86 MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 



properly marketing some other things. Besides this, a good honey 

 house is necessary, if there is no building at hand to be used for such. 



Perhaps a more specific description of these later improvements, and 

 the advantages of their use, may be of value to beginners: Brood 

 comb seems to be the foundation of development in a hive . Its presence 

 is necessary to a proper conduct of the business of the hive. K not 

 present, bees must make it before rapid normal development in the hive 

 is possible . Honey-comb is made entirely of pure wax. This is a secre- 

 tion from the body of the bee, [see page 47] . In order to build this 

 comb, they must consume some fifteen or twenty times its weight in 

 honey, besides the time necessary for the wax secretion. The im- 

 portance of giving to bees, combs ready made, has long been known. 

 They will unite and use any scraps of comb which may be preserved 

 and fastened temporarily into frames . Nice pieces of drone comb may 

 advantageously be used in honey boxes. But the difficulty of getting 

 a supply of natural comb, led to various experiments in order to supply, 

 artificially this deficiency. During the last year these sheets of artificial 

 comb-foundation were largely used, and firmly established as of very 

 great utility in the apiary. 



Until recently, attempts at making artificial comb, both in Germany 

 and England, were from the use of pKtes, which were necessarily slow. 

 But more recently, machines have been made by which continuous 

 sheets of wax, of proper thickness, are, on passing between its engrav- 

 ed rollers, impressed on both sides with the exact bottoms of cells as 

 made by the bees, and between each, a shoulder of wax is left which the 

 bees quickly lengthen into side walls. The demand for this article 

 says one of the largest manufacturers of it, " Is increasing so steadily, 

 that it is quite probable the supply of wax will be the only limit to its 

 manufacture and use." 



