io BEEHIVES AND BEE KEEPERS' APPLIANCES. 



of comb foundation, which can be purchased at a 

 cheap rate, and will save at least ten times its 

 cost. 



One of the advantages of the movable-frame 

 hive is the facility with which comb foundation can 

 be fixed in it, but it is only a minor advantage, for 

 with a little management foundation can be fixed 

 in almost any hive. The principal advantage is the 

 ease with which all the combs and the health and 

 condition of the inmates can be examined. For 

 example, it is sometimes found that the queen is 

 lost, and if there are no eggs or very young larvse 

 with which to make a new queen, the fate of the 

 colony is doomed except a new queen is provided, 

 and the bee keeper could scarcely ascertain the 

 loss of the queen were he to use the ordinary skep 

 hives. Again, towards winter some colonies have 

 more than enough stores, while others, if left to 

 themselves, would die of starvation before the 

 spring came ; the bee keeper, ascertaining this, 

 gives to the weak ones some of the superfluous 

 stores of the others. This shows not alone the ad- 

 vantage of the movable-frame hive, but the 

 necessity of having all the frames in an apiary 

 interchangeable, and made to a standard size. 



The question is often asked by a novice in bee 

 culture, "What is the size of a standard hive?" 

 Whilst there is no absolutely fixed standard in this 

 country, the British Bee Keepers' Association re- 

 commend a standard frame, which has been 

 adopted generally throughout the British Isles ; its 

 dimensions are 14 in. long by 8 in. deep, the top 

 bar being 17 in. long, thus forming a lug at each 

 end for convenience of handling the frames when 

 filled with comb. 



The British Bee Keepers' Association have also 

 determined the thickness of material of which the 

 frames are to be made the top bar f in. thick, 

 the sides i in. thick, and the bottom bar J in. thick, 

 all being J in. wide ; and as frames of these dimen- 



