HONEY PRODUCTION. 115 



The late Mr. C. N. Abbott, when editor of the British 

 Bee Journal, advised, in 1888, the cutting up of combs 

 made from foundation when they were filled with 

 hone)', instead of resorting to the extractor. Again, 

 very recently a well-known manufacturer of appliances, 

 who owns a large apiary, sold his own extractor because 

 it would, as he said, be quicker work to cut out the 

 full combs, slice and drain from them the honey, and 

 return the frames refilled with foundation. 



The supers on movable-comb hives need not of 

 necessity be shallow frames or sectional supers, and 

 therefore any other kind of super in which foundation 

 can be fixed may be chosen. Among such supers is 

 the " Ivo," which is exactly as prepared for the " Ivo " 

 hive, except that the plinths are omitted. Before such 

 a super is placed upon the frames of a movable-comb 

 hive, a sheet of queen-excluding zinc (Mg- 34) must 

 be laid upon them. The perforations, ^ inch in width, 

 allow only the workers to pass through, as the drones 

 are altogether too bulky ; and the queen, unless young, 

 is stopped by the breadth of the thorax. The sheet of 

 queen-excluding zinc is an absolute necessity, if brace- 

 combs are not to be built by the bees to unite the 

 combs of the brood-chamber with those in the super. 

 Bees build brace or joining combs, because they 

 apparently prefer to travel from one part of the hive 

 to another on comb ; and it may also be, though in 

 a lesser degree, owing to a desire to ensure firmness 

 of the connection between the two stories. The 

 sheet of excluder zinc remains on the frames for 

 the whole of the season, or, at any rate, until the 

 close of the honey -flow ; and by its use not only will 



