Comb (beehive)

“ The construction of several combs is generally going on at the same time. No sooner is the foundation of one laid, with a few rows of cells attached to it, than a second and a third are founded on each side, parallel to the first, and so on, (if the season give encouragement to the operations of the bees,) till the hive is filled with their works; the first constructed comb or combs being always in the most advanced state, and therefore the first to be completed. ”

“ An interesting fact about the manufacture of comb is that no one bee constructs a cell and no one bosses the job. A bee will come along with a little wax and put it in place at the side of a cell, and then will run off and do something else; another bee passing sees this bit of unfinished work, gives it a few pinches and polishes it a little, and then does something else. Several bees may thus lend a mandible before the cell is perfected. Any bit of comb-building seems to be the result of a consensus of public opinion and not of individual skill and enterprise. ”

“ The combs are sure to be dark in colour when taken from a stock-hive, and new combs, being whiter, have a better appearance in the hive. The comb upon which the queen was introduced may be taken away after the artificial swarm has made combs within some - 107 - of the other five frames; when the queen is on one of the new combs, opportunity may easily be taken for opening the hive and removing the old dark comb. The bees can easily be shaken or brushed off the comb, and will return to the hive. The comb, with the unhatched brood, may be deposited in any square hive that needs strengthening. ”

“ Before the frame is placed in the brood-chamber it is to be supplied with a sheet of comb-foundation; this insures the building of the comb in the desired position, so the frames can be removed from the hive. Bees do not naturally make their combs straight, but curve them so that they are less likely to be broken. It is necessary, therefore, in order to get straight combs to confine the operations of the bees within set bounds ”

“ I might as well remark here, that when taking combs from a hive filled with honey, if such pieces were selected as contained only the large or drone cells, but little risk of bee-bread would occur; of the other combs, the outside sheets and the corners of the others near the top are the next best. The sheets of comb used principally for raising workers, and the cells next those so used, for an inch or two in width, are nearly all packed with pollen, and much of it will remain, when the breeding season is past. Smaller portions are found in the worker cells in nearly all parts of the hive ”

“ The combs of a bee-hive comprise a congeries of hexagonal cells, formed by the bees, as receptacles for honey or for embryo bees. A honey-comb is allowed to be one of the most striking achievements of insect industry, and an admirable specimen of insect architecture. It has attracted the admiration of the contemplative philosopher in all ages, and awakened speculation not only in the naturalist, but also in the mathematician: so regular, so perfect, is the structure of the cells, that it satisfies every condition of a refined problem in geometry. ”

“ The comb is built in a most peculiar form, being, it is said, in the shape of a spiral staircase, and tapering towards the ends: honey-pots and pollen are constructed for the storage of food. The comb is encased in wax, and outside it a labyrinth of waxen passages is formed. The entrance to the colony is guarded by a line of bees who inspect every one that arrives, and it is surprising to see how soon a stranger is discovered and pounced upon before it has time even to alight ”

“ The comb was hard and blackened and full of dirt, while the wax that oozed out and hardened below was as shining and yellow as if the sun itself had exhaled it. A Solar extractor ought to be in every apiary where twenty colonies or more are kept, and into this every fragment of comb should be put instead of storing it to become infested by the bee moth, or leaving it around to incite the bees to robbing. ”

“ If it is new, it may be easily attached to the frames, or the honey-receptacles, by dipping the edge into melted wax, pressing it gently until it stiffens, and then allowing it to cool. If the comb is old, or the pieces large and full of bee-bread, it will be best to dip them into melted rosin, which, besides costing much less than wax, will secure a much firmer adhesion. When comb is put into tumblers or other small vessels, the bees will begin to work upon it the sooner, if it is simply crowded in, so as to be held in place by being supported against the sides. ”

“ I have had the old combs widened out so as to fill the whole space, and nothing put in the empty frame at all. I believe this will always happen if empty frames are inserted immediately after extracting. The remedy is, use the Standard hive, move back the division board just to give room for one frame at a time, move back the combs till you come to the middle of the brood nest, insert the empty frame there, and, Ho! you will have the whole frame nearly filled, with nice worker comb, and eggs too before morning perhaps. This should only be done when the bees are gathering honey nicely. ”

“ A more careful inspection of the comb will show that the queen-bee too has done her share of work, not by helping to gather honey or to build combs, but by laying eggs which will hatch into grubs (larvæ) , and these, by careful feeding and nursing, will eventually become worker-bees, to take the place of the present workers when they die. Near the centre of the comb is a broad circle of cells, each of which contains a tiny white egg, almost invisible to the eye, which the queen has deposited there. ”

“ When a hive has been in use many years the combs become very black, and every bee that is bred in a cell leaves a film behind. It may be understood how in this way the cells become contracted, and the bees that are - 262 - bred in them correspondingly reduced in size. After the lapse of, say, five years it may be necessary to begin removing the old combs. This may be done by cutting away the combs, or by substituting an empty frame for one with old black comb, gradually moving the frames towards each other. ”

“ I think it is just the way when the bees are not up to the required pressure for comb honey. If the farmers who keep bees would use the extractor, and give their bees plenty of combs at the right time, they would get more from their bees than they do. It requires a specialist to make a success at comb honey. ”

“ This is why bees so readily utilise machine-made foundation; they pull out the edges of these pressed combs and thus save themselves much labour in wax-making. The worker-cells are a little more than one-fifth of an inch in diameter, and a little less than one-half an inch deep; the drone-cells are a little more than one-fourth an inch in diameter and a little more than a half-inch in depth. It is interesting to see the comb which has in it both worker- and drone-cells, and note how the transition is made ”

“ Twenty-five years ago it was thought impossible to successfully imitate the bee in the construction of honey comb, but invention has triumphed in this, as in many other improvements deemed impossible. We now have honey comb manufactured by skillful workmen, so closely resembling that made by bees, that it seems the bees cannot detect any difference. I have always studied to give my bees every possible advantage, and I find that comb foundation, used in conjunction with my system of feeding, secures very large yields of surplus honey—much greater than I could otherwise secure. ”

“ The fact that the combs are rarely perfect in construction proves naught against the mathematical prowess of the bees; it simply proves that the bees are a practical race, and not bigoted, and are therefore unwilling to sacrifice everything for the sake of precision. The construction of their waxen cells is for economic purposes rather than for proving mathematical formulae. Honey-comb shows how economy of room, building materials and mathematical theories may coincide, and shows also that the bees have taken advantage of the fact. ”

“ When driven from all the combs within, the next best place is the cracks and flaws about the hive, that are lined with propolis; and the dust and chips that fall on the floor-board of a young swarm not full will be used. This last material is mostly wax, and answers very well instead of comb. The eggs will here hatch and the worms sometimes ascend to the combs; hence the necessity of keeping the bottom brushed off clean. It will prevent those that are on the bottom from going up; also the bees from taking up any eggs, if this should happen to be the method. ”

“ When it is considered, as writers tell us, that more than 14 lbs. of honey are required for the secretion and elaboration of a single pound of comb, it will not be difficult to form a just estimate of the value of this invention, which thus furnishes cheap and excellent assistance to our industrious favourites. It also shows the bee-keeper that all clean empty combs should be carefully preserved and considered as valuable stock. Another great advantage that it affords us is, that it renders us independent of guide-comb, which is not always obtainable. ”

“ The brood-chamber is often so filled with honey that the queen has no room to lay her eggs, especially if there is any neglect to give other room for storing. Honey, too, in brood-combs is unsalable, because the combs are dark, and the size undesirable. Comb, too, is very valuable, and should never be taken from the bees, except when desired to render the honey more marketable. ”

“ It is of service to keep the glass warm by means of a worsted or baize bag, it prevents the temperature from falling at night when much comb-building is carried on, providing the heat is not allowed to escape. Probably, if all goes on well, in three weeks the glass will be found to be filled with fine white honey-comb. When you find that the comb is well sealed up, it is time to take it off, but if the cells are unfilled and unsealed, let the little labourers complete their work—a little experience will soon enable the bee-keeper to determine this point. ”

“ The production of comb-honey is attended by more difficulties than is the production of extracted honey. The reason for this is largely because the bees work more readily in cells already made from which the honey has been extracted, than they do in sections where they must undertake all of the expense and labour of producing wax for the comb. ”

“ If this is not successful, the combs, with the bees adhering, should be removed to an empty hive nearby, placing a frame of brood containing a queen cell, if possible, and a frame or two of foundation in the old hive. The workers, coming back from the field, will enter their hive and the moved comb will soon be deserted by all except the laying worker ”

“ Some kinds of honey will granulate much sooner than others. The longer the honey is left in the hive and the more perfectly it is ripened, the less liable it is to granulate. Extracted honey will candy much sooner than honey left in the comb. We have kept comb-honey more than a year without crystals appearing in it. The only way to prevent comb-honey from candying is to keep it in a temperature that does not fall below 60 degrees. After honey is candied in the comb, nothing can be done with it except to sell it at a lower price, or keep it to feed back to the bees. ”

“ These few irregular cells have been considered a great disadvantage. It is thought, or pretended, that there is a vast difference between the prosperity of a stock with straight combs and one with crooked ones. To avoid them, or cause the bees to make them all straight, has given rise to much contrivance, as if a few such cells could effect much. Suppose there were a dozen sheets of comb in a hive, and each one had a row or more of such irregular cells from top to bottom, what proportion would they hold to those that were perfect? ”

“ After the comb is freed from the bees, it requires some experience with honey-comb topography to see at a glance just the condition of the brood. There may be cells that look empty until a ray of light reveals at the bottom a glistening egg; and there may be cells with a little milky substance at the bottom in which the young larva is floating; or in some cells the bee grubs may be distinctly seen if they are four or five days old. If the cells are capped, it may puzzle the novice to know what lies behind that closed waxen door. ”

“ Can the work be made of real value? Take one item. For myself, I have become more and more impressed with the importance of a thorough knowledge of foundations designed for use in sections for the production of comb honey. Much has been guessed, but so far as I can learn little is yet known on this subject. In the experiment of which I recently gave an account, one of the objects aimed at was to determine, if possible, if there was a difference among them, and, if so, what kind was of such a nature as to enable the bees to work it down most nearly to the thinness and character of natural comb. ”

“ In the happy days, when we were getting our first experience, we fed some colonies for the winter by introducing chunk honey into the bottom of the hive, and it worked like a charm, except that we were obliged to lift the hive to put in the honey, and again to remove the beautifully cleaned comb. One never realises how beautiful empty honey-comb may be unless he has had the privilege of examining a freshly made comb or one which the bees have cleaned. Bee-books advise putting in the chunk honey above the brood-frames, using Hill's device above it so it will not be crushed by the quilt. ”