llic Use and Abuse of Comb Foundation 63 



it enables the bees to furnish storage for honey. When bees are storing 

 honey slowly, the wax that they secrete without consuming honey ex- 

 pressly for that purpose probably furnishes sufficient material, and there 

 is probably abundant time for the building of comb in which to store 

 the honey. As the flow of honey increases, the handling of larger 

 quantities of nectar increases the natural or involuntary wax secretion ; 

 but as the yield of honey increases, a point is reached when honey must 

 be consumed expressly that wax may be secreted. It is quite likely that, 

 at this point, foundation may be used at a profit to aid the bees in fur- 

 nishing storage. When the yield is so great that the bees can not secrete 

 wax and build comb with sufficient rapidity to store all of the honey 

 that they might gather, then foundation is certainly used at a profit. 

 Furthermore, I have seen the yield of honey so bountiful that even 

 foundation did not answer the purpose ; the bees did not draw it out 

 fast enough to furnish storage for all of the honey that could have been 

 brought in. At such times drawn combs are needed in the supers. 



It will be seen that this question of foundation is one to which 

 there may be profitably given much thought and experimentation. If 

 the bee-keeper lives where the honey-flow is light, but, perhaps, pro- 

 longed, he will find it more profitable to allow his bees to build their 

 own combs. If he can't get perfect brood-combs, he certainly can allow 

 the bees to build their own combs for the surplus comb honey. And, 

 by the way, no comb built from foundation can ever equal the delicate 

 flakiness of that built naturally by the bees. If the honey comes in 

 "floods," as it sometimes does in some localities, the man who allows 

 his bees to build their store-combs unaided at such a time, loses dollars 

 and dollars. If foundation is needed only for the sake of securing 

 straight worker combs, it need not necessarily be heavy. All foundation 

 in brood-frames, upon which swarms are hived, should be wired to 

 prevent sagging and breaking down. 



