VENTILATION OF HIVES. 189 



VENTILATION OF HIVES. 



Animals, from the smallest insect to lordly man, cannot 

 live without air ; and our little friend, the Bee, forms no 

 exception to this rule. In the midst of summer, when 

 the hive is populated to repletion, the heat becomes 

 intense, and did not the Bees adopt some measures of 

 prevention, the new and delicate combs would collapse 

 and fall, as well as the health of the helpless larvae suffer. 

 Nature, therefore, has taught the Bees a remedy. If on 

 a hot summer day the entrance of a hive be examined, 

 a number of Bees will be there observed standing on the 

 board with their wings in rapid vibratory motion, which 

 carries in a strong current of fresh air, replacing the hot 

 foul air driven out, and the number of "ventilators" is 

 increased or diminished as occasion requires. By this 

 means the atmosphere within is kept pure and whole- 

 some, as was demonstrated by poor blind Huber. We 

 are thus taught that Bees cannot bear close confinement, 

 which, if accidentally occurring, as it does sometimes by 

 the snow or dead Bees blocking up the entrance, will, 

 unless quickly obviated, cause dysentery and death. 

 Apiarians who use hives with movable tops can, in the 

 summer, in great measure, regulate ventilation by leaving 

 the top more or less open by means of a small piece of 

 perforated zinc placed over the feed-hole. If rightly 

 managed, this aid will set at liberty great numbers of 

 Bees, who would otherwise be ventilating, to assist in 

 the general work of the hive, and will often prevent the 

 external clustering to which they are driven by the 

 extreme heat, in order that the combs may not melt, 

 or the young be stifled. The entrance of the hive, if 



