Apiary Experiments. 
15 
times the weight of the lighter. It even exceeds the weight of the 
thickest of the natural comb samples by 2.01 grains. 
If we take the comb cells on “1898” deep-cell foundation that 
measured 1.13 of an inch thick and compare their weight with the 
sample of like thickness of natural comb, we see that the cells of the 
latter are lighter by 4.38 grains. In fact the cell walls of this sam¬ 
ple of deep-cell foundation exceed in weight any of those of the 
seven thicker samples of natural comb. 
The comb sam*ples on the “1899” deep-cell foundation had cell 
walls that compare very favorably with the natural comb in lightness. 
The comb 1.31 inches thick on this foundation had cells that weighed 
exactly the same as cells of natural comb that was 1.33 inches 
thick, and the cells from the sample 1.50 inches thick did not weigh 
more than would be expected for natural comb. The sample of 
comb .75 of an inch thick on this foundation does not compare so 
favorably in weight of its cells. 
If we pass to the comb on thin super foundations we again find 
very satisfactory comparisons. The cells from comb 1 inch thick 
and from comb 1.20 inches thick weighed only a trifle more from 
the foundation than from natural comb. The same is true of the 
average of the two samples in each case that were 1.25 inches thick. 
The differences being so slight, go to show that there is practically 
no difference in the weight of cell walls of natural comb and comb 
of the same thickness on the thin super foundation. 
The samples of comb on extra thin foundation compare equally 
well with natural comb in the lightness of their cell walls, as may 
be seen by the table. 
By comparing the weights of the comb midribs given in col¬ 
umn four, it will be seen that the lightest midribs from comb on 
foundation are not quite as heavy as the heaviest midribs in natural 
worker comb, but in every case they are heavier than the average 
weight (2.10 grains to the square inch) of the midrib of natural 
comb. 
With this additional evidence, it seems impossible to avoid the 
conclusion that heavy foundations result in combs heavier than 
the natural, and that the increased weight is due both to thicker 
midribs and heavier cell walls, but much more to the latter than to 
the former in cases where heavy foundations are employed, even 
though much wax is left unused in the midrib. 
The experiments show that to get a light comb, approaching 
that which the bees naturally build, there must not be a large 
amount of wax in either the midrib or cell walls of the foundation. 
The evidence is also quite conclusive that if the cell walls are 
very high, as in the “1898” deep-cell foundation, they will not 
often be well thinned in the building of the comb. 
