ii 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



their stomachs work during twenty-four 

 hours, they consume really three times 2}^ 

 .ozs. or 73i ozs. in the twenty-four hours. 

 Then the experiments of Mr. Hasty confirm 

 those of Messrs. Viallon and De Layens, 

 who found about 7 lbs., instead of contra- 

 dicting them. 



In your article of Nov. 10 you quote Mr. 

 Heddon, who wrote : " A clear understand- 

 ing of the works of evolution, must, I think, 

 convince one that, where, for ages, comb 

 building has, from necessity, gone hand in 

 hand with honey gathering, the secretion of 

 wax has become a ' jihysical necessity,' and, 

 if we do not give room and opportunity for 

 comb building, material for that purpose is 

 wasteiv" yet, for fifteen years or more, we 

 have not given our bees either room or op- 

 portunity for comb building, and, like Dr. 

 Miller, we have never seen this material 

 wasted. Our bees seem to have enough 

 room and opportunity in lengthening and 

 capping I he cells of the combs used to get 

 our extracted honey. 



Such a result can be easily explained. 

 Nobody can contest that beeswax is a fatty 

 substance, i)roduced as the fat of animals, 

 although it serves for another purpose, and 

 that this fat is produced by conditions about 

 identical : viz., plenty of food, wasmth and 

 rest. 



When we hive a swarm in an empty box 

 the bees conglomerate in groups, to keep 

 warm, and digest the contents of their honey 

 sacs to produce wax. 



You write also : " When feeding back 

 honey to secure the completion of unfinished 

 sections, we have noticed that the bees of a 

 colony that has been fed lavishly for a week 

 or two show an abundance of large wax 

 scales, and that they soon begin to daub the 

 wax upon the wood-work of the sections and 

 cases, and upon the inside of the feeder. 

 We have seen the latter completely be- 

 plastered with wax." 



This fact shows not only that bees do not 

 get rid of their scales of wax by throwing 

 them away, but it proves also my theory, not 

 yours. The bees thus "lavishly" fed were 

 able to get honey without any work to do. 

 They were in the same conditions as animals 

 fattened in the stable. 



But it is not the same when bees go over 

 the fields to gather honey. They do not 

 make any more wax than a horse, well fed, 

 working every day in the field, accumulates 

 fat on his ribs. Of course, bees working 



from flower to flower do not need to make 

 wax as long as they find room in the combs ; 

 l)ut as soon as all the combs are full, the 

 workers are compelled to wait, they remain 

 idle, digesting the honey accumulated in 

 their sack*, and this surplus of food is 

 changed into wax, as the food given to ani- 

 mals destined for the butcher is changed 

 into fat. 



As to the bee keepers having gone " foun- 

 dation crazy." When Father Langstroth 

 invented his hive the more progressive bee 

 keepers sent their old box hives to the wood 

 pile, while the old conservatives criticised 

 the hive and its admirers. Please tell me 

 which of them was the most "crazy?" It 

 is the same with comb foundation. You 

 give a swarm a hive full of foundation, at 

 an expense of thirty or forty cents, since the 

 wax, of which the foundation is made, is 

 not destroyed. If the next day gives honey 

 your swarm will gather several times enough 

 to pay for the expense. Besides, all your 

 combs will be straight, and the bees will not 

 build drone combs. 



The demand for foundation is increasing, 

 (we know it, since our sales from 59.000 lbs. 

 in 1889 have reached 84,500 in 1890), and this 

 demand proves that those who are " crazy " 

 about foundation are of the same stock as 

 those who were called "crazy" by the too 

 conservative bee keepers thirty years ago. 



Hamilton, 111., Dec. 27, 1890. 



Early Experiments with Foundation.— Ad- 

 vantages of Wires.— Hiving Swarms on 

 Starters.— Value of a Review. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



<^W£ T one time, C. O. Perrine, well re- 

 a^) membered by our older honey pro- 

 ducers, owned the first made and only 

 practical comb foundation machine in this 

 country. While in his hands and while he 

 was anxiously experimenting with its pro- 

 duct, he loaded his satchel with it and came 

 to my apiary here, and stayed five days to 

 watch the work of the bees upon it, and 

 when reluctantly compelled to return to his 

 home in Chicago, left the matter in my 

 charge, and from that day until the present 

 time has the comb foundation problem been 

 one of great interest to me. The next sea- 

 son I put the use of foundation, both as 

 guides and full sheets, into practical use in 

 both of my apiaries, but soon abandoned its 

 use in full sheets in brood frames, because 



