HIVES FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 
107 
more. It is their practice, in a state of nature, to 
place their combs about i^in. or from centre 
to centre. Such wide spacing is adopted in order that 
they may have liberty, according to their habit, to 
break into drone-cell making at any spot, as the 
comb is worked downwards ; for their drone-comb, if 
used for breeding, is, when capped, as nearly as 
possible 1-2%-in. in thickness. The bee-keeper, how- 
ever, by settling the interspace for the little artificers 
at i-/^in., while permitting, as we have seen, all 
needful room for worker-comb, bars drone com- 
pletely, because its capped cells extend from the 
midrib -^in., or |-f^in. The worker-comb opposite 
to it extends, in like manner, from its midrib 
or -j^in. ; the two together thus occupy -{-^in., 
which, subtracted from i-^o^n., the allowed distance 
from midrib to midrib, gives -j^in. only, or insufficient 
room for the queen to pass. The worker-comb would 
thus be useless for the raising of brood. When greatly 
cramped, in order to get room for queen-cells bees 
will cut down worker-comb; but it is not their practice 
so to do in order to raise drones, and hence drone 
cells under these conditions would only very occa- 
sionally be produced. 
Combs will only be built satisfactorily, from starters 
gauged so closely, when bees are crowded in in suffi- 
cient numbers to work all the combs down simul- 
taneously. Care on this point will generally secure 
most regular and beautiful work. The calculation 
just given, though, possibly, tedious, needs no apology 
for its introduction, and should be regarded as sup- 
plementing the statements made at page 72. These 
