'j:i FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



do not, because so many of them were built in seasons of 

 comparative dearth. 



There is another way to get combs built down to the 

 bottom-bar. Suppose you have a comb with a passage- 

 way under it more or less of its length. Cut it free from 

 the bottom-bar, and then cut straight across an inch or 

 more above the bottom-bar ; then turn this piece upside 

 down and let it rest on the bottom-bar. The bees wall 

 immediately fasten this piece to the bottom-bar (of course 

 it must be at a time when bees are working freely), and 

 very soon they will fill in the gap above the piece. 



HIVE-DUMMY. •/ 



A good dummy is a matter of no light importance. It 

 is handy to fill up vacant space, its chief use being to make 

 an easy thing of removing the first comb from a hive. 

 With self-spacing frames there can be no crowding to- 

 gether of the frames so as to give one of them extra room, 

 as is the case with loose-hanging frames, and if a hive be 

 filled full of self-spacing frames it will be about impossible 

 to remove the first frame after a fair amount of propolis 

 is present. A dummy at one side is the thing to help out. 



An eight-frame dovetailed hive is 12^ inches wide 

 inside. Eight frames spaced l}i inches from center to 

 center will occupy 11 inches, leaving at one side a space 

 of 1^ inches, abundance of room to lift out the first 

 frame easily. A dummy put into that space will keep the 

 bees from filling it up with comb, and it ought never to be 

 difficult to lift out the dummy. If a dummy a trifle more 

 than a fourth of an inch thick be put in, leaving a fourth 

 of an inch between dummy and frame, there will be left 

 between the dummy and the side of the hive a space of a 

 little more than half an inch, a space that the bees will 

 never fill with comb in such a place. As propolis accu- 

 mulates, however, this space will become less. 



The dummy should be light and at the same time 

 quite substantial, and the one I use fulfills these require- 

 ments (Fig. 42). The principal board of the dummy is 

 IGys X 8}i X 5-16, of pine. The other parts are of some 



