52 
A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
be quite an improvement to cover the super with an old- 
fashioned, cleated, wooden honey-board. 
QUILTS OR SHEETS. 
I think that Robert Bickford did bee-keepers a great favor 
by giving them the flexible quilt or sheet, in place of the 
rigid board, but I have yet to find a sheet or quilt that is 
entirely satisfactory. I first used them of cotton cloth or 
sheeting, and when enameled cloth was introduced I felt 
that the the thing was settled. So it was, but not for a long 
time. As soon as these enameled sheets became a little old, 
they would crack and tear, and if, by any means, the bees 
got to the cloth or cotton side, they made short work of 
cleaning off the cotton, leaving only the paint. They would 
find some little place about the edge where they could get to 
the wrong side, and sometimes, by some means, would find 
or make holes through the central part. 
After many of these enameled sheets were so far gone as 
to be useless, some of my first quilts of sheeting were still 
fairly good. They had been filled with paper ; and although 
holes had been gnawed by the bees through the cloth and 
into the paper, yet in many cases, where they had not 
gnawed entirely through the paper, the bees covered bee- 
glue over the gnawed part ; and whenever a cloth was well 
covered with bee-glue, it was sure to last well. I tried the 
experiment of melting up a lot of bee-glue and painting it on 
sheeting, but did not succeed. If the sheeting quilts were 
put on at the time when bees were bringing in propolis most 
abundantly, and then as soon as the bees had covered all 
parts, to which they had access, with propolis, the quilts 
should be shifted so that all parts should be propolized, I 
suspect such quilts would be quite durable. Indeed, I have 
practiced somewhat successfully in this direction. In this 
locality propolis is not abundant till after the harvest has 
well commenced ; so new sheets can, at this time, hardly be 
put profitably on any but new colonies. 
