APPLIANCES. 



27 



centre to centre of combs should be l^in. — of which there are a 

 great variety on the market. We will therefore enumerate some of 

 the chief, and recommend those which in practice have been found 

 most serviceable. To commence, we must note that the most 

 ancient were pieces of wood tacked on each side of the ends ; or 

 else they were cut out of the solid wood, to form half-space — the 

 frames resting on zinc runners in the hive. The next advance (?) 

 was having the full space blocks on each end of opposite sides 

 of the bar ; this, in our opinion, was a retrograde step, although 

 it is used at the present time by many ; but their disadvantages 

 are being gradually found out. At about the same time wire 

 staples were introduced, and are used in a few hives now, 

 although these are but a poor contrivance at the best. A great 

 advance was made by the introduction of solid metal ends 

 (under this separate heading we will describe various makes of 

 these). No bee-keeper who has used these will ever revert to the 

 former contrivances ; the only alteration likely to be made will be 

 to do without any spacing guides at all. 



48. Broad Section-frames. — Broad frames are used for 

 what is called back supering. They are of a size to take six 

 4i by 4i sections, as 

 illustration. The "sepa- 

 rators " are strips of zinc 

 (No. 6), tacked across 

 the two rows of sections. 

 These frames are grad- 

 ually going out of use 

 in England, as all ad- 

 vanced bee-keepers "tier 

 up" their hives instead 

 of supering laterally, the 

 former being found to 

 be much the better plan. 

 The width of frame en- 

 tirely depends upon that 

 of the sections used, but. 



The Broad Frame, with Sections fitted with 

 Foundation. 



as almost all sections are 2in. wide. 



this size is the usual one made. 



49. Snpers. — The varieties are legion. In a box, no matter 

 of what material made, the bees will store their surplus honey ; 

 but as this work is intended solely for the advancement of 

 modern bee-culture, we will confine ourselves to a descrip- 

 tion of those supers used by advanced apiarists, not only on 

 account of their simplicity, or ease in management, but also for 

 their adaptability to the production of honey in the most saleable 

 forms. 



50. Skep Super.— We have until the present given only a 

 description of bar-frame hives and their adjuncts ; but here, as 



