§ XII. THE PHILADELPHIA FRAME HIVE.
Our frame hives hitherto described have facilities for extracting the movable combs at the roof of the hive; with the present one the frames are drawn out at the sides as well as above. This is manifestly a great convenience, as it obviates the necessity of removing the supers when an examination of the combs is required to be made in the midst of the working season. The hive, cover, and stand are all in one, and the side-flap falls down, as it does in the cover shown on [page 175], and the loose glazed side, by removal, serves as a dummy, allowing each comb to be withdrawn without risk of scraping the next. The cover, it will be seen, opens at one side, as does the stock hive. The floor-board draws out on the plan adopted by Mr. Cheshire.
There is a straw crown-board with a feeding-hole, which in summer is replaced by a queen-preventing zinc adapter perforated all over with circular holes too narrow to admit the queen or drones. The whole space over the frames is then covered with our small sectional supers ([Chap. IV. § vi.]), which, by means of the numerous perforations, are completely seasoned to the bees' taste with the same scent as the hive itself. The hive with its cover is complete without any further protection from the weather, and it carries its own stand. It was very highly commended at the Alexandra Palace Bee Show.