IQ Bulletin 54. 



TO WHAT EXTENT DOES THE FOUNDATION LESSEN THE SECKETXON OF 



WAX BY THE BEES? 



Let us begin with the comb built on the heavier foundations 

 and compare with the naturally built worker comb, to determme 

 the effect on wax secretion. t.^^a • ♦« +i.» 



Natural worker comb 1 inch thick weighed 10.00 grains to the 

 square inch. The very heavy foundation alone weighed 11A}U 

 grains, or 1 grain more than is necessary to build the comb to that 

 thickness. But when comb was built on this thick foundation it 

 weighed 18.50 grains, so that the bees added 7.50 grams to the 

 square inch to the foundation that itself contained more wax than 

 was necessary to build' the comb. As natural comb weighs but 

 10 00 grains to the square inch, the bees lacked but 2.50 grains ot 

 furnishing as much wax as they would have done if they had 

 built the comb without the foundation. *It is seen that 11.00 

 grains of wax were furnished the bees in order to save them the 

 expense in food and labor of producing 2.50 grains. 



In case of the medium brood foundation weighing 8.40 grams 

 to the square inch, the result was -similar. The bees needed to add 

 but 1.60 grains to this to build the comb one inch thick, but they 

 did add 8.10 grains, making a comb weighing 16.50 grains to the 

 square inch. As the amount added in this case is only 1.90 grains 

 less than the weight of the natural comb of the same thickness, it 

 cost the whole weight of the foundation, or 8.40 grains, to save the 

 bees from secreting 1.90 grains of wax. 



As another illustration with this same foundation, take the 

 samples drawn to .75 of an inch. The average weight would be 

 12.50 grains. This is 5.90 grains more than the weight of samples 

 of natural comb drawn to the same thickness, and 4.10 grains more 

 than the weight of the foundation alone, notwithstanding the fact 

 that the foundation as given the bees contained 1.80 grains to the 

 square inch more wax than was necessary to build natural comb to 

 that thickness. In other words, the bees were furnished more wax 

 tiian was necessary to build the comb three-quarters of an inch 

 thick, and yet they added to this amount more than nine-tenths as 

 much wax as they would have used to build the comb without 

 foundation. 



Passing now to the Weed deep-cell foundation manufactured 

 in 1898, we lind results fully as surprising. If we compare the sam- 

 ple measaring 1.13 inches thick with natural comb of the same 

 thickness, we find that the latter is lighter by 5.35 grains. As the 

 foundation itself weighed only 5.46 grains to the square inch, the 

 indication is that the bees used as much wax from their own seciet- 



* Cheshire says "Bees very rarely work more than halt th^ir cell walls out of 

 even the stoutest sheets given them." — Bees and Bee Culture, V. II., p. 216. 



