HIVES FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 
39 
combs, and bring before our minds two laws of the 
bee world which have made possible the movable 
comb hive, as distinguished from the older forms, in 
which the combs were fixed, and incapable of manipu- 
lation. 
The nature of comb has been so minutely examined 
in Vol. I., that it suffices here to point out that the 
cells containing worker larvae are of the uniform depth 
of a bare -|-in., the comb being ^in. full in cross sec- 
tion, and that if the midrib {mr, B, Fig. 6) be flat, the 
Fig. 6.— Face and Cross-section of Comb (Natural Size). 
A, Comb Face— we, Workers Escaping ; sw. Sealed Workers ; ec, Empty Cells ; 
gl. Growing Larvae ; sd. Sealed Drones. B, Comb Section — ec, Empty Cell ; 
p. Pollen ; sh. Sealed Honey ; e, e, Eggs ; sZ, Spinning Larva ; sp. Sealed Pollen ; 
fl,. Feeding Larva ; mr. Midrib. 
surface of the comb will, in this case, be equally so. 
The cells in which drones are raised are deeper, giving 
to the combs a thickness of about i^in. It is often 
desirable to cut combs without fracture ; a dry blade 
makes very poor work, but if a thin, well-worn dinner 
knife be dipped into methylated spirit, sections as at 
B may be obtained without any breaking down of the 
cell walls. Making such a one, we find the pollen is 
placed in worker cells, being generally patted down 
into thin cakes so soon as stored, so that pollens of 
