4 Bulletin 54. 



it better to put most of the wax in the midrib or the cell walls? 

 When it is determined how the wax is best proportioned between 

 the midrib and cell walls, what weight of foundation is best? 



The experiments here reported were undertaken for the purpose 

 of casting some light upon these and related problems and, it is 

 believed, with some good results. It is not to be expected that all 

 these questions are fully settled in this paper. 



DO BEES USE WAX PROM ARTIFICIAL FOUNDATIONS TO EXTEND THE 

 CELL WALLS AND THE COMB MIDRIB ? 



The common belief that wax is so used was graphically proven 

 by the following experiment : 



A few sheets of thin foundation that was made black by the 

 addition of lamp black to the melted wax were prepared for me by 

 Mr. C. B. Elliott, of Denver. This foundation was used in sections 

 which were placed in supers for comb honey. In some sections 

 starters one inch wide were used, while in others were placed full 

 sheets. The bees accepted this black foundation as readily as any 

 and built comb upon it. A photograph of comb built upon this 

 foundation is shown in Plate 1. At a is a section containing a 

 starter one inch wide that the bees had worked but little. At b are 

 two cross sections of comb built upon such a starter. The white 

 cross-lines show where the lower edges of the starters came, and the 

 dark color shows to what extent the foundation was used in ex- 

 tending the comb. At c is a section of drawn comb built upon a 

 short starter as shown at a. The white line marks the lower margin 

 of the foundation, and the dark color in the comb shows to what 

 extent the foundation was used in building down the comb. At d is 

 shown comb built on a large piece of the black foundation. The 

 cell walls are deep black at the bottom and gradually fade until the 

 top or outer end of the wall is reached, where the dark color hardly 

 shows. This could only come about by the bees using other wax, 

 probably directly from their bodies, which was mixed with the wax 

 of the foundation. 



These experiments prove so conclusively that bees do use wax 

 from foundations to extend both cell walls and midrib, that we are 

 now ready to ask : 



IS THE WAX OF THE MIDRIB OP THE FOUNDATION USED IN COMB 

 BUILDING, AND, IF SO, WILL IT BE CUT DOWN TO THE THINNESS 

 OF THE MIDRIB IN NATURAL COMB ? 



To determine these points we shall have to compare the thick- 

 ness of the artificial foundation with the thickness of the comb 

 midrib built upon the foundation, and the latter with the midrib of 

 comb built entirely by tlie bees. 



