158 



A Modern Bee Farm 



CHAPTER X. 



COMB=FOUNDATION. 



'T^HE two or three frames illustrated, showing the foun- 

 1 dation in the centre, will convey some idea as to its 



use. This artificially made basis of new combs is 

 really pure beeswax, and the sheet is first obtained by 

 dipping nicely planed pine boards into the hot wax ; the 

 plain sheet thus made is afterwards passed between rollers, 

 which are so engraved as to give the wax the exact form 

 and appearance of the natural mid-rib of all comb as the 

 bees make it when left to their own devices, except 

 that the comb foundation made by man gives the base of 

 a more perfect, because more regular, comb than the 

 insects themselves produce. The foundation is gauged to 

 the size of worker cells (five to the inch) ; therefore, drone 

 cells, and consequently drones, are excluded, while our 

 combs are as flat as boards. 



According to the thickness of the sheet required, whether 

 for thin super foundation or for use in the stock frames, so 

 many dips have to be made before the wax is peeled from 



