208 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



know how mucli paraffine, etc., there is in our foundation, 

 unless we make it ourselves. 



Lastly, there is no great advantage in its use in the sections, 

 as drone-comb is better, and with caution and care this can be 

 secured in ample quantities to furnish very generous starters 

 for all our sections. This will readily adhere, if the edge be 

 dipped into melted beeswax, and applied to the sections. 



If any one should still be disposed to make such use of 

 foundation, they should only purchase of very reliable parties, 

 that they may be sure to use only such wax as is genuine, 

 yellow, clean, and certainly unmixed with paraffine, or any 

 of the commercial products which were first used to adulter- 

 ate the wax. Only pure, clean, unbleached wax should 

 be used in making foundation. We should be very carefid 

 not to put on the market any comb-honey where the founda- 

 tion had not been properly thinned by the bees. Perhaps a 

 very fine needle would enable one to determine this point 

 without injury to the honey. 



But the most promising use of foundation, to which there 

 can be no objection, is in the brood-chamber. It is astonish- 

 ing to see how rapidly the bees will extend the cells, and how 

 readily the queen will stock them with eggs if of the right 

 size, five cells to the inch. The foundation should always 

 be the right size either for worker or drone-comb. Of 

 course the latter size would never be used in the brood-cham- 

 ber. The advantage of foundation is, first, to insure worker- 

 comb, and thus worker-brood, and second, to furnish wax, so 

 that the bees may be free to gather honey. We proved in 

 our apiary the past two seasons, that by use of foundation, 

 and a little care in pruning out the drone-oomb, we could 

 limit or even exclude drones from our hives, and we have but 

 to examine the capacious and constantly crowded stomachs 

 of these idlers, to appreciate the advantage of such a 

 course. Bees may occasionally tear down worker-cells and 

 build drone-cells in their place ;' but such action, I believe, 

 is not sufiiciently extensive to ever cause anxiety. I am also 

 certain that bees that have to secrete frax to form comb, do 

 much less gathering. Wax secretion seems voluntary, and 

 when rapid seems to require quiet and great consumption of 

 food. If we make two artificial colonies equally strong, sup- 

 ply the one with combs, and withhold them from the other, 



