210 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



honey harvest is usually still in full blast, and a good many 

 colonies in the apiary will have "go-backs," each colony having 

 only one, that being placed on top of its other supers. We keep 

 vpatch to see which colonies make the best work on "go-backs." 

 Some seal faster than others, some seal sections with extra 

 whiteness. In order to help keep track of the rate of progress, 

 each "go-back," at the time it isi put on, has marked on one of 

 the middle sections the word "go-back" and the date. If the 

 super were not thus marked, the colony would get more credit 

 than it deserved when the super was removed. 



A little later in the season the number of colonies chosen 

 for this work is limited, only those which do the best being 

 continued at it, and these are not allowed to have any other 

 supers. Generally two supers at a time will be enough for a 

 colony to have, but sometimes three will be given. As fast as 

 one super is ready to come off another takes its place. 



ROBBER-CLOTH. 



Before fulfilling my promise to describe the tent escape, 

 I must describe a robber-cloth (Fig. 75), which forms an es- 

 sential part of the tent-escape. I take a piece of stout cotton 

 cloth (sheeting) or burlap large enough to cover a hive and 

 hang down four inches or more at both sides and at each end. 

 This must be weighted down at the side with lath, and for this 

 purpose I take four pieces of lath about as long as the hive. I 

 lay down one piece of lath with another piece on it, and one 

 edge of the cloth between the two pieces of lath. I then nail 

 the two together and clinch the nails. , I use the other two 

 pieces of lath for the opposite edge of the cloth. This makes a 

 good robber cloth as it is, but it is better to have the ends also 

 weighted down, especially on a windy day. For this purpose 

 I make a hem in each end, and put in it shot, nails, pebbles, 

 or something of the kind, stitching across the hem here and 

 there so the weighting material will not all run together at 

 one side or the other. 



QUICK COVERING WITH ROBBER-CLOTH. 



In any case where one wants to cover up a hive quickly 

 against robbers, as when opening and closing the same bive 



