78 A'YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
the division-board so tight that no bee can go from one 
side to the other. 
As I make much use of these double hives, I am not satis- 
fied with any division-board that I have ever used. Although 
they may be all right at first, I have lost a good many queens 
by finding that later there was a passage from one side to the 
other under the division-board. The only way I can account 
for it is, that in the hive it is always dry and if any change 
takes place in the division-board, at all, it shrinks, although 
made of thoroughly seasoned stuff : on the other hand, the 
body of the hive being exposed to the weather may swell, es- 
pecially toward fall. Either the shrinking of the division- 
board, or the swelling of the body of the hive, or both 
together would cause a passage under the division-board. 
I am thinking of remedying this, by nailing in the bottom of 
the hive and at each end, a little tin trough in which the 
division-board, if it shrinks, may play up and down without 
danger of making any passage for bees. 
As I have previously described, the division-board is a plain 
board about %-inch thick, having a top-bar %x%. This top- 
bar is nailed down at each end by a %-inch wire nail. Oyer 
the whole hive is now laid a piece of cotton cloth or sheeting 
that will fully cover it and allow for shrinkage. Over this 
cloth, directly upon the top-bar, is laid a piece Mx%, exactly 
like the top-bar, and nailed down near each end with %-inch 
wire nails. When the hive is filled there is no possibility of 
any bee crossing from one side to the other at the top, until 
holes have been gnawed through the cloth on both sides. 
My hives being 10-frame ones, there is room in each side of 
these double hives for four frames and a dummy. 1 have 
sometimes used five frames in each side, but it makes them 
too crowded. 
Having these nucleus or double hives thus arranged, a 
nucleus is started in each of them. In each is put two frames of 
brood and bees, next to the division- board, so that each 
nucleus may have the benefit of the heat of the other. As I 
have already intimated, there is no nicer way to establish 
