ARTIFICIAL FOUNDATIONS AND THE BUILDING OF HONEY COMB. 3 



of the foundation, the bases of the cell walls of the comb 

 were not thinned to the delicacy of the walls in natural 

 comb. In cases where light foundations were used as the 

 thin and extra thin super, and a rather low "high- wall" 

 foundation manufactured by Mr. E. B. Weed, the walls 

 were scarcely if at all heavier than in natural comb. In 

 another foundation manufactured by Mr. Weed and sold 

 as "Extra deep-celled foundation" in which the walls were 

 fully three-sixteenths of an inch long, the bees did tiot thin 

 the walls well, usually leaving them decidedly heavier than 

 the natural. 



Another method of testing the effect of foundation upon 

 the comb v^ras also used. This was to take samples of 

 comb of different thicknesses, some naturally built, and 

 others built upon foundations, cut out blocks of known 

 area, and then compare their weights. Occasionally a 

 sample of comb on the very light foundations used for 

 section honey were as light as the heavier samples of 

 natural comb of the same thickness, but on no foundation 

 did they average as light as the heavier samples of natural 

 comb of the same thickness, and on no foundation did they 

 average as light as the naturally built article. 



On heavy foundations, without exception, the conib 

 samples were heavier than those of the same size and thick- 

 ness naturally built. When foundation as heavy as 11 

 grains to the square inch was used, the resulting comb, one 

 inch thick, averaged 18,50 grains to the square inch, while 

 naturally built worker comb of this thickness only averaged 

 about 10 grains to the square inch. Even medium brood 

 foundation gave comb that averaged 16.50 grains to the 

 square inch when the comb was one inch thick. 



So, while comb samples of the same thickness on 

 different foundations, or even the naturally built comb, 

 vary considerably in weight, it was found that all foun- 

 dations used, from the extra thin to the extra heavy, re- 

 sulted in a comb that averaged higher in weight than 

 natural worker comb. 



The wax of the foundation was used from both the 

 midrib and short cell v\ralls. The midrib is seldom, if ever, 

 cut down to the thinness of that in natural comb, and if 

 very thick, it is left very much heavier. If their is a large 

 amount of wax in either the midrib or cell walls of the 



