HIVES 33 
which retains the heat in the hive. Most bee- 
keepers have their own opinion as to the best 
material to use for this purpose. American 
cloth, glass, wood, carpet, horse-hair, matting, 
felt, sacking, cotton, and paper all find their 
advocates, and probably experience has proved 
them all. It is useless, then, to be dogmatic 
in favour of any. I would suggest, however, 
that one of the cheapest forms of quilt is one 
made of unbleached calico, for this is about 
the only material that the bees do not try to 
sample, or fasten to the frames. 
Generally speaking it is advisable that a 
hole should be made in the quilt for feeding 
purposes. For this it is not necessary to cut 
a piece quite out but merely to make an 
incision along three sides of a square, thus 
forming a flap that can be folded back when 
feeding is necessary. This quilt should, of 
course, be supplemented with others to secure 
thorough retention of heat in the hive. 
All old quilts that have any ‘‘ propolis ’’ (see 
page 51) on them should be saved to pack 
round crates of sections, or the propolis may 
be cut off and used as a decoy in spring amongst 
artificial pollen. 
Queen-Rearing Hives.—There are many 
varieties of ‘‘nucleus’’ or queen-rearing hives, 
D 
