ARTIFICIAL AIDS TO COMB-BUILDING, 
223 
illogically, in favour of close-ended frames ; for it has 
been said bees so build in order to prevent a flow 
of air round their comb, and sustain temperature, 
the supporters of the argument ignoring utterly the 
obvious truth that warmth is really vital to the 
brood, but • comparatively unimportant for the honey. 
Had this been their object, surely the attachment 
would have been continued all the way down the 
comb side. An unprejudiced examination of the 
question can, I venture to assert, lead to no other 
conclusion than the one I have advanced. The 
difficulty bees have in filling up an accidental hole 
in their comb points in the same direction. So 
soon as the hole is too small to readily admit them, 
their work becomes confused, irregular, and patchy ; 
while, if section racks in which breeding has un- 
fortunately occurred be examined, they will frequently 
give a corroboration of my position. The foundation, 
it may be, is attached laterally, and very similarly, in 
two boxes : in one honey is stored, and here the cell 
walls are all built out, the nectar having been added, 
pari passu, with their growth, and sealing to the very 
wood covers all ; but in the neighbouring box, where 
the queen has volunteered her assistance, the midrib, 
as before, continuous to the wood, remains as at first, 
while the cells are completed only so far as the bees 
could work on both sides of the whole boundary of 
each hexagon. Indeed, very irregular surfaces for at- 
tachment of comb so impede the bees, that they are 
often content with thick additions of wax to give soli- 
dity. In this way, combs in skeps are frequently quite 
thin against the straw, as noticed under “Bumping.” 
