(Translation.)—"The unstamped edge of the plate receives incisions half an inch distant from one another, made with a sharp knife, the plate having been a little warmed; then it is pinched between two equally strong ledges, which have been well moistened. The projecting edge of the plate which received the incisions is alternately bent to the right and to the left. The comb-bar is well besmeared with artificial sticking wax (a mixture of two parts of wax and one part of American resin), and is well warmed at a fire. Afterwards the besmeared side is laid upon the bent end of the plate, and pressed to it as firmly as possible. A small wooden ledge, besmeared with sticking wax, and fastened by means of pressure to the lower edge of the plate, prevents it from bending, which sometimes happens when the bees work it."
To carry out the directions here given, it is necessary to warm the besmeared comb-bar at a fire; the wax plate has also to be warmed. Having tried this plan, and found inconvenience attending it, especially from the wax curling with the heat and the difficulty of making it stick firm, to say nothing of the uncomfortableness of performing the operation before a fire on a hot day in July, we began to consider if a little carpentering might not do the work better and more pleasantly, and adopted the following plan:—We split or cut the comb-bars of the Woodbury super in half, lengthways, and, taking the unstamped edge between the two strips, joined them together again by small screws at the side, confining the wax plate tightly in the centre, with no possibility of its falling down. Where frames are used, of course the bar could not be cut in two (except with the "compound bar and frame," where the bar being loose, it might be as easily managed). The plan we adopt with an ordinary frame is to saw out an opening, about an inch or an inch and a half from either end, where the sides are morticed in; this opening we make with a keyhole-saw. Through it the wax plate is easily put, and, with a heated iron passed over the upper side of the bar, is made sufficiently firm. If the wax plates are too large, a portion may be cut off; an opening of full eleven inches long can be made without materially weakening the bar and frame.
Another, and perhaps the simplest, plan is, to fix a strip of wood with brads to the underside of the top frame or bar: place the wax sheet against this, then wedge another strip close to it, and thus hold the wax sheet firmly in the centre of the frame, taking care also to make the second strip of wood fast with brads.
The wax plates must not extend to the bottom of the frame; a space of at least one inch should be left for expansion, because the bees, in working the plate, stretch it down lower. We also use a few pins firmly pressed into the frames, and long enough to reach the edge of the plate; for by fixing three or four pins on either side, both at the sides and at the bottom, the plate may be held in an exactly central position within the frame. As before mentioned, when these directions are carried out, there is no fear of being troubled with crooked combs or bars.
The secretion of wax, and the method of its adaptation by the bees, is thus admirably described by Evans:—
"Thus filtered through your flutterer's folded mail
Clings the cooled wax, and hardens to a scale.
Swift at the well-known call, the ready train
(For not a buzz boon Nature breathes in vain)
Spring to each falling flake, and bear along