PEACTICAl BEE-KEEPING. 



the frames, the apertures of which measure 5-24ths of an inch — large 

 enough to pass a loaded worker, but not the queen. The workers getting 

 through are likely to fail in finding their way back, so Mr. Cowan, one of 

 our most successful apiculturists, who works this plan, commonly places 

 traps in his supers by which the bees continually pass out instead of 

 returning through the hive. 



The gentleman just referred to introduced, at the Crystal Palace show, 

 in 1875, an admirable arrangement of boxes for receiving surplus honey. 

 A number of these in tin, inverted side by side in close contact, make up 

 the size of a large super, over which passes a good non-conducting 

 cover. There is no greater loss of heat than if all were in one. Each 

 box contains a piece of wax sheet, upon which the bees construct their 

 comb. As completed, they are removed, and a lid put on, thus packing 

 neatly and at once 31b. or 41b. of honey. These boxes, or similar ones 

 in wood, to carry two combs, which some of the makers are now sup- 

 plying, may be placed, in the American fashion, immediately over the 

 hive frames without even the intervention of the perforated zinc, and 

 are thus very readily accepted, as the heat of the colony passes freely 



into them, while the access 

 of the bees is perfectly open. 

 The counterpoise to this ad- 

 vantage is the liability of 

 brood being raised in them ; 

 but the risk is not serious, 

 unless the hive itself is too 

 small. In America it is com- 

 mon to use two tiers of boxes, 

 worked like double supers. Mr. Neighbour's divisional supers (Fig. 43) 

 give some of the a'dvantages of independent boxes, while the chamber 

 in which the bees work is really one. The side bar seen in the illustration 

 being unscrewed the combs can be separately removed. 



Store, upon which bees depend for " a rainy day," is placed over the 

 brood nest. As a consequence, shallow hives, with a large area above 

 yield the most super honey, but with these characteristics unduly developed 

 they winter badly, and are very risky with the non-observant. A hive 

 breeding heavily may fill a big super, the hope of the natural owners for 

 dreary winter. But he who may by right divine appropriate, perhaps 

 removes all, and, thinking his colony prosperous, leaves it to shift as 

 it may. The honey harvest suddenly ceasing, the poor bees find them- 

 selves with the heavy demands of a big family occupying nearly every cell 

 in the hive, suddenly deprived of all resource. Never think because a hive 

 has given a large surplus it needs nothing ; the most prosperous stock is 

 the most likely to starve under such circumstances. Where there is much 

 brood raising, the outgoing is tremendous, and food must be given liberally 



Fie. 43. Neighbour's Divisional Sdpee. 



