ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



15 



traction of the brood nest is equally per- 

 fect, the top of the brood apartment al- 

 ways being the same size; in short, such 

 hives allow of "short cuts," of a sort of 



wholesale management that an attempt 

 to follow with other hives brings in a 

 whole lot of loose pieces and an endless 

 amount of manipulation. 



^i^^^=<^^^r^<^^^^^^<:^ 



Honey Boards. 



rITH the majority of frames 

 in use, bees build little bits 

 of combs between the top 

 bars of the frames, and ex- 

 tending the combs upwards, connect 

 them with the cover of the hive, or the 

 bottom of a case of sections, or whatever 

 is next above the tops of the frames. 

 These little bits of combs are called brace 

 combs, or burr combs. It is very unpleas- 

 ant, unprofitable and untidy to lift off a 

 case of sections, and, in so doing, pull 

 apart a network of combs that connect 

 the bottoms of the sections with the tops 

 of the brood frames. The honey drips 

 and daubs about and attracts robbers, if 

 there are any to be attracted. The bits 

 of comb must be scraped from the bottoms 

 of the sections, and the muss cleaned up 

 as best it may. 



The bee-keeping fraternity is, I believe, 

 indebted to Mr. James Heddon, for the 

 modern honey board, which practically 

 does away with all trouble from brace- 

 combs. This honey board is simply a 

 series of slats fastened to a frame as large 

 as the top of the hive and placed over 

 the brood nest. These slats are about 

 5-16 of an inch thick, placed ^ of an inch 

 apart, and of such width and so arranged 

 that each opening between them comes 

 exactly over the center of the top bar of 

 a brood frame below. In other words, 

 the slats break joints with the top bars of 

 the frames below. As the tops of the 



frames are ^ of an inch below the level 

 of the top of the hive, there is a ^ space 

 between the tops of the frames and the 

 bottom of the honey board. The outside 

 rim or frame-work of the honey board is 

 ^ of an inch thicker than the slats, thus 

 the surplus case is raised three- eighths 

 of an inch above the slats of the honey 

 board. In short, the honey board is a 

 series of slats three-eighths of an inch 

 apart, placed between the brood nest and 

 the supers, with a "bee space" both above 

 and below the slats. In the space below, 

 between the slats and the brood nest, the 

 bees build brace comhs just the same as 

 ever, but for some reason, the space above 

 is almost always left free from the dis- 

 agreeable brace combs. A case of sec- 

 tions can be lifted off as clean and free 

 from daub as when placed upon the hive. 



ITG.2. 



J5!rs.i. 



WOODEN, QUESN-SXCLUDING HONEY 

 BOARD. 



I once tried to make these slatted hon- 

 ey boards queen-excluding by placing the 

 slats exactly 5-32 of an inch apart. So 



