190 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPINCJ. 



properly constructed, should be capable of enlargement at 

 need, and the Bee-master can, by this means, greatly 

 assist in good ventilation by making the opening larger 

 in summer and smaller in winter. The interference of 

 the Bee-keeper in the matter of summer ventilation I 

 do not consider of much moment ; he can certainly 

 assist his Bees, but if that assistance be not rendered, no 

 great misfortune will necessarily follow. It is in winter 

 that defective ventilation is frequently the cause of great 

 calamity — no less than the death of the whole colony ; 

 and although I strongly advocate frame hives, I feel 

 compelled to say this misfortune happens more fre- 

 quently in those domiciles than in straw skeps ; but this 

 is no fault of the frames or their construction, but simply 

 that the wood with which they are usually built retains 

 the generated moisture, whilst the straw allows the 

 greater part to filter through. This defect being admitted, 

 I now show how it can be remedied ; en passant I may 

 say that frame hives can be and are made equally well 

 in straw as in wood, when that objection to them, of 

 course, is done away with ; but when we use wood, which 

 is the more common and handy material, care must then 

 be taken that proper ventilation is provided. Much has 

 been written on this subject, but I think the evil has 

 been greatly magnified. When the Bees are thickly 

 clustered together for the winter they do not hybernate 

 like many other animals, but are all lively and require, 

 food, in the consumption of which moisture is evolved 

 in the form of vapour — this, if it cannot escape, naturally 

 condenses into water, keeping the hive cold and damp, 

 and the temperature low, obliging the Bees to eat yet 

 more to keep up the necessary heat, and thus the evil is 

 increased. 



Upon a due appreciation of this subject, much of the 



