CHAPTER XVIII.

BOARDS.

BOARDS should be about 1 inch wider than the hives standing on them. They are best when made of one piece, that is, without a seam of junction; but if they cannot be cut whole from a deal board wide enough, they can be made of two pieces well joined. But whether of one piece or two, it is necessary to nail two bars on the under side of each board, to keep it from warping or twisting. The wood of which they are made should be either or 1 inch thick. A good board weighs 4 lb.

The flight-board should be seven inches in diameter. Small flight-boards are objectionable, for the bees returning with heavy loads often miss them. This is not all; for bees require breathing room at the doors of their hives, as well as a good broad landing-stage. All birds and insects fill their bodies with air before they take wing. A pheasant hops while he is filling his body with air; a pigeon does it by taking two or three inspirations. If the pheasant is suddenly disturbed, and has to rise without hopping a bit, he does rise, but so heavily and slowly— with a great cackling noise-that he is often knocked down by the shot of the sportsman ere he gets a fair start. If bees have a broad flight-board they run like the pheasant; but if the board be small, there is often at the doors of strong hives a crowd and a crush and a want of free

dom, such as are seen and felt by large congregations in leaving a church. If the board and the door of a hive be wide enough, the bees go out and off without hesitation. They never loiter, and it is a pity the ignorance of their owners should ever compel them to do so.

The beautiful gush or stream of bees in the act of swarming is owing to the fact that their bodies are so full of honey that they cannot rise on wing without first filling their bodies with air; and in doing this they run nearly to the point of the flight-board.

Two Boards marked for sawing out of Deal or Plank.

THE DOOR OF THE HIVE.

Some bee-keepers have channels cut in the boards for doors. Where this is done, the flight-boards are uneven and unlevel; but the hives are unbroken or uncut in any way. As we like the flight-boards pretty even, and some playroom on them, we prefer the doors cut in the hives. About 4 inches in length of the bottom roll or round of a straw hive cut clean out makes a fine spacious doorway. The door will be thus 4 inches long and 1 inch high, which is little enough for strong hives in the busy

season.

Our system of feeding, which will be mentioned hereafter, requires the flight-boards to be level, and the doors

to be made through the bottom rolls of the hives;

but as

Only let

far as honey-gathering goes, it is of trifling importance whether the boards or hives be cut for doors.

them be large enough, so that the bees may lave and ladle the honey through them into their hives.

At the end of the season the doors are contracted very much, and remain so all through the winter months.

CHAPTER XIX.

COVERS FOR HIVES.

In summer as well as winter hives require protection. If not shaded from the summer sun, the combs are likely to become softened at their fastenings, and drop down in a confused mass. The rays of the sun should be warded off by coverings of some kind. And it is well when not a drop of rain can touch hives, either in summer or winter. Of course, rains in summer that touch hives do less harm than in winter, inasmuch as the wetted parts are sooner dried in hot weather. It may be stated as an axiom that perfect protection of hives, from both sun and rain, should be aimed at in covering them.

Milk-pans are in common use in many parts. With small hives they answer in summer, but they are a miserable protection in winter. For cheapness and convenience, anything at hand that will shed the rain off hives in summer is made use of. Three or four cabbageblades placed on a hive, and held there by a stone, are often used till something better turn up. We now use felt (sold at one penny per foot) largely as a covering for hives. It is impervious to water, and very durable; indeed I cannot yet say how many years it will last. The covers of felt that I got four years ago are as good as ever they were, and apparently will last for an indefinite length of time. These felt covers suit us well, for they

are very light, soft, and pliable, and can be carried about in small compass. When we remove our bees to gardens in the country, the felt covers go with them; and when we remove them to the moors, we find it more convenient to take them for covers than it is to cut peat-sods on the spot where the hives may be set down. Another inducement to us to use these felt covers is that they are not very conspicuous; and this is a consideration to us, if not to other people, for we are glad to get permission to set a few hives down in any odd corner, even at a distance from any human abode.

These felt covers are rather thin for a burning sun; hence it is wise to place a little hay, or heather, or grass, or rags between them and the hives.

Sods cut off peaty land and dried, are impervious to wet, and make excellent summer coverings. But straw coverings are incomparably the best of all-best for sum

A X

Straw Covers.

mer as well as winter; and they look better than anything else I have seen used as covers for hives. When a farmer's corn-stacks are all well thatched and nicely clipped, they not only please the eye, but convey to the mind of every passer-by the idea of comfort, and also that his profits will not go into the wrong pocket. A row of wellthatched bee-hives in a cotter's garden is calculated to please the eye, and breed pleasant thoughts to the mind.

G