FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



91 



An eight-frame dovetailed hive is I2j^ inches wide 

 inside. Eight frames spaced i^ inches from center to 

 center will occupy ii inches, leaving at one side a space 

 of 13^ inches, abundance of room to lift out the first 

 frame easily. A dummy put into that space will keep the 

 bees from filling it up with comb, and it ought never to be 

 difficult to lift out the dummy. If a dummy a trifle more 

 than a fourth of an inch thick be put in, leaving a fourth 



Fifi. 29.— Tool-Basket, 



of an inch between dummy and frame, there will be left 

 between the dummy and the side of the hive a space of a 

 little more than half an inch, a space that the bees will 

 never fill with comb in such a place. As propolis ac- 

 cumulates, however, this space will become less. 



The dummy should be light and at the same time 

 quite substantial, and the one I use fulfills these require- 

 ments (Fig. 42). The principal board of the dummy is 

 163^x8^x5-16, of pine. The other parts are of some 



