236 A Modern Bee-Farm 



three serious defects in the method of working. First, as he 

 himself has already pointed out, his brood nest was not large 

 enough ; next, no legs should ever be fastened to the hive 

 proper ; and lastly, the fact was overlooked that by adopting 

 my non-swarming chamber under the brood nest ample room 

 is given for any quantity of bees. In the face of these facts, 

 therefore, it seems useless to give an illustration of a pattern 

 which has long since been discarded by practical bee-keepers ; 

 as legs fixed to the stock hive form the most serious obstacle to 

 profitable bee-keeping. 



This is so well understood in America that one might 

 search the States and Canada through and not' find one per 

 cent, of the hives with anything approaching legs attached to 

 the stock hive. 



A Caution. 



There is one item with regard to Mr. Wells' system which 

 does not appear to have been noticed. It should be remembered 

 that the supers being removed, he immediately closes the . 

 upper part of the hive by replacing the quilting, and thus there 

 are again two separate stocks. Should the supers remain 

 until late in the year, or the two queens be left at the heather, 

 the almost certain result will be that the bees unite into one 

 body on one side of the division board, and at the same time 

 destroy or leave the other queen to her fate. The same will 

 also occur, as the cold nights approach, with the hive tiered 

 up, with two or more queens, as shewn in Fig. 63 ; and, there- 

 fore, upon removal of surplus chambers, the respective colonies 

 must be divided if it is desired to keep them distinct ; or the 

 small-hole dividers can be replaced between the different body 

 boxes. Where this 



Tiering-up Plan 



is followed the small-hole perforated wood or zinc is to be 

 used between the respective storeys for a few days, and then 



