This section is from the book "How To Keep Bees And Sell Honey", by Walter T. Kelley. Also available from Amazon: How To Keep Bees And Sell Honey.
The queen excluder confines the queen to the brood nest and prevents her from laying in the frames of comb honey. The brood nest may consist of one or two hive bodies or even more with experienced bee men but the beginner desiring to secure some surplus honey the first season will probably confine the queen to a single hive body.
Bees normally come out on the front of the hive to air themselves during the late afternoon.
The beekeeper whose first consideration is pollination of his fruit or legume seed crops should never confine his queen to a single brood chamber but should permit her to have the free use of at least two ten frame hive bodies so as to secure the maximum number of bees for pollination.
Most commercial bee men do not use queen excluders in the production of extracted honey or they use them sparingly. On the other hand a few very successful honey producers use queen excluders at all times.
Deep supers or hive bodies are exactly the same item, the difference in name being due to the difference in their use. These bodies are 9-9/16" deep and take the standard 9 1/8" brood frames. The ends of these bodies are rabbeted out 7/8" deep so that they can be fitted with the metal frame rests (rabbets) which prevent the top bars from being propolized (glued) too hard.
The hive body or full depth super are exactly the same item but are put to different uses.
The frames may be bought with solid bottom bars for use with plain or wired medium brood foundation in the 8 1/8" width which require two or more horizontal cross wires. The divided bottom bar frames are used with the 8 1/2" width medium brood in either the wired or the plain style. The beginner need not bother with horizontal wiring when the 8 1/2" wired brood is used in the divided bottom bar frames. Commercial beekeepers who operate out-yards and move their bees will need to use 2 or more horizontal wires also.
The shallow super has the same outside dimensions as the deep hive body except in depth.
Some beekeepers prefer to wire the foundation in shallow frames to produce comb honey but these wires must be heated by electricity and pulled out of the frames of honey. Many small beekeepers prefer divided bottom bars in either the heavy or the grooved top bar styles and use a 5" width foundation which is held in place by the two piece bottom bars, however, the bees attach the foundation to the bottom bar at about the same time as the top bar and this does not permit the necessary expansion which results in bowed combs.
The thin, grooved top bar shallow frame is used extensively by commercial chunk honey producers and even though it sells for less it should not be ordered by back lotters who will not wax the foundation securely into the frames. The sheets may fall out if the waxing is poorly done.
The shallow extracting supers are 5 3/4" deep and take either the grooved top bar (3/8" thick) or the heavy top bar frames with the wedge cut out and are 5 3/8" deep. These frames may be had with either the solid bottom bar or the two piece bottom bar. The solid bottom bar frame takes the 4 1/2" width foundation while the divided bottom bar style takes either wired brood foundation in the 4 13/16" width or the 5" foundation. These sizes are wide enough to extend down through the bottom bars which hold the sheets in position without horizontal wiring.
The shallow frame with the Hoffman top bar with the wedge cut out is the popular style with small beekeepers.
A queen excluder is a screen through which the workers may pass but the queen and the drones cannot, thereby confining brood rearing to a certain section of the hive.
Here is a new idea in producing comb honey in shallow frames. This divided frame can be sawed apart and each half will weigh about 1 1/2 pounds which is a handy size and which can be sold low enough to fit any family budget.
For best results the 4 1/2xl6 1/2" thin super or cut comb foundation is recommended for the 5 3/8" shallow extracting frames with either style top or bottom bars. Some operators cut these sheets in half lengthwise, using a starter, which produces excellent results, but much of the comb is drawn out in the drone size which does not look quite as nice as the worker size cells.
When the supers must be trucked to outyards it is very important that they be covered tightly with a tarpaulin, otherwise the air currents caused by the cab will force strong currents of air down through the frames and tear many of the sheets of foundation out of place.
No supers of foundation should be put on the hives before they are actually needed but it is wise to have a supply of foundation in the frames stored for use and if there are frames with foundation that was not drawn out at the end of the honey flow they should be removed from the hives and stored in a cool, dry place.
 
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