124 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



it is safe. The doors of our hives are pretty large, and 

 the holes in their crowns are about 4 inches in diameter. 

 We nail a piece of fly-proof wire over their mouths and 

 crown-holes, then tie the hives tightly to their boards 

 with strong string or cord, and drive three two-inch nails 

 through the bottom rolls of the hives into the boards. 

 They are thus prepared to bear pretty rough handling. 

 The fly-proof wire at the doors and on the tops secures 

 ample ventilation for hives as full as they can be ; indeed 

 this ventilation is so great that the heat of fuU hives is 

 less at the end of the journey than it was before they 

 started : and frequently the bees lessen the ventilation by 

 waxing up the wire on the tops. If hives are not full or 

 crowded with bees, we do not always put wire on the 

 crown-holes. The wire at their doors, and a few thin 

 wedges or penny-pieces, slipped in between the hives and 

 their boards before they are tied together tightly with the 

 string, prevent suffocation. They travel safely. The 

 nails are used to make all doubly secure. If hives travel 

 over a rough road on a cart, the jolting sometimes causes 

 them to move or slide on their boards, especially if the 

 bottom of the cart is not level. The nails through the 

 roUs of the hives, driven into the boards, prevent the 

 hives from moving laterally. Of course hives are thus 

 prepared for travelling either before they commence work 

 in the morning, or after the outdoor labour of the day 

 has closed. In this way not a bee is lost ; and the cool 

 of the day is the better time to transport and transplant 

 hives. If the weather be cold or rainy, and the bees not 

 at work, they may be confined at any hour, and their 

 hives secured as already described. In fact, the colder 

 the weather is, and the less the bees are at work when 

 about to be transported and transplanted, the less danger 

 there is, for in cold weather the bees need less ventilation. 

 This is our mode of ventilating and securing hives for 



