated. 



Flat -Bottomed Foundation Not as Liable 



to Have Fish - Bone in the Comb, But 



Not as Acceptable to the Bees. 



As the report of Mr. Taylor's foundation 

 experiments for the past season appears in 

 this issue of the Review, it is quite appro- 

 priate to reproduce from the last issue of 

 Gleanings the following from Mr. Doolittle. 



" Bees never leave the base of the cells as 

 they come from a foundation-mill making 

 foundation with fiat-bottomed cells. This 

 is one reason why there is never a base of 

 yellow wax apparent with flat-bottomed 

 foundation, where such is used in producing 

 comb honey. With foundation having the 

 natural-shaped base, the bees often, in times 

 of an excessive honey flow, add their own 

 wax right on to the raised part of the foun- 

 dation, so that this added part can he scraped 

 off with the honey, the foundation washed, 

 and the same be nearly or quite as perfect 

 as when given to the bees. This gave rise to 

 the ' fish-bone ' center in comb honey, com- 

 plained of when comb foundation was first 

 used for sections, and the flat-bottomed pro- 

 cess of making foundation was invented es- 

 pecially to overcome this 'fish-bone,' if I 

 am correctly informed. \Vhen bees are given 

 the flat-bottomed foundation, the first thing 

 they do is to go to work to change the base ; 

 and in doing this the side walls are manipu- 

 lated also, but just how this work is accom- 

 plished 1 have never been able to tell after 

 all the close looking I have been enabled to 

 do ; for, when the work is being done, the 

 bee has its head in the cell ; hence the vision 

 of curious eyes is cut off so long as it is at 

 work. While I prefer this foundation to all 

 other makes for section honey, it has two 

 drawbacks, which are, that this manipula- 

 tion of the base of the cells takes time, so 

 that sections filled with such foundation are 

 not completed quite as quickly as is the case 

 where the natural shaped base is used ; and 

 where the sections are placed on the hive be- 

 fore the honey flow is fully on, the bees will 

 mischievously work at it far more than they 

 will that with the natural base, often biting 

 and tearing it down, where the honey flow 

 we expected does not come, so that it is 

 necessary to look after the sections to see 

 that they are all right when the bees are 

 about to enter them to fill with honey, after 

 they have been on the liives during a season 

 or period of scarcity. I liave had hundreds 

 of sections which were filled with this foun- 

 dation, and which had been on the hives 

 during a period of scarcity of honey, the 



foundation of which was eaten or gnawed 

 away so that only a neck of foundation, of 

 from a quarter to half an inch wide remained 

 next to the tops of the sections, while the 

 lower half of the foundation remained as 

 when put in. When honey commenced to 

 come in from the fields, and the bees began 

 to work on the foundation, as all good bees 

 should, it would twist about so that it would 

 touch the separators, and be fastened there ; 

 and when I expected to take off nice comb 

 honey, the whole thing would be spoiled by 

 the tearing necessary in getting the separa- 

 tors off. This is the worst trouble I have 

 with the flat-bottomed foundation ; and were 

 it not for this, I would never think of using 

 any other make in the sections. For the 

 brood frames I can not see where the flat- 

 bottomed has any advantage over that hav- 

 ing the natural base, while it has the disad- 

 vantage of taking the bees longer to manip- 

 ulate it ; consequently I prefer the other 

 makes of foundation to this for brood 

 frames. 



[Mr. D.'s experience with flat-bottom 

 foundation is quite in line with our own. If 

 I am not mistaken, Mr. R. L. Taylor will 

 have soon some interesting results on this 

 subject in the Review. Excuse me Bro. T., 

 for 'telling tales out of school.' — Ed.] " 



There is no question but what the bees 

 change over the base of the flat-bottom cells, 

 and in so doing it seems as though they 

 change the character of the wax to a slight 

 extent — lighten it up and make it more like 

 natural comb — but it is not necessary to use 

 the flat-bottom foundation in order to get 

 thinness of base, as was shown by the earlier 

 experiments of Mr. Taylor reported in the 

 Review of last December. 



Suggestions for Contributors. 



On this subject, F. L. Thompson, of Col- 

 orado, writes to the American Bee Journal 

 in the following refreshing manner : — 



" The editor makes a good point on page 

 10;>, when he asks, ' Have you discovered any 

 new kinks that are worth knowing ? ' Our 

 bee papers are already about as good as they 

 can be editorily, but there is plenty of room 

 for improvement on the part of contribu- 

 tors. We all know the man who successfully 

 runs large apiaries and attends all conven- 

 tions, at which he is continually letting fall 

 words of wisdom in the shape of kinks — 

 though even there he does it principally in 

 conversation before and after — but the bee 

 papers never hear from him. 



It has been said that the periodicals have 

 gradually taken to themselves all functions 

 of conventions except the face to face meet- 

 ing. It ought to be so ; but it is not entirely 

 so yet, by any means. Mr. Hasty says it is 

 because most bee-keepers don't know how 

 to write. I don't believe it. It is because 

 they have not the right attitude of mind 

 toward writing of this kind. If by associa- 



