94 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



day long, when hot and tired, a pound difference in 

 weight is quite an item. The first covers I had for 

 movable-frame hives were S inches deep and weighed 

 about 18 pounds. Xeedless to detail the different covers 

 I have devised and tried, with upper surface of tin, oil- 

 cloth, and wood, painted and unpainted. Although I 

 don't paint hive-bodies, I want covers painted. Some of 

 my covers just at present are the common plain board 

 cover, and I don't like them. Some of them are of two 

 hoards united at the middle by a A'-shaped tin slid into 

 saw-kerfs, and I like these still less. A new board cover 

 is a nice thing. After a little it warps, and then it isn't a 

 nice thing. Put a cleat on each end so it cannot warp — 

 cast-iron cleats, if you like — and it will twist so that there 

 will be a grinning opening at one corner to allow bees to 

 walk out and cold to walk in, to say nothing of robber- 

 bees. 



TIX COVERS WITH DEAD- AIR SPACE. 



I have fifty covers that I like very much. They are 

 double-board covers, the boards being ^ thick, the grain 

 of^the upper and lower boards running in opposite direc- 

 tions, with a ^ dead-air space between them : at least it 

 world be dead-air if it were not for cracks, and I do not 

 consider the cracks a necessary part if the covers were 

 properly made. The whole is covered with tin and 

 painted white. The lower surface is perfectlv flat, with 

 no cleat projecting downward, for such cleats do not help 

 rapid and easy handling. Such a cover is light, safe from 

 warping and' twisting, is cooler in summer than the plain 

 board cover, and warmer in winter. The greatest objec- 

 tion is the cost ; I think they cost 25 cents or more each. 



Two of these tin covers will be seen at Fig. 37, the 

 o::e at the right showing the under surface of the cover. 



ZIXC COVERS. 



Fifty other covers are made on the^same plan and 

 covered with zinc. These are not painte'd. So long as 



