2C8 AUSTRALIAN ^/BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



An article on the transportation of bees is given elsewhere. 



25. It should furnish bees with air when the entrance, 

 from any cause, must be entirely shut. 



This can always be done, where there is a movable bottom- 

 board, by lifting the hive, and supporting it with a small nail or 

 other rest, 



26. It should furnish facilities for enlarging, contracting, 



and (or) closing the entrance, to protect the bees 

 against robbers and the bee-moth ; and when the en- 

 trance is altered, the bees ought not, as in most hives, 

 lose valuable time in searching for it. 



Some modern hives are made with a full width entrance; it 

 is contracted by means of two plats, one on either side, and are 

 moved towards the centre, thus the bees never fail in finding it. 

 Where the V entrance is used, the entrance is extended or con- 

 tracted by moving the hive forward or backward as required, the 

 bottom-board being made sufficiently long to admit it. For this 

 purpose the concrete is admirably adapted. 



27. It should give the requisite ventilation without enlarg- 



ing the entrance so much as to expose the bees to 

 moths and robbers. 



Experience teaches that moths, with practical men, are 

 things of the past; and that the best means of ventilation is by 

 means of a wide entrance, providing there is an escape for the 

 heated air near the top. Hot air rises, and the vacuum caused 

 thereby is filled by the cold air taking its place by rushing in at 

 the entrance. 



28. It should furnish facilities for admitting at once a 

 large body of air, that the bees may be tempted to fly 

 out and discharge their faeces on warm days in winter 

 or early spring. 



Here again experience has taught that a small entrance is 

 best for winter. Warm days will be sure to tempt the bees out 

 for the purpose named. At other times their faeces are dis- 

 charged on the bottom-board, and in this the movable bottom 

 shows its superiority over fixed one, as it can readily be cleaned 

 any warm day, even in the winter. On warm days in winter, by 



