338 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL. 
describe all the ways of using them in detail would evidently 
be impossible within the compass of a lecture; to do so would 
be to give a complete treatise on practical bee-keeping. I 
can only assert that there is no operation possible with bees 
which cannot be performed with these hives, and I believe 
more easily than with any other yet invented. 
D. 
Mr. Cowan’s SySTEM OF WORKING THE BAR AND FRAME HIVE. 
(From The British Bee Journal, March 1, 1875.) 
It is with much pleasure that I now comply with the 
request of some of your correspondents to give them my 
system of working the Woodbury hives, which has enabled 
me to obtain such large supers of honeycomb. The method 
is very simple, but is one that requires much attention, 
which is, however, well repaid by the extra quantity of honey 
obtained. The hives I use are the ten-frame Woodbury, and 
thirteen-frame on the Woodbury plan, only longer. In the 
autumn I transfer the bees into clean hives, and leave them 
seven to eight frames, and should they be short of food or 
of bees I add those that I may take from the cottagers in 
the neighbourhood. I feed with sugar and water of the 
strength of two pounds of sugar to a pint of water, boiled 
up for a few minutes. They are fed up to weigh about 
thirty pounds. During the winter they have ample venti- 
lation, the hives being raised about one-eighth of an inch 
from the floor-board, and the top-board is also raised about 
the same height, so that there is a constant current of air 
through the hive.* 
While I am on the subject of wintering, I may mention 
that I have tried several plans. With the above I have 
always been free from mouldy combs. I have also tried 
wintering without crown-boards, by merely placing an empty 
super on the top, and I have done so successfully—in fact, 
* See remark on page 244. 
