Apiary Experiments. 17 



iiig within .11 of a grain, as they would have done if no foundation 

 had been given. ; 



The samples of comb .56 and .60 of an inch thick on this 

 foundation contain enough wax to make a natural comb one inch 

 thick, and nearly half of the weight was added by the bees. 



Eeliable results are not so readily obtained in the study of comb 

 samples on the light foundations, as the amount of wax in them is 

 small and the natural variation in comb samples is considerable. 



The thickest sample on the thin super foundation (B) was 

 only .90 of an incli. To -get as near an average weight of the nat- 

 ural comb as possible for comparison, let us combines' the two ex- 

 amples that measure .90 of an inch each with those measuring re- 

 spectively 1.00 and .80 of an inch. The average would be 8.40 

 grains to the square inch. The difference between this and the 

 sample on this foundation is 3.10 grains. As the foundation 

 itself weighed 4.00 grains to the square inch, the indication in this 

 case is that the saving to the bees was the difference between these 

 weights, or .90 of a grain to a square inch, or about 23 per cent, of 

 the amount of wax given. 



Far better results were obtained in the use of thin super foun- 

 dation (A), the average weight of which was 4.07 grains to the 

 square inch. 



Comparing comb 1 inch thick on this foundation with natural 

 comb of the same thickness, we find, in case of one of the samples in 

 the table, there is but ;20 of a grain difference in favor of the latter. 

 This means that I his foundation lessened the amount of wax that 

 the bees' secreted, by 95 per cent, of its own weight. 



The above may have been rather an exceptional piece on the 

 thin foundation. If we compare the sample that measured 1.20 

 inches in thickness with a sioiilar sample of natural comb, we find 

 a difference of 2 grains to the square inch. As the foundation Was 

 almost exactly twice this weight, it indicates that the bees were re- 

 lieved from secreting an amoiunt of wax equal to half the weight 

 of foundation given. 



It is important to notice that to build the comb on this foun- 

 dation to the thickness of 1.20 inches, the bees added the difference 

 between 11:50 and 4.07 grains to the square inchj which would be 

 7.43 grains, and this is actually less than they added in cases where 

 they built comb to a thickness of only one inch on the very heavy 

 and the medium brood foundations, and to a thickness of 1.13 inches 

 on the deep-cell foundation, though in any one of these last three 

 cases they were furnished more wax to start with. 



Again, if we take the average of the two samples of comb on this 

 thin foundation that were 1.25 inches thick and compare it with an ' 

 average of the two samples of natural comb of the same thickness, 

 we find that the latter is .40 of a grain lighter to the square inch 



