66 



TUB COTTACE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 



ferred. Every such board, when the two pieces are put together, will 

 be one inch and a quarter in thickness. Before putting together the 

 several parts of each board, a tunnel must previously be made in their 

 midst, from /, (the external opening, as seen in the accompanying dia- 

 gram,) to a, where 

 it communicates 

 with the interior 

 of the bos, which 

 is supposed to rest 

 on the dotted lines 

 h h. This tunnel, 

 which had better 

 be grooved chiefly 

 out of the bottom 

 piece, at least at_/j 

 and which slopes upwards a little towards a, must be four inches wide, 

 three inches and a half long, (that is from / to a,) and not 'less than 

 three eighths of an inch in depth. Bach of these boards should be 

 three inches wider than the boxes on the wall side and on the sides 

 between the boxes ; on the other sides, they need not project more than 

 half an inch beyond them. The excess of space on the two sides af- 

 fords room for the insertion of the hand between the boxes them- 

 selves, and between the stock box and the wall, (on the entrance 

 side,) to regulate a set of zinc slides — perforated or otherwise — which 

 close the communications between box and box, and box and exter- 

 nal air, as at g and e. There are two slides which command the en- 

 trance way, one fixed to the board itself, the other in the wall, over 

 against the mouth of the tunnel at /; and two slides, in a similar 

 manner, at e, one at the edge of each board, which slip into a groove, 

 and prevent the bees from passing from one box to the other. It is 

 evident that the grooves in which the slides enter must be in every case 

 made at the very edge of the boards; otherwise, in withdrawing a box 

 for any purpose, some bees, that might be passing at the time, would 

 be intercepted between the slides, to the annoyance of the apiator. 

 To prevent this, it will be found useful to cut out a thin piece of wood 

 at the edge of the board, and to fit over it, in each case, a thin piece 

 of stout and inflexible metal — zinc, copper, or iron — having a hole in 

 it, corresponding exactly to the size of the passages. In this way, the 



