72 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
measure might mark on the hive side the normal 
position for combs and interspaces. Although several 
of my hives have no distance-keepers, yet my own 
preference lies now with one extending fin. only 
from the frame of |in. wide, so that a minimum 
of ijin. is preserved, when no accident permits of 
the frames jamming together, and crushing the bees 
in the brood nest. Such distance-keepers, at the 
same time, do not interfere with those variations in 
interspace which recent observation has shown to be 
desirable ; e.g., swarms and stocks furnished with 
guides ijin. apart are compelled to build worker 
comb (see “Swarms”), to the exclusion of drone. If 
the raising of brood, and consequent increase in 
the number of bees, be the object, a reduction in 
the usual interspace, in all but the coolest weather, 
leads to most satisfactory results. If foundation be 
given, similar management quickens the drawing out, 
and increases the surface operated upon, while it con- 
siderably reduces the chances of stretching. There 
are other cases in which increased distance is 
required, to which the devices referred to present no 
impediment ; these, therefore, had better be noted 
while dealing with broad-shouldered frames. 
Bees are small creatures, and our attempts at 
separating them into two or more lots in one hive 
may end in disaster through any defects in the 
division-board. Accurate fitting is also demanded, 
because air flows with surprising quickness through 
small gaps, handicapping seriously weak colonies, 
which may thus lose the heat that they, even 
under favourable conditions, maintain with difficulty. 
