MOVABLE-FRAME HIVES. 



167 



level ground. If the grain of the lumber in the bottom-board 

 runs from front to rear, it will shed water more readily, and 

 rot less. If the bottom is nailed on the cross-blocks, it will 

 not be in danger of warping. 



Our Swiss friends make the bottom-board with the grain 

 running from side to side. They say that in this way they 

 can make it fit exactly in the lower rabbet of the hive, 

 without swelling or shrinking. They also make the apron, 

 with hinges fastened on the bottom-board, and in snowy or 

 cold weather, they raise it and lean it against the hive, to 

 protect the entrance. 



344. The adjustable bottom-board is convenient in many 

 instances. If in taking the bees from a winter repository, 



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f 



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Fig 75. 



it is found wet and mouldy, you can at once exchange it for 

 a dry one, and wipe the wet board at leisure. Or, if a 

 comb breaks down in Summer, by weight and heat, the hive 

 can be lifted off its bottom, and placed on a clean stand, so 

 that the leaking honey and broken combs can be instantly 

 removed, and robbing or daubing of bees avoided. More- 

 over, the bottom-board is the first part of the hive to decay, 

 and a hive-body and cover will usually outlast two bottom- 

 boards. As many bee-keepers use the hive-bodies of small 

 Langstroth hives in two or more stories, they do not cut an 

 entrance in the front board, but make the bottom-board with 

 slats on three sides so as to leave an entrance in front, fig. 84. 

 Doctor C. C. Miller makes his bottom-boards with a two- 

 inch space under the frames. 



