154 BEEKEEPING 



ably, too, if we had any means of know- 

 ing exactly the physical condition of such 

 a colony we would find that is was not 

 quite up to our ideals so far as commercial 

 beekeeping is concerned. The beekeeper 

 desires more than to have his bees live 

 over winter. He wants them to live over 

 and to be in such perfect condition that 

 they will store for him a surplus of honey 

 — otherwise he might as well keep a colony 

 of ants. 



It is probable too that the protection 

 afforded by a tree trunk is really greater 

 than it seems. The wood walls are often 

 several inches thick and the corky layer 

 of bark furnishes an insulation of great 

 efficiency. The same is true of the old 

 straw "skeps" which were formerly used 

 to house bees and which are still very 

 largely used in some European countries. 

 These skeps being made of twisted strands 

 of rye straw contained in their walls in- 

 numerable dead air spaces which pre- 

 vented a rapid loss of heat from the inside. 



