. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. December 15, 1885.] THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL 401 are about gths of an inch in thickness, and if they were much thicker the queen would not lay any eggs in them. The bees only require g ths of an inch space between the combs for passage, consequently, if the combs are placed 15 inches apart, as they are bound to be where frames with broad shoulders or distance-pins are used, the combs can be constructed 1 ^ inches in thickness. They are in fact drawn out to this thickness at the top, and are used for honey; sometimes even they are thicker; a
. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. December 15, 1885.] THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL 401 are about gths of an inch in thickness, and if they were much thicker the queen would not lay any eggs in them. The bees only require g ths of an inch space between the combs for passage, consequently, if the combs are placed 15 inches apart, as they are bound to be where frames with broad shoulders or distance-pins are used, the combs can be constructed 1 ^ inches in thickness. They are in fact drawn out to this thickness at the top, and are used for honey; sometimes even they are thicker; and if honey is coming in fast the bees content themselves with less space between the honey combs; but as the queen ascends into the upper storeys, she finds the cells drawn out to about the proper length and at once deposits her eggs there. If now the frames in the second storey are reversed, it brings the wide comb to the bottom, and the thinner comb to the top which, as soon as the brood hatches out, is used for storing honey. The greater thickness of the comb is as an effectual queen- excluder as perforated zinc, and she is henceforth con- fined to the lower chamber. In our experiments, we get the combs in the second storey built out at the top to nearly H inches thick, and we found b}r reversing these that the combs were drawn out to this thickness through- out, and at the same time the queen was kept to the lower compartment. In our own hives we use neither broad shoulders, nor distance-pins, as we have always found these a hindrance to quick manipidation, and without them we have the bees more under our control; we can have combs built of any thickness we may desire, so that the reversible frame does not present the same ad- vantages to us as it would to those who are not able by broad shoulders or distance-pins to control their bees in the same way that we are able to do. To these reversing the combs will enable them to accomplish in the brood- chamber what we do by mer
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