700 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 15 



appliance it is necessary to see it in actual 

 use; so let us go out into the bee-yard, where 

 we find Mr. Bain going over the apiary for 

 the last time to see if the colonies have suf- 

 ficient stores, and whether the brood-nests 

 are contracted down to the proper capacity. 

 We find him sitting on one or these hive- 

 stools, as shown in Fig. 2, about to raise the 

 cover from one of the double- walled chaff 

 hives. Under the cover we find a tray made 

 of }i lumber, 6 inches deep, having a bottom 

 of burlap, and filled with ordinary planer- 

 shavings (see Fig. 3) . While chaff is, per- 

 haps, a little warmer, we use enough more 

 of the shavings to make up for the dif- 

 ference. You will observe that this tray has 

 the same length and width as the hive itself. 

 The burlap bottom is nailed on without 

 stretching the material, so as to leave plenty 

 of sag. The apiarist lifts off the tray, and 

 under it we find a super-cover, with tin 

 binding for the ends to prevent warping. 

 This is sealed down with propolis all around, 

 making a hermetic sealing, or what we call 

 a sealed cover. With the smoker in the 

 right hand and the hive-tool, which he 

 takes out of the box, in the left, Mr. Bain 

 (see Fig. 4) pries up the cover, blows a Utile 

 smoke in at the gap so made, removes the 

 cover, and stations the same conveniently 

 near. On opening the hive (see Fig. 6) he 

 discovers that the combs are not filled as 

 full as they might be, and therefore it will 

 be necessary to give them another feed. He 

 removes the frames that contain the least 



Fig. 2. — We pieler a deep telescoping cov- 

 er to set over the packing-trays for our 

 outdoor-wintered colonies. 



stores, and slips in a Doolittle divi- 

 sion-board feeder, and closes u]) 

 the hive for the time being. Later 

 in the day he comes back with a 

 syrup-can, which is nothing more 

 nor less than an ordinary watering- 

 pot with the rose taken off, and 

 pours in the feed (see Fig. 5). At 

 a later time he removes the divi- 

 sion-board feeder and puts in a chaff 



Doolittle division-board feeder. 



division-board on the outside, crowding the 

 two frames just outside the feeder up next 

 against the other frames. 



In this way he goes over hive after hive; 

 and as most of the colonies will probably re- 

 quire no more feeding, he puts back the 

 super-cover for final sealing, adjusts the 

 tray with its planer-sliavings so as to align 

 with the hive, taking care that, in doing so, 

 he does not disarrange the super-cover be- 

 neath in such a way as to leave a gap for the 

 escape of moisture up through the burlap 

 on the bottom of the tray. In a few cases 

 the super-covers have been found displaced 

 in the spring, and in every instance the 

 packing material has been found to be quite 

 wet — particularly so over the place where 

 the gap was made by the super-cover being 

 pushed over to one side. 



If the reader will turn to the editorial de- 

 partment he will see fuller particulars as to 

 how we feed our bees for winter. The il- 

 lustrations show how we pack our 

 bees for outdoor wintering, using 

 sealed covers. 



Another feature to which wc 

 would call especial attention is the 

 use of the contracted entrance- 

 cleat. Our ordinary chaff-hive en- 

 trances are 12 inches long for the 

 eight-frame hive, by J^ deep. A J-i 

 cleat of wood with a slot on one 

 side, 6 inches by Vs, is pushed in 

 the entrance, reducing the opening 



Fig. 3. — Our top packing consists of 

 shavings. 



a tray filled with planer- 



