FirTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



Of course, with a 2-inch space under tlie bottom-bars the 

 bees would build down, sometimes even as eai'ly as dandelion 

 bloom. Before that time I shove under the bottom-bars a 

 bottom-rack. As material for a rack there are two pieces 18 x 1 

 X %, and 21 pieces 10% x % x 3/16. The little pieces ai'e nailed 

 upon the %-inch sides of the two larger pieces, ladder-fashion, 

 with ^.-o-inch space between each two strips. The strips are 

 allowed to project over at each side about an inch. 



Fig. 14 — Wagonload of bees. 



I value this bottom-rack highly. It prevents building down, 

 and at the same time gives the bees nearly the full benefit of the 

 deep space, preventing overheating in hot weather, thus serv- 

 ing as no small factor in the prevention of swarming. It also 

 saves the labor of lifting the hive off the bottom-board to re- 

 verse the bottom-board and then lifting the hive back again, 

 spring and fall. Instead of being made in the way described, a 

 board 10% inches long may be split up irregularly and used 

 for the cross-pieces. Such a bottom rack is shown at Fig. 12. 



ENTRANCE BLOCK. 



Now for that entrance-block. Formerly I made it heavy 

 CFig. 13), but now it is thin, Vg inch or go tbiek, 13 inches long 



