io8 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
considerations seem also to show that all metal ends 
have been made too long. Would not i^in. be better 
than i-2^in. ? If thus reduced, some of the objections 
to them would be lessened ; and they might, by chips 
of section-box placed between, be easily made to 
bring up the interspace to the size desirable for 
storing or wintering. 
It was remarked on page 95, that some advantages 
are claimed for inversion which interchanging alone will 
not give. These claims deserve attention. First : Bees 
do not build their combs down to the bottom rail, nor 
to the lower part of the sides of the frame, while 
they round off the corners as seen in Figs. 7, 18, and 
27 ; but, if the frame be inverted, the instinct which 
impels them to keep the combs securely attached above 
causes them at once to add cells upwards, and at the 
sides, until every part of the frame is fully filled. 
This absolute filling of the frame is no slight im- 
provement. It gives increased brood accommodation 
in the same general area ; it solidifies the setting 
of the comb, so that in handling, in extraction, or in 
the shaking of a journey to the heather, e.g., it is 
less likely to suffer ; it excludes the possibility of 
adding slyly-packed drone-cells, which may enable 
queens of an undesirable strain to perpetuate them- 
selves ; it makes the work of brushing or shaking 
bees from the combs more simple and rapid ; and it 
prevents queens from eluding us by hiding between 
the comb and bottom bar, as they not infrequently 
do. To secure these advantages, but one inversion 
in the whole history of the comb is required ; and 
they may be secured, with frames of the usual form, by 
