THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



169 



of the "Eureka Supply Co.," has been 

 formed for the manufacture of this artificial 

 comb. We visited the manufactory, at f)? 

 Grand River Ave., Detroit, and saw the ma- 

 chines and contrivances used, some of which 

 are very ingenious, but we are not at liberty 

 to describe them. Mr. Weed promised faith- 

 fully to now send samples, accompanied by 

 letters of explanation and apology, to those 

 who had ordered them. 



I Even if combs of this character can be 

 furnished at a little more expense than the 

 cost of foundation, we are not certaian that 

 they will prove a blessing. The walls can be 

 made thin enough, but the objection is in 

 the character of the material. If we under- 

 stand the matter aright, natural honey comb 

 is of a granular structure ; that is, composed 

 of numerous small flakes, or grains, patted 

 and pressed together by the bees. It is 

 flaky ; it crumbles betweep the teeth, or 

 even between the tongue and the lips. 

 When melted, it loses its granular, brittle 

 character ; it is no longer comb, but icajc. 

 It is tough and elastic. The use of foundation 

 is objectionable, according to the amount of 

 wax used. Foundation had a hard fight to 

 gain the position it now occupies in comb 

 honey. Where the foundation is light, the 

 objection to its use is also light ; it pays to 

 use it, and bee-keepers wUl use it. Where 

 the whole comb is of wax, be it ever so thin, 

 we have grave doubts as to its palatability. 



WOODEN COMBS. 



In one of the earlier issues of <^r7('«;i/(i!/.s' 

 for the present year. Prof. Cook makes 

 mention of a wooden comb invented, pat- 

 ented and manufactured by Mr. L. A. Aspin- 

 wall of Three llivers, Michigan. At our 

 Michigan State Fair, we not only had the 

 pleasure of meeting Mr. Aspinwall, but en- 

 joyed a drive with him out to the Agricultu- 

 ral College, where we examined a colony 

 that had, for two weeks, called a hive with 

 wooden combs its home. A little honey had 

 been stored and sealed over. We were dis- 

 appointed at flndi*ng no bi'ood, but an exam- 

 ination of other colonies, showing no eggs 

 and little unsealed brood, furnished an ex- 

 planation. The irritability of the bees and 

 their inclination to rob showed clearly that 

 the harvest was over and brood rearing 

 given up for the season. Mr. Aspinwall has 

 used these wooden combs two seasons, and 

 he says that the bees breed in them freely. 



To make the comb, pieces of wood of the 

 proper thickness are sawed from the end of 

 a pine block, the sides perforated for the 

 cells by gangs of little bits, the " combs " 

 soaked in a mixture of hot wax and " some- 

 thing else," and then immediately placed in 

 an extractor that runs at a high speed. 



The advantages of wooden combs, as set 

 forth by the inventor, are as follows : — 



1. The combs are absolutely straight and 

 the cells perfect. 2. They are very durable. 

 8. They will admit of rough transportation. 



4. The bee-moth's larvae cannot infest them. 



5. The honey can be extracted without any 

 possibility of injury to the combs. (!. They 

 admit of permanent queen and winter pass- 

 ages. 7. Drone and worker increase can be 

 controlled, drone-traps being unnecessary. 

 8. An increased yield of comb honey can be 

 obtained, by reason of a preference for nat- 

 ural comb, queen-excluding honey-boards 

 being necessary. 8. The queen can be 

 found more readily, there being no spaces 

 between the edges of the comb and the 

 frame in which she can hide. 10. The great 

 advantage to be derived from its use, one 

 of more value than all the others combined, 

 is that the hive furnished with this comb 

 may be iised as a swarmer or a non-swarmer 

 as desired. 



The reason given why bees will not swarm 

 when occupying this comb, is that it is im- 

 j)os!^ibl<' for them to rear drones, and that 

 they will not swarm unless they can raise 

 them. This seems almost too good to be 

 true : and, although the experiments already 

 made point in this direction, we feel that 

 they have not been sufliciently extensive to 

 warrant us in accepting this conclusion as 

 final. Mr. Aspinwall is now busy perfecting 

 an improved machine for manufacturing 

 the comb ; also in wi'iting a book upon bee- 

 culture, the leading feature of which is to be 

 a description of the methods to be employed 

 when the wooden comb is used. He expects 

 to have both comb and book ready for cus- 

 tomers early in tlie ensuing year. 



SPECIALTY VERSUS MIXED BEE-KEEPINO. 



At the Detroit Exposition it was our pleas- 

 ure to form the acquaintance of a bright 

 young farmer-bee-keeper. While chatting 

 together one afternoon, he said : "I love to 

 handle bees, and would ask for nothing bet- 

 ter than to care for them and do nothing 

 else ; for all that, I am half inclined to give 

 them up. I can't do justice to them and the 



