92 A Modern Bee-Farm 



CHAPTER X. 



COMB-FOUNDATION. 



I HAVE been using this word while some of my readers may 

 not as yet know what the article is. The two or three 

 frames illustrated, showing the same in the centre, will convey 

 some idea as to its use. This artificially made basis of new 

 combs is really pure beeswax, and the sheet is first obtained 

 by dipping nicely planed pine boards into the hot wax ; the 

 plain sheet thus made is afterwards passed between rollers, 

 which are so engraved as to give the wax the exact form and 

 appearance of the natural mid-rib of all comb as the bees 

 make it when left to their own devices, except that the comb 

 foundation made by man gives the base of a more perfect, 

 because more regular, comb than the insects themselves 

 produce. The foundation is gauged to the size of worker 

 cells (five to the inch) ; therefore, drone cells, and consequently 

 drones, are excluded, while our combs are as flat as boards. 



According to the thickness of the sheet required, whether 

 for thin super foundation or for use in the stock frames, so 

 many dips have to be made before the wax is peeled from the 

 boards. Of these, two or Ihree sets are required on hand 

 standing in water, to give time for cooling and saturation. 



There are a number of machines in use such as the 

 Pelham, Root, Dunham, Given, Van Deusen, &c. Of these, 



