HIVE BONNETS. 



45 



No wonder bee-keeping is so often condemned as profitless. 

 Thousands of stocks are either starved or drowned out, 

 owing to carelessness or want of thought. More stocks 

 arj annually lost from this cause than from any other. 



Cottagers in our day are often thankful to learn any 

 new improvement in bee-keeping, as witness the fact that 

 many are now employing their spare moments in making 

 the Woodbury bar and frame hives. Proceeding recently 

 past a neat lodge, occupied by an industrious couple, and 

 connected with one of the large residences in the North 

 of England, I was pleased to observe a new plan or method 

 for covering the old-fashioned straw skep. In the well- 

 kept garden surrounding the lodge were about half-a-dozen 

 stocks of bees scattered here and there, but arranged so as 

 to have plenty of sunlight, and, best of all, surmounted 

 v.'ith a rustic cover to keep the industrious inmates free 

 from the dreaded rainfalls. We may add, they were to us 

 the prettiest object in this neatly-arranged and clean garden. 



For the advantage of my cottage friends I will, in as 

 few words as possible, describe how to make these hivs- 

 bonnets. 



Most cottage bee-keepers have children ; if so, during 

 play-hours they should be induced to glean the neighbour- 



SKEP BONNETS. 



ing wheat fields afi:er all the corn has been carted by the 

 farmers. We advise gleaning because threshed straw is un- 



