The Dummy.—The dummy is a piece of board with lugs or ends which project from the sides, and rest on the inner walls of the hive. It is, in fact, a movable wall which is used to reduce the capacity of a hive. The requisite number of frames are removed and the dummy placed in position to cover the exposed side.
The Quilt.—Over all, is placed the quilt which retains the heat in the hive. Most bee-keepers have their own opinion as to the best material to use for this purpose. American cloth, glass, wood, carpet, horse-hair, matting, felt, sacking, cotton, and paper all find their advocates, and probably experience has proved them all. It is useless, then, to be dogmatic in favour of any. I would suggest, however, that one of the cheapest forms of quilt is one made of unbleached calico, for this is about the only material that the bees do not try to sample, or fasten to the frames.
Generally speaking it is advisable that a hole should be made in the quilt for feeding purposes. For this it is not necessary to cut a piece quite out but merely to make an incision along three sides of a square, thus forming a flap that can be folded back when feeding is necessary. This quilt should, of course, be supplemented with others to secure thorough retention of heat in the hive.
All old quilts that have any "propolis" (see [page 51]) on them should be saved to pack round crates of sections, or the propolis may be cut off and used as a decoy in spring amongst artificial pollen.
Queen-Rearing Hives.—There are many varieties of "nucleus" or queen-rearing hives, but the one I have found to give most satisfaction holds from three to five standard frames. These are used solely for the purpose of rearing young queens to take the place of those worn out by hard work or old age. The method to be followed in this direction is given on [page 75].
Observation Hive.—This consists of a glass case made to hold one standard frame, a shallow frame, and a row of sections. The bees can thus be seen at work on the combs. It is mounted on a pivot, through which the bees must pass to the entrance. Of course, the "observation hive" is not intended to keep bees in for more than a few days at a time, and when it is in use care should be taken not to expose the combs or the bees to the heat of the sun.
CHAPTER III
Bee-keepers' Requisites
Comb Foundation.—It is this wonderful invention that with the bar-frame has made bee-keeping a practical factor; without it, indeed, the bar-frame hive would be useless from a commercial point of view. The "comb-foundation" is a thin sheet of bees-wax, impressed by machinery, on both sides, with true hexagonal, or six-sided, bases of cells, a slight foundation for the walls being also impressed. Thus the bees are given a start, as it were, in their work. This foundation is made either with "worker" or "drone" cells and the bees will follow unfailingly the lead thus given them in their building. It is made in three degrees of thickness—"thin," "medium," and "thick"; the first for use in sections, and the others in the brood chamber.
As a rule bee-keepers in England buy only the worker-brood foundation, for should drones be required they can be secured by merely cutting away the lower part of a honey-comb, or supplying only half a sheet of foundation in the frames, for the bees will almost without fail build drone cells on these.
Foundation is catalogued by all makers of bee-keeping appliances, but it should be obtained only from reliable sources, for one of its essentials is that it should be made from pure bees-wax thoroughly cleansed and sterilized. Otherwise it may contain germs of brood disease.