236 AUSTRALASIAN 
which I have recommended as being preferable to racks. 
Much closer attention to ventilation and supplying extra room 
in the surplus boxes is needed to Keep down swarming when 
working for comb than for extracted honey. 
REVERSING FRAMES. 
A system of reversing frames—which at present bids fair to 
become generally adopted—has within the past year or two 
been tried by a number of prominent bee-keepers in America. 
The objects sought to be accomplished by the system are, first, 
to ensure the frames being perfectly filled with comb and 
fastened all round, and second, to prevent the combs in the 
brood-chamber being clogged with honey, or, as Mr. Heddon 
puts it, ‘an aid in supplying a brood-chamber for breeding 
purposes only, and the surplus arrangement above to possess 
nearly all the honey.” Should these results be obtained—and 
late reports leave little room for doubt—it will be a great step 
in advance in the practice of apiculture. 
A large proportion of combs are not built down to the bottem 
bars of the frames, neither are they fastened the whole of their 
depth down the end bars—consequently there is both a waste 
of room and a want of strength in the combs. If the frames 
are reversed, that is, turned upside-down after the combs have 
been built in the first place, the bees, for their own safety, are 
compelled to attach them securely both to the end bars and 
what were formerly the bottom bars, thus filling the frames 
solid. The next advantage, and which more nearly concerns 
us here, is the storing of the surplus honey in the surplus 
boxes ; it is claimed that by the proper use of the system the 
bees may be induced to enter the surplus boxes more readily, 
and even in a manner be compelled to transfer the honey from 
the brood-chamber to the surplus receptacles. As arule, the 
brood-combs are about one-third filled with honey, which is 
always stored along the upper part, next to the top bar, with 
the brood in the centre and lower part. When the top boxes 
are about to be put on, if the frames are reversed, the honey 
and brood being in an unnatural position with regard to each 
other, the bees, to rectify matters, will remove the honey, with 
a view to storing it above, and as the upper parts of the combs 
now contain brood, there is no alternative but to store it in the 
surplus boxes, and thus more breeding space is secured below. 
