WINTERING BEES. 273 



owner ; and in many cases the loss is not observed 

 until bees from other hives are carrying out the 

 honey. Then it is supposed to have been attacked 

 and robbed by them. 



This difficulty is not peculiar to any one form of 

 hives (most fatal in broad flat hives), but is common 

 to all hives composed of wood, unless the proper 

 remedy is applied to absorb and carry off this mois- 

 ture. It never occurs in straw hives, from the fact 

 that the straw of which the hive is composed absorbs 

 all the moisture from the bees as fast as it is gen- 

 erated, and passes it off to the surrounding atmos- 

 phere, thereby freeing the bees from its injurious 

 effects. 



THE INVENTION OF WINTER MATS. 



Being well aware of the superiority of straw hives 

 over wooden ones for wintering bees in, and the 

 difficulty of constructing them in a neat and practi-. 

 cal shape being much greater than wood, I resolved 

 to apply straw in the form of mats inside the mov- 

 able comb hives, to act as an absorbent to take up and 

 carry off the moisture, and thus combine the superior 

 qualities of the straw hives for wintering bees with 

 the more conveniently constructed and substantial 

 hives made of wood. 



With this object in view, I set to work to invent 

 some plan to construct straw mats in a cheap and 

 simple form, combining neatness and durability, and 

 in such manner as to be easily adjusted to any style 

 of movable comb hive. In this I have succeeded, at 

 least to my own satisfaction, in the following manner : 



