ARTIFICIAL FOUNDATIONS AND THE BUILDING OF HONEY COMB. 5 



build the comb to that thickness. But when comb was 

 built on this thick foundation, it weighed 18.50 grains, so 

 that the bees added 7.50 grains to the square inch to the 

 foundation that itself contained more wax than was 

 necessary to build the comb. As natural comb w^eighs but 

 10.00 grains to the square inch, the bees lacked but 2.50 

 grains of furnishing as much wax as they would have done 

 if they had built the comb without the foundation. *It is 

 seen that 11.00 grains of wax were furnished the bees in 

 order to save them tne expense in food and labor of pro- 

 ducing 2.50 grains. 



In case of the medium brood foundation weighing 8.40 

 grains to the square inch, the resalt was similar. The bees 

 needed to add but 1.60 grams to this to build the comb one 

 inch thick, but they did add 8.10 grains, making a comb 

 weighing 16.50 grains to the square inch. As the amount 

 added in this case is only 1.90 grains less than the weight of 

 the natural comb of the same thickness, it cost the whole 

 weight of the foundation, or 8.40 grains, to save the bees 

 from secreting 1.90 grains of w^ax. 



As another illustration with this same foundation, take 

 the samples drawn to .75 of an inch. The average weight 

 would be 12.50 grains. This is 5.90 grains more than the 

 weight of samples of natural comb drawn to the same 

 thickness, and 4.10 grains more than the w^eight of the 

 foundation alone, notwithstanding the fact that the foun- 

 dation as given the bees contained 1.80 grains to the square 

 inch more wax than w^as necessary to build natural comb 

 to that thickness. In other words, the bees were furnished 

 more wax than was necessary to build the comb three- 

 quarters of an inch thick, and yet they added to this 

 amount more than nine-tenths as much wax as they would 

 have used to build the comb without foundation. 



Passing now to the Weed deep-cell foundation manu- 

 factured in 1898, we find results fully as surprising. If we 

 compare the sample measuring 1.13 inches thick with 

 natural comb of the same thickness, we find that the latter 

 is lighter by 5.35 grains. As the foundation itself weighed 

 only 5.46 grains to the square inch, the indication is that the 

 bees used as much wax from their own secreting, within 



♦Cheshire says " Bees very rareiy work more than half their cell walls ouf of even the 

 stoutest sheets given them."— Bees aud Bee Culture, V. II., p. 216. 



