PEOTECTOR. 



127 



Lives is great, there should be one at each end, admitting 

 air in Winter, and yet excluding rain and snow. The earth 

 which is thrown out in digging, should be banked up against 

 the walls as high as the good brick, and in a slope which, 

 when grassed over, may be easily mowed with a common 

 scythe. The slope on the back should be more perpendic- 

 ular than in front so as not to be in the way when opera- 

 ting upon the hives. 



The bottom may be covered with an inch or two of clean 

 sand and in winter with straw. In Summer, the ends are 

 left open, so that a free current of air may pass through, 

 while in Winter, they are properly banked up ; and straw, 

 evergreen boughs, or any other material, suitable for exclu- 

 ding frost, may if necessary, be placed all around the out- 

 side of the Protector. Such an arrangement will be found 

 very cheap, when compared with a Bee-House or covered 

 Apiary, and may be made both neat and highly ornamental. 

 It may be constructed of wood by those who desire some- 

 thing still cheaper, and any one who can handle a spade, 

 hammer, plane and saw, can make for himself a structure 

 on which a hundred hives may stand, at less expense 

 than would be necessary to build a.covered Apiary for ten. 

 As the ventilators of the hive open into this Protector, the 

 bees are, in Summer, supplied with a cool and refreshing 

 atmosphere, as closely as possible resembling that which 

 they find in a forest home ; while in Winter, the external 

 entrances of the hives may be safely closed, and they will 

 receive a supply of air remarkably uniform and never much 

 below the freezing point. As the hives themselves are 

 double, no frost can penetrate through them, and thus their 

 interior will alnrost always be perfectly dry. When the 

 weather suddenly moderates, and bees in the common hives 

 fly out, and are lost on the snow, those arranged in the 



