[y littering' in Bee House. 351 



2d. Have five or six inches on all sides of bees, oi jine 

 chaff — timothy is best — entirely freed from straw. 



3d. Be sure and have the chaff below the bees as well 

 as above and on the sides. 



4th. Do not put the chaff above the bees on loose, but 

 confine in sacks. This is for convenience and neatness. 



5th. Have as much empty space as possible inside the 

 hive and outside the packing; and never let the cover to 

 the hive rest immediately on the packing. 



6th. Crowd the bees on to a few frames — never more 

 than eight — and the packing close to the bees. 



7th. Winter passages should be made through all the 

 combs. 



Mr. Jones prefers that the outer wall of the chaff-hive 

 should be of narrow boards so as to be more impervious to 

 dampness. He also uses fine dry sawdust instead of chaff. 

 Mr. Root in his two-story hives (Fig. 187) uses a thicker 

 layer of chaff below, but carries it to the top. Of course 

 the double wall need not extend on the sides of the frames. 

 The division boards on the sides of the frames may make 

 the double wall. 



WINTERING IN BEE HOUSE. 



As Mr. D. A. Jones has tested bee houses on a very- 

 large scale, and met with success, I will quote directly 

 from him: 



« The house should be so constructed that the out-door 

 temperature cannot affect that of the bee house; and in 

 order to accomplish this its walls should be packed tightly 

 with two feet of dry sawdust or three feet of chaff pack- 

 ing, overhead same thickness, and the bottom so protected 

 that no frost can penetrate. Next, it should have a venti- 

 lating tube at the top, of not less than one square inch to 

 each colony of bees. It should have sub-^arth ventilation 

 by means of a tube laid below the depth frost will pene- 

 trate, and from one to three hundred feet in length, coming 

 in contact with outside atmosphere at the other end; as air 

 passes through this' tube it is tempered by the distance 

 through the earth, and comes into the house at an even 

 temperature. By means of slides at these ventilators, the 



