§ IX. COMB FOUNDATIONS.
This is an American attempt to improve on our impressed wax sheets. In the proffered assistance to the bees there is here some advance, for not only are the lozenge-shaped plates at the base of each cell more clearly stamped and defined, but the sides of the cells are slightly begun—so deep are the impressions that the foundations of the walls are actually laid.
Being quite a new invention, there has not been much time for fully testing it, but we find from American bee-keepers that when used-in large sheets there is the same difficulty as with our impressed wax—the bees will twist them. As specimens of work these comb foundations are certainly very commendable for appearance. The white ones seem too white to be of pure wax, and any substitute offered to bees has hitherto proved a failure. Mr. Baldridge, a frequent correspondent of the American Bee Journal, speaks of the yellow sheets as far preferable to the pure white, but some that are made partly of paraffin he considers of little worth. Possibly the material of which they are manufactured may be made to suit the delicate senses of the bees. Until this is the case, hindrance rather than help in comb-building will be the result of placing them in the frames and sectional or other supers. The mode of fixing is the same as described for impressed wax sheets.