62 PLEASUBABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



viz., 1^% inch from centre to centre. On each side of 

 the bar a piece 9 inches by ^ inch is taken out, so that 

 when the bars are in position there will be access to 

 the supers through holes 9 inches long and J inch wide. 



After the hive is stocked with bees and the combs 

 are built, the brood-chamber should never again be 

 interfered with except to renew old combs. If any 

 examination of the interior of the brood-chamber 

 should be deemed advisable, it must be inverted and 

 treated as are the fixed combs in a straw skep. To 

 remove combs, each end alternately of the hive should 

 be raised to an angle of about 45° to allow of a knife 

 being passed from side to side to sever the comb 

 attachments. On returning the hive to the horizontal 

 position, the bars with the combs attached are easily 

 removed, and others prepared with foundation may 

 at the same manipulation be placed in the vacant 

 spaces. 



The bars as described above are for use in the brood 

 chamber alone ; those for use in the supers are If 

 inches in width. Wider bars are provided in the 

 supers because when storing surplus, bees invariably 

 build combs much thicker than those used for breeding 

 purposes. The width of the brood-chamber and supers 

 is 13 inches full, to accommodate in the former nine 

 narrow bars and in the latter seven wide bars. 



Preparing the hive. The first thing to be done after 

 making or purchasing, with the necessary parts, a hive 

 of good sound material well and accurately put to- 

 gether, is to give two or three coats of white or a light- 

 coloured paint. It is an error to think that any coloured 

 paint is suitable for bee-hives. Probably any coloured 



