202 I'ORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



character of the tent-escape comes into fine play here, for 

 it can so quickly and surely be thrown into the right 

 place that the robber-bees have little chance at the piles, 

 so the smoking is mostly done at the wagon. A robber- 

 cloth (Fig. 75 ) is even a little better than the tent 

 escape. 



When the load is all on, the wagon is drawn away to 

 a distance safe for the horses. This may be 8 or lo rods, 

 or it may be more than twice that distance. Fortunately, 

 at each out-apiary the ground lies in such a way that 

 after the first few rods the ground is descending, making 

 it easy to draw the load the longer distance. Then the 

 horses are hitched on as speedily, as possible. 



HONEY-ROOM. 



Generally, fhilo will be ready to take ofif the load 

 when we get home, unless we get home too near bed- 

 time and Philo has gone home, in which case I am not 

 always a good enough fighter to keep the women from 

 helping to carry the supers into the honey-room. This 

 is an addition built onto my dwelling-house. It is 20x15 

 feet, and the floor-timbers are blocked up with stones so 

 that it will sustain a great weight without breaking. 



When the supers of sections are taken in, they are 

 piled up near the center of the room with no very great 

 precision, usually being piled crosswise, that is, each 

 super placed across the one under it, for the double pur- 

 pose of ventilation and to make it easier to lift the supers 

 oiT the pile than they would be if piled straight and stuck 

 together with bee-glue. 



PUSH-BOARD. 



Perhaps the sections will be taken out of the supers 

 the next day, possibly not for a week or more. A push- 



