REGARDING RE>Brother Adam and the Buckfast Bee Tom Cornick wrote: >In the book beekeeping at buckfast abbey there are hive covers with pitched roofs in the photographs I am wondering if anyone out there has a description of their construction. Specifically is there an inner cover and is the hive cover with the pitched roof open or two layers with an air space between.< I couldn't speak about the situation at Buckfast Abbey, of course, but this post brings back memories of our family apiary back in the 40's and 50's in Wisconsin (USA). My grandfather had about 125 colonies, in hives each with a pitched roof cover. In our hives the cover was made with a frame, pitched front and back, and a ridge pole in the center. Cedar shingles were nailed to the ridge pole and the frame, and a wooden cap strip with a "V" shaped channel beneath was nailed over the ridge. I believe that my grandfather built these himself - he was quite a handyman. This cover was placed over a standard inner cover, allowing quite a bit more air space than with our present standard flat covers. I don't remember that the bees ever came up much into this space. However, the paper wasps loved it!