24 THE BOOK OF THE HONEY BEE 



to construct these hives for himself, and at about one- 

 third of the catalogue price. 



The following description of this hive, together with 

 the drawings appended, will be found sufficiently detailed 

 to enable anyone with care to construct his own hives : — 



The Floor Board is built up on a couple of joists AA, 

 and rests upon a separate four-legged stand. (This 

 loose stand constitutes one of the essential features of 

 the " W.B.C." hive.) It will be noticed that the portions 

 C and D are raised a step above the actual floor level. 

 This is done with the idea of keeping the floor dry 

 during driving rain. 



The Brood Chamber. — Resting upon the floor board, 

 but not attached to it, is the brood chamber. This is 

 so called because in it, when fitted with frames con- 

 taining the embedded wax sheets called foundation, the 

 queen lays her eggs and the young bees are reared. 

 When resting on the floor board the strip E (which is 

 loose) forms a bridge across C C of the floor, leaving an 

 entrance | of an inch high by 14J inches wide. 



The overhanging lugs of the frames (see frame) rest 

 on the metal strips D, and run at right angles to the 

 entrance. By arranging the frames so, instead of parallel 

 with the entrance, the bees have equally ready access to 

 any comb in the hive. 



Great care should be taken that the top bars of the 

 frames when placed in position are exactly flush with 

 the top of the brood chamber, and also to see that there 

 is exactly \ of an inch clearance (neither more nor less) 

 between the sides of the frames and the sides, or rather 

 the back and front, of the brood chamber. It has been 

 found that bees leave a \ inch passage-way untouched ; 

 a wider space they would fill with brace combs, a smaller 

 they would propolise. 



Brood Lift. — Likewise resting on the floor board, but 

 not attached to it, rests the brood lift, upon the front 



