138 AUSTRALASIAN _ 
while tapping down the ends of the dovetails at each corner. 
Complaints are sometimes made that the joints of dovetailed 
sections are not firm enough to keep the boxes from twisting 
out of the square, even when carefully handled, but I find that 
when put together as I have described they are equally as firm 
for all purposes required as when nailed. 
SEPARATORS. 
In raising comb-honey it is most desirable to have the section 
boxes uniformly filled, the combs of an even thickness through- 
out, built with perfectly flat faces, and not projecting beyond 
the edges of the sections. To this end temporary partitions or 
separators are generally placed between each two rows of section 
boxes while in the hive. Were the bees not confined to each 
particular box by these divisions or walls we should be likely 
to find the combs built very irregular and bits of wax stuck 
about the edges of them. 
Separators are usually made of tin, but sometimes of very 
thin wood ; tin appears to be the best, as the bees are not so 
likely to attach comb to it as to wood. They should be made 
of very light tin, cut three-quarters of an inch longer than the 
outside dimensions of the frames and 34in. wide; the ends 
should be bent at right angles, to hook, as it were, round the 
end bars, and be lightly tacked to keep them in place. Care 
should be taken to put them on perfectly flat, and to leave an 
equal space of a quarter of an inch at the upper and lower parts 
of the sections to allow the bees to pass in and out and from 
one box to the others (see Fig. 54). 
DISPENSING WITH SEPARATORS. 
Much thought has been given lately by some leading bee- 
keepers to the question of dispensing with separators alto- 
gether. No doubt it would be very desirable to do so could we 
have our comb-honey raised in as good form without them. 
Not to speak of a saving of expense, there are other objections 
to their use. For instance, the sections being divided off from 
each other, and thus to a large extent cutting off continuous 
communication through the super, tends in a very great mea- 
sure to prevent the bees entering the boxes as readily as they 
otherwise would, hence the greater tendency for a colony to 
