"Improved Comb-bar.—This little contrivance has proved very effectual in securing straight combs when guide-combs are not attainable. The annexed sketch, [fig. 18], is a section of the new bar. It will be perceived that the lower angles are rounded off; whilst a central rib is added of about an eighth of an inch in breadth and depth. This central rib extends to within half an inch of each end, where it is removed in order to admit of the bar fitting into the usual notch. All that is necessary to insure the regular formation of combs is to coat the underneath surface of the central rib with melted wax. My practice is to use plain bars whenever guide-combs are attainable as these can be attached with much greater facility to a plain than to a ribbed bar; but whenever I put in a bar without comb I always use one of the improved ones. By this method crooked and irregular combs are altogether unknown in my apiary.
Fig. 19.
"Floor-boards.—My floor-boards are made of one-and-a-quarter-inch wood, keyed to prevent warping, are 18 inches square, and show a projection of about an inch beyond the exterior of the hive, from which they are chamfered down on all sides nearly three-eighths of an inch. An entrance 3 inches or 4 inches wide is cut in front out of the substance of the board commencing at the edge, and continuing on the same level until inside the hive, where it slopes upwards. The entrance formed in this manner is five-sixteenths of an inch in height where the hive crosses it.
Fig. 20.
"Alighting-boards are moveable, being attached to the floor-boards by means of a couple of pins of stout wire; they are made from a piece of a silk-roller, 2 inches in diameter by 8 long, rounded off at the ends, which when quartered makes four alighting-boards. The surface should be roughened by a toothed plane.
"Supers are 13 inches square inside and of various depths. Six inches deep is a convenient size, and, when filled, will contain nearly 30 lbs. of honey. The engraving, [fig. 19], represents a very neat glass super of this size, which is manufactured by Messrs. Neighbour. It shows also the adapter with its longitudinal communications near the sides of the hive, and which replaces the crown-board when a super is put on. As the honey-combs in supers are better when made of a greater thickness than those intended for breeding, I place only eight comb-bars in a thirteen-inch super.
Fig. 21.