222 THE BEE-KKKPKR'S GUIDE; 



it may not be profitable to paint, yet when neatness and dura- 

 bility are both considered, surely painting pays well. For 

 paint I would use white lead, zinc and oil — about one-third as 

 much zinc as lead. Mr. Doolittle, whose opinion justly ranks 

 very high among American bee-keepers, thinks that white 

 paint makes shade unnecessary. 



DIVISION-BOARD. 



A close-fitting division-board (Fig. 92) is very important, 

 and no L<angstroth hive is complete without it. Mr. Heddon, 

 in his excellent book, follows the English, and calls this a 

 dummy. It is especially useful in autumn, winter and spring 

 in contracting the hive, and thus economizing heat, and at 

 the harvest seasons in contracting the brood-chamber, so as to 

 secure the honey in the sections where it is desired. It is 

 made the same form as the frames, but is a little larger so 

 that it is close-fitting in the hive. It is easily made by nailing 

 a top-bar of the usual frame on top of a board that will just fit 

 in the hive, and reach to the top of the rabbet. If desired the 

 board may be beveled at the edges. When the division-board 

 is inserted in the hive it separates the brood-chamber into two 

 parts by a close partition. Many bee-keepers make them like 

 a close-fitting frame and cover with cloth, which is stuffed 

 with chaff. Others groove the edges and insert a strip of cloth 

 or rubber. The chaff board is for greater warmth, the rubber 

 to make the board fit closely, and yet give enough to make it 

 easy to withdraw the division-board when it swells from 

 dampness. Mr. Jones prefers that the division-board should 

 not reach quite to the bottom of the hive (Fig. 88). This en- 

 ables the bees to pass under, and as heat rises there is very 

 little objection to this bee-space under the division-board. 



We use the division-board to contract the chamber in winter, 

 to vary it so as to keep all combs covered with bees in spring, to 

 contract the brood-chamber when we wish to secure a full 

 force of bees in the sections, to convert our hives into nucleus 

 hives for queen-rearing, and in case we secure comb honey in 

 two-story hives, which, however, we do not practice now, to 

 contract the upper chamber when the season first opens. 



