CO 



THK PRVCTICAL R7.F. GUrDR. 



Otherwise, might be wasted or sold below their real value, 

 thus preventing: an extravagant consumption of honey for the 

 secretion of wax, and an extravagant waste of time on the part 

 of the bees deiing the processes of wax secretion and comb 

 building. (73). 



111. Invention of Foundation. — The application l)y Lang- 

 stroth, in 1851, of the movealjle frame i^rinciple (80) made the 

 construction of suitable combs more than ever necessary; and, 

 six years later (1S57), jMehring, a German, of Frankcnthal, 

 produced a sheet of wax on which the shape of cells was 

 stamped, and which was to serve as a " foundation " for the bees 

 to build upon. Improvements upon Mehring's invention were 

 designed to form upon the foundation the beginnings of the 

 cell walls; and, in 1876, A. I. Root, of iMedina, Ohio, U.S.A., 

 had constructed a roller mill with embossed cylinders capable 

 of turning out foundation in continuous sheets, and with the 

 formation of the cells, as it is now produced. E. B. Weed 

 subsequently devised the rolls which impress the foundation 



that is called by his name. 

 These rolls are faced with 

 type heads, and give abso- 

 lute similarity throughout 

 the sheets. 



112. Varieties of Founda- 

 tion Foundation is now 



supplied of various sizes, 

 both of sheets and cells, 

 and of various thicknesses. 

 " Medium brood," and 

 "Thin brood" ("Weed"), 

 in sheets to fit the standard 

 frame, have eight sheets 

 and eleven sheets respect- 

 ively to the pound weight, and are made both with worker 

 cells and drone cells. "Thin super" (Fig. 42), and "Extra 

 thin super " (" Weed "), in sheets to fill three sections each, have 

 twenty-eight to thirty-two and thirty to thirty-six sheets 

 respectively to the pound weight. Brood foundation is used 

 in frames in the brood nest and super box. Super foundation 

 is used in sections, and is made thin enough to avoid, as far 

 as possible, the unpleasantness of a heavy mid-rib in comb 

 which is intended to be eaten. (101). 



113. Advantages of Foundation — The advantages secured 

 to bee-keepers by the use of foundation are many: — (i) When 

 whole sheets are used in frames and sections, the combs built 

 upon them are perfectly straight, so that they can be moved 

 about in the hive (110) and transferred from hive to hive, or 



Fig. -12. 

 SUPER FOUNDATION. 



