140 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



uncertain climate, whose severe extremes of temperature 

 impress nfbst forcibly upon the bee-keeper, the maxim of 

 the Mantuan Bard, 



■" Utraque vis pariter apibus metuenda." 



" Extremes of heat or cold, alike are hurtful to the bees." 

 In order to make artificial ventilation of any use to the great 

 majority of bee-keepers, it must be simple, and not as in 

 Nutt's hive, and many other labored contrivances, so com- 

 plicated as to require almost as constant supervision as a 

 hot-bed or a green-house. The very foundation of any sys- 

 tem of ventilation should be such a construction of the hive 

 that the bees shall need a change of air only for breathing. 



In the Chapter on Protection, I have explained the con- 

 struction of ipy hives, and of the Protector by which the 

 bees being kept warm in Winter, and cool in Summer, 

 do not require, as in thin hives, a very free introduction of 

 air, in hot weather, to keep the combs from softening ; or a 

 still larger supply in Winter, to prevent them from mould- 

 ing, and to dry up the moisture which runs from their icy 

 tops and sides ; and which, if suffered to remain, will often 

 affect the bees with dysentery, or as it is sometimes called, 

 " the rot." The intelligent Apiarian will perceive that I 

 thus imitate the natural habitation of the bees in the recesses 

 of a hollow tree in the forest, where they feel neither the 

 extremes of heat nor cold, and where through the efficacy , 

 of their ventilating powers, a very small opening admits all 

 the air which is necessary for respiration. 



In the Chapter on the Requisites of a good hive, I have 

 spoken of the importance of furnishing ventilation, inde- 

 pendently of the entrance. By such an arrangement, I am 

 ahle to iaapiove upon the method which the bees are com- 

 pelled to adopt in a state of nature. As they have no means 

 of admitting air by wire-cloth, and at the same time, of effect- 



