20 BEE-FJRMING. 



The SIX boards constituting the box must be made of 

 inch deal well seasoned. The frames we employ are 

 quarter-inch deal wood ; they should be made to hang on 

 the groove evenly. We use an ordinary turned wood door- 

 handle for the feeding-hole in the top board, and above the 

 entrance, in the front of the hive, we nail a small wood 

 block, generally cut in a half-circle, to shield the bees from 

 the weather. 



To say they require no covering in the winter v/ould 

 be correct, still we prefer to place over each stock a com- 

 mon tea-chest, or, better still, to make a few long hay- 

 bands, and twisting them around the hive to cover it at 

 least three coils deep, then to place the tea-chest over this. 



Many bee-keepers prefer not to paint their wooden hives. 

 Well, our advice is, paint them both inside and out with 

 not less than three coats, excepting only the bar-frames. 



Just try an experiment the next winter, or during a 

 whole year if you like. Keep a wood hive unpainted and 

 by its side another covered well with stone-coloured paint. 

 In winter you will observe the unpainted hive reeking 

 with moisture exhaled by the bees ; this to some extent 

 cannot be avoided, even if good ventilation be carried out, 

 but the painted hive will be quite dry, because the painted 

 wood cannot absorb the water, which therefore gradually 

 drains away or disappears through the open feeding-hole 

 in the cover. An unpainted hive will crack under a hot 

 sun, and insects will gradually but surely find a home and 

 resting-place to breed in the crevices, but if these are all 

 closed up by the hard lead-paint they never stop long, even 

 it' they do find an entrance into the well-guarded hive, and 

 the painted hive never cracks. But the best test of all is 

 the health of your colonies in the unpainted hive. Every 

 bee-keeper will allow that his bees are not so hearty as in 

 his painted hives. 



Another test ought finally to settle this disputed point. 



