PRACTICAL BBEKEEPING 33 
terial all around the bees. In hives of this style it is better to have 
the bottoms permanently fast with packing on the bottom as well as 
on the sides. If single walled hives are used, winter cases may be 
set over them and packed as before. The matter of winter hives 
will receive fuller discussion in the section on wintering. 
Above this lower story, designed chiefly for the brood rearing 
apartment of the colony and hereafter spoken of as the brood 
chamber, comes some sort of a structure for the storing of surplus 
honey. This may be another story similar to the lower one, when 
one wishes to secure extracted honey, or a half depth story, taking 
frames of just half the Langstroth depth, with thinner top bars. 
These are usually spoken of as top stories and may be tiered up to 
the number of three or four if the colony is strong enough. What 
is known as a super proper is a half depth story, fitted up with 
holders to the number of six, for an eight frame hive, or seven for a 
ten frame hive, each arranged to take four and sometimes, in the 
case of the deeper supers, five sections. Above the super or above 
the frames, when the super is not’ on, a sheet-of enameled carriage 
cloth or oil-cloth, if placed with the glazed side down, will prevent 
the bees from sticking the cover down and, in the case of the super, 
will help to keep the sections clean. 
The cover serves its purpose best if made with a gable, so that | 
it will shed the water easily. Then is it easy to arrange for ven- 
tilation by having an auger hole in each gable end covered with 
wire cloth preferably. It is much more satisfactory to have a flat 
board surface down on the quilt so that, if the gable is boarded up, 
with auger holes in these boards covered with wire cloth, or left 
with cracks between the boards narrow enough to exclude the bees, 
a good system of ventilation can be had. Flat covers have been 
extensively used but this necéssitates tipping the hives forward and 
also cuts off top ventilation. In the hottest weather the covers can 
te propped up and so increase the ventilation. 
There are various styles of bottom boards, but the essential 
feature is to have a wide alighting board. It is well if; in addition 
to this, an additional board be provided and placed on an angle and 
reaching to the ground, so that the heavy laden and tired bees, as 
they drop down, will have no trouble to crawl up and into the hive. 
There should be some way of contracting the entrance so that, after 
the honey flow is over, the opening may be made smaller to guard 
