COMB FOUNDATION 
209 
MEANS FOR SUPPORTING FULL SHEETS IN 
BROOD-FRAMES. 
With ordinary brood-frames at least, or 
shallow extractmg-frames, it is quite im¬ 
portant to use some sort of support for the 
foundation; and-unless these supports are 
used, the wax stretches in drawing out into 
comb. What is of still more importance, 
the finished comb will have no stability in 
the frame. When colonies are hauled over 
rough roads to out-apiaries the frames get 
some severe jolts. The super combs also 
receive more or less rough handling at ex¬ 
tracting time. They are often shaken to 
remove the bees, and in the extractor are 
subjected to severe centrifugal force which 
throws the honey out of the cells. On ac¬ 
count of all this it is very important to 
have the comb when drawn from the foun¬ 
dation held by means of wires of a fine 
gauge, these wires being strung across the 
frames before the foundation is inserted. 
VALUE OF WIRING BROOD-FRAMES. 
Some beekeepers secure the foundation 
to the top-bar without using any stays or 
wires to hold the sheet in place; but the 
great majority seem to prefer to have all 
their frames wired—that is to say, strands 
of No. 28 wire stretched vertically, hori¬ 
zontally, or both, across the frame; these 
Method of drawing the wire preparatory to fastening. 
are then imbedded into a sheet of founda¬ 
tion which fills the frame. The combs, 
when drawn from the foundation, will be 
better anchored to stand the rough 
usage of the extractor, and to stand ship¬ 
ment when colonies are sent by express or 
freight or hauled over rough roads to out- 
yards. 
Most beekeepers say that the expense of 
the wiring is so slight in comparison with 
the great benefits secured that they could 
not think of dispensing with it; and, what 
is of considerable importance, during the 
process of drawing out the foundation the 
wires tend to reduce materially the stretch¬ 
ing of the wax. 
There has been almost endless discus¬ 
sion in the bee journals on how to prevent 
foundation, from stretching or sagging in 
brood-frames while being drawn out. 
When the bees build combs from it there is 
a slight expansion of the sheet horizon¬ 
tally and vertically. The greatest stretch¬ 
ing, however, occurs after the comb is fulIn¬ 
drawn during hot weather and when the 
cells are filled with honey. This stretching 
or elongation of the cells vertically causes 
that portion of the comb for two or three 
•inches beneath the top-bar to be slightly 
distorted. Instead of being exactly hexa¬ 
gonal the two \ertical sides of the cells 
will be elongated, making the cell deeper 
than wide. The diagram will show what 
occurs. The stretched cells the queen will 
avoid for egg-laying. The result will he 
no brood nearer than two inches of the top- 
bar unless the foundation is properly 
braced. The space above where the dis¬ 
torted cells are, is filled with honey—in a 
few instances with drone brood. But this 
rarely occurs, for the reason that these cells 
are neither drone nor worker, and conse¬ 
quently the queen avoids them, and the 
workers fill them with honey. 
The result of this stretching or distor¬ 
tion of the cells is to reduce the brood 
capacity of the hive, either eight or ten 
frame Langstroth, by about 20 per cent. 
As a single brood-chamber ten-frame 
Langstroth is not large enough to accom¬ 
modate the average good queen in the 
height of the breeding season, even if all 
the cells of the frames were occupied by 
the queen, it will lie seen that this distor¬ 
tion or stretching makes its capacity just 
that much shorter still. Obviously it is 
impossible for the average beekeeper, own¬ 
ing hundreds and perhaps thousands of 
these hives, to enlarge their capacity with¬ 
out going to great expense. But, fortun- 
