WINTER MANAGEMENT. 241 
crown-board will not rest conveniently, a box without 
a lid may be inverted over the hive. This last 
arrangement will allow of the substitution for an 
empty sack of a canvas bag, which is to be stuffed 
with chaff, or better with the broken dried fronds 
of the common braken fern (a recommendation of 
Mr. F. R. Jackson, of Slindon). Further, to close 
the gaps at the ends of the frames, Mr. Cheshire 
hangs strips of wood, three-quarters of an inch wide 
and about five inches long, from the zine runners 
upon which the frames rest. 
Damp in Hives.—Upon this point we may first 
repeat an instruction of Mr. Taylor, which is not 
materially altered from what he left it in the last 
edition. Perhaps, he remarks, there is nothing more 
prejudicial than the moisture often engendered in 
exposed hives at this time, particularly after frost, 
and in certain special states of the atmosphere. It 
accumulates on the top and sides, moulding the 
combs and rendering them offensive, and producing 
disease amongst the bees. Gelieu obviated the evil 
by placing caps or small hives (cemented down) over 
the stocks; the moisture ascending, evaporated 
through the opening, “as by a chimney.” I have 
tried different experiments, and have found nothing 
better than the practice of condensing the vapour of 
the hive as much as possible, and conveying it 
away. At the beginning of winter, over the hole on 
the top, a piece of perforated zinc or wood is 
placed. Upon this let one of the common feeding 
troughs, already described, be put, from which the 
glass cover, and, if you please, the perforated 
R 
