FOUNDATION 



219 



the bees to ])nild all worker comb. The opportunity 

 seldom came; still they managed by constant pruning, a 

 pinch here, and push there, and finally hanging in the 

 super to obtain attachment to bottom-bar — to secure very 

 fair combs. Frames that contained all worker-comb were 

 reserved for the brood-chamber; mixed comb, i.e., worker 

 and drone (Fig. 76) was used in the supers. 



A cjueen with a full chamber of working bees soon 

 desires a little piece of drone-comb, and, in some cases, 

 finds her desire in the super. The most economical method 



Fig. 76. How Bees change pattern of Comb. 



to overcome this is to use full sheets, one or two frames 

 at a time, in each super during a honey-flow. The frames 

 of comb so obtained cannot be excelled. Each comb is 

 fastened perfectly to the wood, top, sides and bottom bar. 

 If one had, say a hundred colonies, with a sheet of 

 foundation in each super, in ten or twelve hours he 

 would have one hundred frames of perfect comljs, not to 

 be surpassed for beauty or utility, at practically no 

 expense. 



The author had twenty two-storied colonies of bees 

 during a honey-flow draw out forty sheets of perfect comb 

 in eight hours, two frames each colonj^; yet the hives 

 in question produced equally as much surplus as any 

 two-storied colony in the yard, proving that the strain on 

 bees and honey was practically nil. Can this be said of 

 any other procedure? Dadents, of 111., U.S.A., estimate 

 that 10 lbs. of honey must be consumed for each pound 

 of wax secreted by the bees. 



