WINTEKING. 101 



frames. They leave it open till their hive is crammed with comh; and 

 then utilize it to gain space for storage, as we now believe. If the object 

 v/ere to prevent the circulation of air, a propolis wall would be built, such 

 as most beekeepers must have observed at hive mouths. The fact is, bees 

 in hives are in somewhat artificial conditions, while they are governed by 

 instinct, the nature of which is to be stereotyped, and so to fail often 

 where it is required to accommodate itself to that which is unusual. It 

 is alone the prerogative of reason to vary and adapt. The protests of 

 the bees if always listened to, would abolish movable combs, since they 

 ever strive to fix their frames, and would lead us to believe that orphan 

 colonies having no means of raising queens, ought to be assisted by eggs, 

 rather than by a fertile mother, since they accept the former but refuse 

 the latter. The instructed beekeeper knows, however, that his reason is 

 right while the instinct of the bee is wrong, but only wrong because the 

 circumstances are not natural. The quilt, if fouad convenient, may 

 be used the year through, since it is in summer, so far as the bees are 

 concerned, neither better nor worse than the crown board. In this 

 matter each beekeeper must consult his own taste. 



The heated air rising from each seam of bees in the skep, is not 

 allowed to flow away at once to the unoccupied parts of the hive, as it 

 does in those with frames, because in the former the comb not only is 

 attached to the top, but the sides also as far down as the store reaches. 

 It is in this that the superiority of the skep for wintering bees consists, 

 not in the straw, as we have been so often told. In order to gain this 

 advantage, let slips of wood fin. wide, and about five inches long, 

 have tacks driven .through them at Jin. from the end ; these dropped 

 down between the frames will be held in position by the head of 

 the tack coming over the zinc runner (1, or 2, Kg. 17). As the 

 matting above, and the slips at the frame ends, will not allow the 

 bees to pass from comb to comb without leaving the cluster, winter 

 passages must be made by cutting a hole Jin. in diameter, two 

 or three inches from the top of each comb, fitting afterwards into 

 it a shaving, rolled like the side of a pill box, which wiU prevent 

 the bees refilling it. The slips, too, will somewhat increase the dis- 

 tance between the combs, which facts that have been recently observed 

 seem to show to be an advantage. If a colony in a bar frame hive 

 has to be sent a journey, these wooden slips between the frames 

 will prevent them shifting, and perforated zinc above will supply aU 

 needed ventilation. The mouth of the hive during winter should be 

 somewhat contracted ; but we do not advocate its being made so small 

 that only one bee can pass at a time. Our first swarm in 1876 came 

 from a hive which had remained open from the previous autumn along its 

 whole front, the front wedge beneath the bottom board having been left 

 out. It had a hybrid mother, and was rich both in bees and stores. 



