31 



Securing control over breeding is not the only advantage gained by .a 

 free use of comb-foundation. For instance, a fair swarm of, say, 5 lb. 

 weight hived upon ten sheets of comb-foundation in a Langstroth hive 

 will have in twenty-four hours, in an average season, several of the sheets 

 partially worked out and a goodly number of eggs deposited in the cells, 

 and in thirty-six hours the queen can henceforward lay to her full extent. 

 In from a week to nine days (depending upon the weather) the whole ten 

 sheets will be worked out into worker-combs, and a great deal occupied 

 with brood and honey, and the hive will then be ready for the top or surplus 

 honey super. In twenty-two or twenty-three days young worker-bees wiU 

 begin to emerge, and from this on the colony will grow rapidly in strength 

 from day to day. 



Contrast this favourable condition of things with what takes place 

 when only narrow strips of comb-foundation are furnished. It will take 

 under the same conditions a similar swarm from four to five weeks to fill 

 the hive with comb, and then there will be a large proportion drone-comb, 

 which is the very thing to guard against. Consider what the difference 

 i time alone will make in the profitable working of a hive, especially in a 

 short season. Then, again, with regard to the difference in the initial 

 expense between using full sheets and strips, which seems to influence many 

 beginners in favour of the latter system : Even in that there is a gain in 

 favour of the method I am advocating. For instance, the cost of filling the 

 ten frames with sheets of best comb-foundation would be (including the 

 expenses of getting them) about 4s., and with strips — say, two sheets — lOd. : 

 an apparent saving in the first instance of 3s. 2d. We must then consider 

 the matter from another point of view. 



The consensus of opinion among the most experienced beekeepers is 

 that there is an expenditure of about 12 lb. of honey in making 1 lb. of 

 wax — that is, the bees consume that quantity of honey before secreting 

 1 lb. of wax. The ten sheets of comb-foundation weigh 1^ lb. and cost 

 4s. For this there would have to be an expenditure of 18 lb. of honey, 

 which, at the average wholesale price of 4d. per lb., is 6s., so that there is 

 a saving of 2s. in favour of the full sheets, to say nothing about all the other 

 advantages gained. 



This shows clearly enough the advantage of making the fullest use 

 possible of comb-foundation. 



II. THE RIPENING AND MATURING OP HONEY. 



All honey should be thoroughly ripened and matured before being 

 placed upon the market ; otherwise it will rapidly deteriorate, to the 

 injury of the producer and the industry generally. All beekeepers are 



