188 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



ed. Let A A represent the siding, B B B B, 

 the cliatt", ;i)Hl C C C C, the light boards that 

 constitute the inner hive. D D is the rim 

 tliiit holds the cover, and E E, the cover itself. 

 F is the ridge boanl, tliat holds the siding 

 of which the cover is made. G G are strips \ 

 about li inches square, that support tlie up- 

 per story, and attach it securely to the lower 

 one. The shelf or ledge, formed by making 

 the upper story broader than the lower one, 

 is exactly on a level with the top bar of the 

 lower frames, and therefore the upper tier | 

 of frames must hang just f of an inch from ' 

 these, to prevent, as much as possible, the 

 building of combs between the two. II is i 

 tiie entrance, wliich is simply a covered pas- 

 sage way from the inside hive, through the 

 chaff, to the outside. A frame is shown in 

 place in the lower story, and the ends of a 

 couple of them in the upper story, hanging 

 at right angles to those below. J J are two 

 heavy i)ieces of rough unplaned stuff, that '. 

 support the bottom of the inside hive. Just j 

 below these, is the rough bottom of the hive, ^ 

 whicli is made of the knotty and shaky 

 pieces that were rejected, when we were 

 getting out the siding. To keep out the 

 dampness of the ground as mucli as possible, ; 

 ;is well as to discoui'age mice from any at- j 

 tempt to get into the siding, we put a slieet 

 of tarred building paper just under J J, and 

 between tliem and the rough bottom boards. 

 These rough Iwttom boards are the last 

 thing put on ; wlien the body of the hive is i 

 all finished, it is turned bottom upwards and ! 

 the chaff tilling put in. The chaff may be 

 either wheat or oats ; it has been suggested 

 that wheat would be less liable to get damp j 

 and settle down so as to be soggy and mould, 

 but we have noticed no such trouble with i 

 eitlier kind as yet, and the oats chaff is | 

 probably the Avarmer, because it is softer : 

 and more downy, like feathers. .The chaff \ 

 sliould l>e packed suthciently to prevent it | 

 from ever settling so as to leave the upper 

 l)()rtions of the hive vacant. When the chaff j 

 is all nicely tilled into the sides, you are to 

 put as much over the bottom as possible and 

 have the tarred paper and rough bottom 

 l)oards go in. and then the wliole is to be se- 

 curely nailed, both down into the strips J, 

 and through from tlie siding, into the ends 

 of tliese bottom boards. Now we are i-eady 

 foi- the cover. 



To contrive a light cheap cover, that would 

 be absolutely water proof, that would allow 

 of being readily lifted with one liand. and 

 still afford a tlat place on the top for setting 



a case of section boxes, or any other article 

 used in the apiary, caused me more hard 

 study and experiment than all the rest of 

 the chatf hive together. There are a great 

 many different i)ieces to the chaff hive, it is 



COVKR TO CHAFF HIVE. 



true, but these pieces are all made of cheap 

 lumber, and one kind of pieces is made to 

 answer a great variety of different purposes. 

 For instance, tlie roof boards of the cover 

 are all sorted out of the same siding that is 

 used for the body of the hive. Before piling 

 this siding away, yon are to select all of the 

 straightest and soundest pieces for these cov- 

 ers. For tlie sake of lightness, we will 

 plane these down to I, or a little less. 

 Wliere we get hold of very thick stuff among 

 our pile of culls, we can often make 3 roof 

 boards of a piece, thus saving lumber, and 

 time in dressing it down. Now tliese boards 

 or strips are to be bent in the middle, to get 

 the slope to the roof ; and, to do this, we 

 will make a broad saw cut nearly through 

 each of them, as shown below. 



ROOF BOARD TO CHAFF HIVE. 



Make the cut so nearly through, that the 

 board Avill bend along the line, without 

 trouble. To keep them bent just right, and 

 to make a solid ridge board with the flat 

 place on top, we will get out a piece of i 

 stuff, 22i inclies long, and 5 inches, wide. 

 Fix a beveled piece against the parallel bar 

 on your saw table, so that you can cut out 

 this board thus: 



Let A represent tlie paral- 

 lel bar, B, the beveled piece 

 screwed to it, C. the ridge 

 board we are making, and D, 

 the dotted lines where we 

 wish to have the saw cut. 

 After going through on one side, the board 

 is to be turned over, so that the piece, E, is 

 taken entirely out at the second cut. 



Tliat the siding may make a close joint 

 that will not leak, we groove the edges, and 

 push into them a little trough shaped piece 

 of tin. as shown below. 



ROOF BOARDS TO CUAFK IIIVK. 



