FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



95 



about 18 pounds. Needless to detail the different covers I have 

 devised and tried, with upper surfaces of tin, oilcloth, and 

 wood, painted and unpainted. Although 1 don't paint hive- 

 bodies, I want covers painted or at least waterproof. Some of 

 my covers have been the common plain board cover, and I 

 don't liife them. Some of them are of two boards united at the 

 middle by a V-shaped tin slid into saw-kerfs, and I like these 



Fig. 30 — Balled Queen. 



still less. A new board cover is a nice thing-. After a little it 

 warps, and then it is not a nice thing. Put a cleat on each end 

 so it can not warp — cast-iron cleats, if you like — and it will 

 twist so that there will be a grinning opening at one comer to 

 allow bees to walk out and cold to walk in, to say nothing of 

 robber-bees. 



