46 
MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
Fig. 30.— The Nonpareil hire. (From Bee-Keeping for 
Profit.) 
localities, undesirable, but it will frequently be found advantageous 
to contract temporarily the space occupied by the bees. For extracted 
honey alone, especially in any region having a short flow of honey, 
twelve-frame capacity is preferable. Thin, movable partitions, known 
as "division boards," enable 
one to contract the space at 
will, and the addition of su- 
pers or top stories gives stor- 
age room for surplus honey. 
Some prefer to have the hive 
in one story holding twice 
the usual number of frames 
and contractible with a divi- 
sion board. The entrance is 
then usually at one end, par- 
allel with the combs, and the 
surplus honey is obtained from the rear part of the hive, either in sec- 
tions held in wide frames or it is extracted with a machine from ordi- 
nary frames. This plan renders access to all of the frames somewhat 
easier than when two or more stories are used, but as the methods now 
most followed involve on 
the whole less manipula- 
tion of individual frames 
than was formerly deemed 
advantageous this supe- 
riority can not count for 
much — hardly enough in 
fact to balance the limita- 
tion as to the number of 
frames and the inconven- 
ience of larger and more 
unwieldy hive bodies, cov- 
ers, and bottom boards. 
Small hives may yield 
excellent results in the 
hands of a skillful bee- 
master, but an equal de- 
gree of skill will, in gen- 
eral, give as good, if not 
better, returns from large 
hives, and the novice who may not know just when or how to perform 
all operations will find himself much safer with hives holding ten or 
twelve frames in each story, and far more likely to secure good returns 
from them than from smaller ones. 
A good, tight roof or cover is indispensable, well painted, so that no 
drop of water can get in from above. A flat roof slanting from front to 
Fig. 31.— Dadant-Quinby form of Langstroth hive, open: a, 
front of brood apartment ; b. alighting board ; c, movable en- 
trance block; d, cap; e, straw mat; /, carriage-cloth cover 
for frames ; g, g, frames with combs. (From Langstroth.) 
