Ti 



}e (Dee-fxeepeps J'\evie(x 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to i\]e lr|tefests of Hoqey Producers. 

 $L00 A YEAR, 



W. Z.HUTCHUMSOri, EditOP & Pi»op. 



VOL, VI, FLINT, MICHIGAN, DEC, 10. 1893, NO. 12. 



E' 



Work at IVticliigaxi's 



Experimental 



apiary. 



E. L. TAYLOR, APIAEI8T. 

 BEST FDN. FOB USE IN SECTIONS. 



" He could distinguish and divide 



A hair 'twixt south and south-west sitle "' 



BUTLER. 



'VER since I 

 first began to 

 use it extensively, 

 now fifteen years 

 ago, comb foun- 

 dation has been 

 to me a matter 

 of much interest 

 and thought. I 

 have often no- 

 ticed that much 

 interest is taken 

 in the best meth- 

 ods of extracting the wax from old combs, 

 and in machines that will make the thinnest 

 foundation, but that little care has been ex- 

 ercised with regard to the best methods of 

 manipulating wax to be used in making 

 foundation so as to secure the readiest ac- 

 ceptance and the most thorough manipula- 

 tion on the part of the bees and that to the 

 interrogatory : Does the thinness of foun- 

 dation bear any relation to the thinness of 

 the septum of the comb made from it ? I 

 have heard hardly an inquiring answer ; 

 nevertheless I have all along felt a great in- 



terest on these points which experiments 

 conducted in a small way had served greatly 

 to increase, so it was but natural that when 

 I found myself in a position where I could 

 afford to do it somewhat extensively I be- 

 came interested in the formation of plans 

 calculated to bring out if possible the truth 

 on these and kindred points. 



The plan adopted was to procure a con- 

 veniently large variety of foundations made 

 for use in sections by procuring from several 

 makers samples of each kind made and com- 

 paring them by putting them into cases al- 

 ternately with no separators and giving 

 them as thus arranged to the bees to work 

 out and fill. It was thought that results 

 might be obtained in two ways : First it 

 seemed reasonable to suppose that those 

 sorts that were most acceptable io the bees 

 would be drawn out first and most rapidly 

 and consequently when capped would con- 

 tain the most honey and that the preference 

 of the bees could easily be detected by weigh- 

 ing the finished sections : secondly by meas- 

 uring the thickness of the bases of the cells 

 of the comb produced it seemed clear that if 

 any sort were to any considerable extent 

 better adapted to its purpose then the others 

 that fact would be clearly revealed. 



For the purposes of the latter case I have 

 so far been unable to see that the plan pur- 

 sued could have been improved but in the 

 former case there is some degree of disap- 

 pointment from the fact that it gradually 

 became evident that the plan pursued was 

 defective so far as the purpose sought was 

 concerned in at least two particulars, viz., 



