ARTIFICIAL AIDS TO COMB-BUILDING. 
205 
vided with foundation alone, held by my fixers, it is 
well to add waxing, as without it here and there the 
sheet may droop over from the top bar. With this 
precaution, perfect combs are, under all circumstances, 
produced, and even pieces of foundation, fitted together, 
will yield results but little less perfect than whole 
sheets. 
The first effort of the bees is to fix the founda- 
tion to the pins by building around them little 
struts of wax, but if a tiny hole be made near the 
pin, the bees on the opposite side of the sheet seem 
to communicate through it and dig away the wax, 
until a hole nearly |in. in diameter is made ; it would 
appear, with the idea of removing what they consider 
an obstruction. All this shows the importance of 
fixing at once the foundation in its proper place. If 
the sheet be cut so large as to reach the bottom bar, 
the bees are disinclined (they are not properly able) 
to finish out the lowest cells, while they often nibble 
for themselves passages (pop-holes). All things con- 
sidered, although the fixers permit of filling the frame, 
it is unwise to take advantage of it. The wire 
should not be thicker than the size already named, 
or time will be wasted by the bees in building struts 
of comb from its side towards the foundation. The 
new comb produced will be able to sustain all the con- 
tingencies of a journey from the first without break- 
ing, by simply leaving the fixers in position, although, 
of course, they render a few cells useless. When the 
comb is rather more than half built out, my general 
practice is to remove the fixers by a rocking move- 
ment, accompanied by a pull. The cell walls sur- 
