BEE-KEEPING. 451 



partially in one year, and February is the best time. Out-docir hives 

 should be protected either by straw caps or a shed. A shed should 

 have folding-doors at the back, and should be inclosed on every side, 

 except where it is necessary to have openings for the bees. The roofs are 

 usually inclined to the back, to protect the bees from rain-drippings in wet 

 weather ; but if it were sloped in the opposite direction, overhanging con- 

 siderably, and spouted, it would afford a much better protection, besides 

 allowing the owner more convenient access to his hives. 



1349. Every bee-house or bee-shed should have a block of wood, about six 

 inches long and three inches wide, between the front wall and the hives, with 

 a sufficient opening for the bees. The disposition of the bee is to con- 

 struct its brood-combs of one uniform thickness, and at nearly one uniform 

 distance from each other ; whilst the thickness and relative distances of 

 the store-combs are subject to variations, the honey-cells being often so 

 elongated as for a single comb to measure from two to three inches in thick- 

 ness. Hence arises the difficulty in adjusting the bars of a hive to such 

 distances as shall be uniformly applicable to practical purposes ; for if the 

 breeding distance were closely adhered to for all the bars (and it is impos- 

 sible to know how many will be required for brood), some of the outer ones 

 would be found to approximate too much for the attachment of store- 

 combs, and in all such cases the bees would be found to depart from 

 the arrangement required for brood-combs. If, on the other hand, a 

 full allowance were made through the whole range for the construction 

 of honeycombs, they would deviate so widely from the breeding distances 

 as to lead to disappointment from another cause — the bars would be too 

 far asmider. Hence arises the difficulty of surmounting a hive with bars 

 capable of easy removal under all cases. Mr. Golding in his arrangement ex- 

 ceeded the breeding distances by the eighth of an inch, placing his bars so 

 as to measure 1| inch from the centre of each to that of the next one ; a 

 departure from the natural distances so slight as not to be objected to by the 

 bees for brood-combs, while it enabled him to meet the elongation of the 

 honey-cells and the increased thickness of the outer combs. His ingenuity did 

 not stop here, however ; for it was still found that the bees' proceedings were 

 liable to uncertainties, and that they did not always take the hint of their pro- 

 prietor, but occasionally constructed combs diagonally or transversely across the 

 bars. To obviate this, he attached to the centre bar a piece of worker-comb an 

 inch or two in depth, which the bees readily followed out, and always employed 

 as the foundation of their first comb. This regulated the position of all those suc- 

 cessively constructed on each side of it, and the hive having been furnished with 

 bars of a proper width and correctly placed, the bees were induced to construct 

 a uniform range of combs, every guide-comb being attached to a separate bar. 

 But, as even thus arranged, deviations take place, it is a good plan to jDlace 

 a guide-comb on every alternate bar. Thus furnished, as soon as a hive 

 becomes filled with store, one, two, or more of the outer bars may be removed 

 and exchanged for unoccupied ones, without disturbing the brocd-combs, and 



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