OR, MANUAL OF THU APIARY. 



353 



CHAPTER XV, 



COMB FOUNDATION. 



Every 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 

 almost 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 gourmands, 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 honey, unless a greater price makes it desirable. 



Fig. 167. 



Oomh Foundation,. — From, American Bee Journal. 



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

 thought and Yankee ingenuity have devised means of giving 

 the bees at least a start in this important yet expensive work 

 of comb-building, and hence the origin of another great aid to 

 the apiarist — comb foundation (Fig, 167). 



HISTORY. 



For more than forty years the Germans have used im- 

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

 made by Herr Mehring, in 18S7. These sheets are several 



