4 ARTIFICIAL FOUNDATIONS AND THE BUILDING OF HONEY COMB 



foundations the cell walls of the comb will also be heavier 

 than the natural, particularly in their lower or inner 

 portion. So the often repeated statement that bees always 

 build cell walls of the same thickness no matter how much 

 wax is in the foundation, is not correct. In fact, it was 

 found that the increased weight of comb built on heavy 

 foundations was due more to the excess of wax in cell walls 

 than to the extra amount in the midrib. 



One kind of foundation deserves special notice in this 

 connection, and that is the extra deep-cell foundation 

 already mentioned that was manufactured by Mr. E. B. 

 Weed and which has been sold quite extensively for the past 

 two years, The foundation is almost a marvel of me- 

 chanical skill. The walls of the cells are pressed out so as 

 to give the foundation a thickness of full3' five-sixteenths 

 of an inch. The midrib is very thin but the cell walls are 

 much heavier than those of natural comb. The idea of 

 the manufacturer was that these cell walls would be thinned 

 to the thickness of those in natural comb, but the bees 

 did not so thin them in any of the examples I have studied. 

 Usually I have found them much thicker. In fact it is often 

 the case that the walls are scarcely thinned at all. [See 

 samples and photos]. A more shallow "deep-cell" foun- 

 dation, also manufactured by Mr. Weed, and which is even 

 more beautiful than the former, was worked by the bees 

 into a comb that approximated very closely the natural 

 in both lightness and friability. The walls of the cells are 

 not so high but what the bees can reach to the bottom of 

 them with their mandibles and pinch them to the thinness 

 of walls in naturally built comb. [Show sample of 

 foundation]. 



TO WHAT EXTENT DOES THE FOUNDATION LESSEN THE 

 SECRETION OF WAX BY THE BEES? 



Let us begin with the comb built on the heavier foun- 

 dations and compare with the naturally built worker comb 

 to determine the effect on wax secretion. 



Natural worker comb 1 inch thick weighed 10.00 

 grains to the square inch. The very heavy foundation alone 

 weighed 11.00 grains or 1 grain more than is necessary to 



