90 l^ORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



literally Mled, all the cells, sealed and unsealed, containing 

 brood. It shows that there is no necessity for shallow 

 frames to have brood clear to the top-bar. At the time 

 when it is desired to get bees to start work in sections, 

 the brood will be up so high in the combs that bees will 

 start in the sections just as promptly with standard 

 frames as with those that are shallower. After the bees 

 have been at work storing for some time, the brood in the 

 standard frame will not be as near the top-bar as in a 

 shallow frame, but that will be no hindrance to the con- 

 timiance of storing in supers. 



Please do not understand that all my combs look like 

 the four in Figs. 32 and 33. Many of them do, but more 

 do not, because so many of them were built in seasons of 

 comparative dearth. 



There is another way to get combs built down to the 

 bottom-bar. Suppose you have a comb with a passage- 

 way under it more or less of its length. Cut it free from 

 the bottom-bar, and then cut straight across an inch or 

 more above the bottom-bar; then turn this piece upside 

 down and let it rest on the bottom-bar. The bees will 

 immediately fasten this piece to the bottom-bar (of course 

 it must be at a time when bees are working freely), and 

 very soon they will fill in the gap above the piece. 



HIVE-DUMMY. 



A good dummy is a matter of no light importance. It 

 is handy to fill up vacant space, its chief use being to make 

 an easy thing of removing the first comb from a hive. 

 With self-spacing frames there can be no crowding to- 

 gether of the frames so as to give one of them extra room, 

 as is the case with loose-hanging frames, and if a hive be 

 filled full of self-spacing frames it will be about impossible 

 to remove the first frame after a fair amount of propolis 

 is present. A dummy at one side is the thing to help out. 



