98 UEE3. 



qiiirmp: the use of a lantern or smoke. But a g-ood wooden 

 Live, firmly screwed to its foot-board, and that iirmly 

 atfaclied to its supporting- post, will generally baffle tbe 

 efforts of tbe skulking bee-robber. If the hives are placed 

 in a shed, as should always be the case if it is possible, the 

 roof sbould not be thatched, as the straw affords a resting'- 

 place for marauding- rats and mice. With regard to the 

 children's misdemeanours, the writer of these lines, when 

 a boy of eight or nine years' old, went to see a newly- 

 established bee-garden near Oxford, and after wandering 

 among' the hives for some time with perfect impunity, be- 

 gan examining their structure. Being greatly scandalized 

 at not being able to see the proceedings of the bees through 

 their entrance-hole, he blew violently in at the door, afid 

 then applied his eye to the aperture. The consequences to 

 him were not unlike those recorded of the philosophical 

 monkey, who put his head into the mouth of a loaded 

 cannon while he applied a match to the touch-hole. At all 

 events the results of the experiment, although not quite so 

 violent, were certainly felt for a longer period. 



Ventilation. — Do not attempt to teach bees the art of 

 ventilation. We have seen that they know how to do what 

 we do not — keep the air as sweet within their home as it is 

 without. Open any crevice in the hive, and they will imme- 

 ditely stop it up with propolis. Your experiments may 

 worry, but will never teach or improve them. We do not 

 here speak of ventilating any side-hives for special purposes, 

 but of the chief one, where the bees live and are rearing 

 their brood. Mr. Grant once tried an experiment in the 

 way of making the bees more comfortable, by simply cover- 

 ing the ordinary entrance at the commencement of frost 

 with a piece of perforated zinc ; " but in a few minutes 

 afterwards the bees became unsettled, and crowded to the 

 entrance, evidently oppressed by the alteration I had made, 

 and appearing to absorb the condensed air on the zinc, 

 which induced me to remove it altogether. Shortly after- 

 wards I attempted to contract the entrance by inserting a 

 piece of wood one inch long by half-an-inch thick, leaving 

 about one and a half-inch open. The wood had not been 

 applied many minutes, when two of the bees came and 

 examined it, with the object of removing it, as they fixed 



