304 



Value of Comb. 



CHAPTER XV. 

 Comb Foundation. 



Evei\y apiarist of experience knows that empty combs in 

 frames, comb-guides in the sections, to tempt the bees and 

 to insure the proper position of the full combs, in fact, 

 combs of ahnost any kind or shape, are of great importance. 

 So every skillful apiarist is very careful to save all drone 

 comb that is cut out of the brood chamber — where it is 

 worse than useless, as it brings with it myriads of those 

 useless gormands, the drones — to kill the eggs, remove the 

 brood, or extract the honey, and transfer it to the sections. 

 He is equally careful to keep all his worker comb, so long 

 as the cells are of proper size to domicile full-sized larvae, 

 and never to sell any comb, or even comb honev, unless a 

 greater price makes it desirable. 



No wonder, then, if comb is so desirable, that German 

 thought and Yankee ingenuity have devised means of giv- 

 ing tlie bees at least a start in this important yet expensive 



Fig. 119. 



Comb Foundation, 



work of comb-building, and hence the origin of another 

 great aid to the apiarist — comb foundation (Fig. 119). 



HISTORY. 



For more than thirty years the Germans have used im- 

 pressed sheets of wax as a foundation for comb, as it was 



