140 MODERN BEEHIVES. [Ch. hi. 



centration of heat, and also to admit of more honey 

 being stored above the brood, so that the food shall be 

 easier of access to the bees in winter. Our new frame 

 hive measures accordingly twenty-one inches from front 

 to back, sixteen inches in width, and twelve in height, 

 thus allowing the sides to be constructed of the original 

 breadth of the planks, viz., eleven inches (the other inch 

 being made up by the thickness of the floor-board). The 

 frames, of which there are nine, are ten inches deep and 

 thirteen wide ; they rest on strips of zinc, which prevent 

 the bees from propolising them down so firmly, and, as the 

 outsides of the hive are so enlarged as to leave galleries 

 from side to side beyond the ends of the bars, there is 

 easy access allowed to the fingers in removing. Another 

 noteworthy improvement is the addition of a " dummy 

 frame," which is merely a thin piece of board of the same 

 size as a frame, and whose use is either to contract the 

 dimensions of the hive according to the population, 

 or to make room, by its removal for the extraction of 

 the first comb. 



The frames are held firm and kept at their correct 

 distances apart by means of small staples, and a slit is 

 formed lengthways for the insertion of impressed wax 

 sheets or guide-strips cut from these. The crown-board 

 rests on the thin edge of zinc, in order that it may be 

 replaced more quickly, with less danger of crushing a 

 bee than on a broader surface. There is a feeding-hole 

 in the centre of the board, which in some hives is closed 



