THE HIVE 39 



A good cover should first of all be 

 water-tigM. In the second place it should 

 not blow off easily. Formerly covers 

 were made of two pieces of cypress lum- 

 ber joined in the middle so as to be fairly 

 tight and with a slight pitch to cause rain 

 to run off. These wooden covers were a 

 success provided one always remembered 

 to lay a few bricks or a cast-iron fly-wheel 

 or something of that sort on them to hold 

 them in place. They had a very distress- 

 ing way of blowing off in the wind — es- 

 pecially at night and in cold weather. 

 For this reason most beekeepers have 

 adopted the telescope cover which is built 

 to slip over the walls of the hive. It is 

 covered with tin or galvanized sheet-iron 

 and answers every purpose of a durable 

 practical roof. 



An ''inner cover" is almost always 

 used with these telescope roofs. It con- 

 sists of a thin light wooden cover to lay 

 over the top of the hive before the reg- 

 ular cover is put on. Its use provides a 



