Beneath the brood-chamber is the floor (often called the bottom-board) with its movable entrance-contracting eleat at the front by means of which a wide or narrow entrance can be made as the season or needs of the hive demand. One side of the floor provides for a 7%-inch entrance, and the other side a %-inch entrance. The 7%-inch entrance is preferred the year round by most beekeepers; but this large entrance is opened its full size only during warm weather, being contracted at other times according to the needs of the colony. Underneath the floor is the hive-stand with its sloping alighting-board reaching from the ground up to the entrance. (Above the brood-chamber, and between it and the super is placed the queen-exeluder when in use, which is a framework with wires spaced 163/1000--almost 1/6--of an inch apart. The worker bees,can pass between the wires readily; but the queen on account of her larger size, can not.) Above the brood-chamber (or above the queen-exeluder if in use) is the super, or upper story. This is called a "super" because it is above the hive proper, and it serves to receive the super-abundance of honey, which is the honey surplus gathered by the bees above their own needs as food. The super is not used for brood-rearing, except when temporarily 'used to give additional brood-rearing space in the spring and to -foundation. These are sheets of beeswax which have been embossed to imitate the septum in the middle of naturally built honeycomb. The bees build the foundation out into comb. These frames of comb may be moved about or lifted out freely, either to examine the bees or to remove the surplus honey. This movability of the combs is the main difference between the old box hive or skep and the modern hive. Extracted-honey supers are either deep or shallow. The deep extracting-supers contain extracting-frames of the same dimensions and construction as the brood-frames in the brood-chamber below. But the shallow extracting-super and its frames are shallower than the brood-chamber and the brood-frames, in some cases being the same depth as the comb-honey supers. The shallow super has the advantage of lightness in handling, which is an important consideration for women beekeepers. It also provides a way to prevent the bees from mixing different kinds of honey, as buckwheat and basswood, or orange and sage. For at the close of one honey flow a deep super might be half filled, mostly with unsealed honey, which, not being sufficiently ripened for extracting, must be left on the hive and so mixed with the honey of the next honey flow of a different kind. Whereas, if a shallow extracting-super had been used, it would have been filled and sufficiently sealed to be taken off, and the new honey flow would not be mixed with a previous honey flow. The beginner will understand that one kind of honey may be of much better quality and bring a high-er price than another, and so the mixing of a high-quality honey with an inferior kind is to be avoided if possible. Although the shallow super has many advantages, it is, however, true that the majority prefer full-depth supers of the same size as the brood-chamber below so that they may easily interchange the combs of the supers and those of the brood-chamber as desired.