Again, our bees may not always thin the foundation, and we risk our
reputation in selling it in comb-honey, and an unquestioned reputation
is too valuable to be endangered in this way, especially as in these
days of adulteration, we may not know how much paraffine, etc., there
is in our foundation, unless we make it ourselves.
Lastly, there is no great advantage in its use in the sections, as
drone-comb is better, and with caution and care this can be secured
in ample quantities to furnish very generous starters for all our
sections. This will readily adhere, if the edge be dipped into melted
beeswax, and applied to the sections.
If any one should still be disposed to make such use of foundation,
they should only purchase of very reliable parties, that they may
be sure to use only such wax as is genuine, _yellow_, clean, and
_certainly unmixed with paraffine_, or any of the commercial products
which were first used to adulterate the wax. _Only pure, clean,
unbleached wax should be used in making foundation._ We should be _very
careful_ not to put on the market any comb-honey where the foundation
had not been properly thinned by the bees. Perhaps a very fine needle
would enable one to determine this point without injury to the honey.
But the most promising use of foundation, to which there can be no
objection, is in the brood-chamber. It is astonishing to see how
rapidly the bees will extend the cells, and how readily the queen will
stock them with eggs if of the right size, five cells to the inch.
_The foundation should always be the right size either for worker
or drone-comb._ Of course the latter size would never be used in
the brood-chamber. The advantage of foundation is, first, to insure
worker-comb, and thus worker-brood, and second, to furnish wax, so that
the bees may be free to gather honey. We proved in our apiary the past
two seasons, that by use of foundation, and a little care in pruning
out the drone-comb, we could limit or even exclude drones from our
hives, and we have but to examine the capacious and constantly crowded
stomachs of these idlers, to appreciate the advantage of such a course.
Bees may occasionally tear down worker-cells and build drone-cells in
their place; but such action, I believe, is not sufficiently extensive
to ever cause anxiety. I am also certain that bees that have to
secrete wax to form comb, do much less gathering. Wax secretion seems
voluntary, and when rapid seems to require quiet and great consumption
of food. If we make two artificial colonies equally strong, supply the
one with combs, and withhold them from the other, we will find that
this last sends much fewer bees to the fields, while all the bees are
more or less engaged in wax secretion. Thus the other colony gains
much more rapidly in honey, first, because more bees are storing;
second, because less food is consumed. This is undoubtedly the reason
why extracted-honey can be secured in far greater abundance than can
comb-honey.
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