936 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



made supers piled one on top of the other. On 

 top of the upper super place some carbon bisul- 

 phide, and then cover quite closelj-. 



With all due respect for Prof. Surface, we 

 would repeat that, in our judgment, the use of 

 such a deadly thing as hj^drocyanic-acid gas 

 should not be recommended when we have a sub- 

 stitute just as good, and practically free from any 

 danger attendant on its use. 



Mount Joy, Ontario, Can. 



HIVE-CLOTHS. 



A Practical Plan for Those Who Wish to 

 Use Cloths Under the Hive-covers. 



BY \VM. MUTH-RASMUSSEN. 



Occasionally I see in my bee-papers some allu- 

 sion to this subject, and, according to the old ad- 

 age, " Many men of many minds," some bee- 

 keepers must have cloths under the hive-covers, 

 while others would not use them at any price. 

 The Dadants have used home-made mats; A. I. 

 Root at one time recommended enameled cloth, 

 and other materials have been tried; but the ma- 

 terial which is probably most commonly in use, 

 and most easily obtainable, is burlap or gunny- 

 sacking. When I lived in Southern California, 

 some 30 years ago, it used to be a common say- 

 ing that gunny sacks and baling-rope were legal 

 tender among the bee-men. The baling-rope was 

 used around hives when moving them, and for 

 tying branches of sycamore-trees on a permanent 

 framework to shade the hives during the summer. 



Being one of those who must have a cloth un- 

 der the hive-cover, I was naturally always on the 

 lookout for the best material for this purpose; but 

 for many years I found nothing better than gun- 

 ny sacking. This, however, was very unsatis- 

 factory, as the bees would gnaw holes in it, and 

 the cloths had to be discarded and replaced by 

 new ones every few years. Finally I read in the 

 printed report of the National Bee-keepers" Con- 

 vention, held in Los Angeles in 1903, that Mr. 

 ]. F. Mclntyre used painted hive-cloths. It was 

 not long before I started a correspondence with 

 him, and, through his kindness in furnishing me 

 with the desired information, as well as by my 

 own practical experience with them, I am now en- 

 abled to give complete directions for making such 

 cloths, which, I feel sure, will prove a boon to 

 all who use cloths under the hive-covers. 



MATERIAL. 



I find that white duck is the best for the cloth; 

 8-oz. duck may do. As I could not get this here, 

 I used a heavier quality. Mr. Mclntyre prefers 

 6-oz. drill as being a little smoother. I tried 

 sheeting, but found this too limber, and too easi- 

 ly pulled out of shape. I procured the duck, 

 twice as wide as required, for my cloths, and then 

 split the whole bolt lengthwise in the middle in- 

 to two equal strips. 



SOAKING. 



One of these strips was then placed in an emp- 

 ty washtub by laying the cloth down zigzag 

 fashion, so that it could be gradually drawn out 

 without disturbing the underlying folds. After 

 weighting the cloth down with stones, the tub 



was filled with water and left thus over night. 

 As the cloth will absorb a great deal of water it 

 will not suffice merely to cover it, as then the top 

 folds might be found high and dry the next morn- 

 ing. There should be plenty of water and to 

 spare. The object of soaking the duck is to keep 

 the oil out of the cloth, as the oil, according to 

 Mr. Mclntyre, will rot cotton fiber. The soak- 

 ing will shrink the cloth, particularly in the di- 

 rection of the warp, so that, in buying material 

 for a given number of hive-cloths, one has to 

 make allowance for the shrinkage. I found that 

 the 11-oz. duck, which 1 used, shrunk half an 

 inch to the foot lengthwise. 



PAINTING. 



The next morning the paint is prepared by mix- 

 ing yellow ocher with boiled linseed oil in the 

 proportion of equal parts by weight. After split- 

 ting the bolt, each strip of the cloth was about 20 

 inches wide, and it required 4 oz. of ocher and 

 the same of oil to give each yard in length two 

 coats. The paint should be stirred frequently 

 while being applied, otherwise much of the ocher 

 will settle to the bottom. 



A low table is now arranged close to and with 

 one end toward the tub by tacking a couple of 

 foot-wide boards side by side on two trestles or 

 saw-horses. These boards may be of any con- 

 venient length, say 8 or 10 feet. Rough boards 

 are better than planed ones, as the wet cloth 

 does not adhere so tenaciously to a rough surface. 



When every thing is in readiness, the stones 

 are taken out of the tub and the water poured off. 

 If this is not done, pools of water will collect on 

 the surface of the cloth and interfere with the 

 painting. The cloth is now drawn out on the 

 table until it reaches the further end, and the 

 whole strip, as far as it covers the table, is given 

 a coat of paint, leaving, however, about 2 inches 

 of the end of the cloth unpainted, so that one can 

 take hold of this to pull the cloth by without get- 

 ting the fingers into the paint every time. The 

 paint should be put on middling thick with a good 

 wide brush, care being taken that no spot is left 

 unpainted, as the bees will bite holes in the cloth 

 if they can get to the fiber. When one table- 

 length is painted, the cloth is pulled out on the 

 grass or on smooth clean ground, and another 

 table-length gone over in the same way, and so 

 on until the whole strip of cloth has received a 

 coat of paint. If the cloth adheres too much to 

 the table while pulling it, slip a round stick, as 

 a curtain-roller, between the cloth and the table, 

 moving the stick toward the tub and leaving it 

 on that end of the table, when the cloth will move 

 along with the stick rolling under it without any 

 difficulty. The painting should be done on a 

 warm, bright, and calm day, so that the paint 

 may dry quickly and the cloth not be flapped 

 round by the wind. As the corners of the cloth 

 have a tendency to curl up while drying, I put a 

 stone on each corner. In two days, according to 

 the weather, the paint will be dry, and a second 

 coat is given — this time, however, without wetting 

 the cloth. When dry again, the cloth may be 

 drawn up on the table or laid on a smooth floor, 

 and cross-cut into pieces of the right size for hive- 

 cloth^. If these are not put to immediate use 

 they may be piled up and covered with a hive- 

 cover with a weight on top. This will keep 

 them flat and in good shape until wanted. 



