74 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL. 
straight and level till it enters the inside of the 
hive, when it may slope upwards. This groove may 
be about four inches wide, and three-cighths of an 
inch deep where the hive crosses it; for it is better 
in all instances that the requisite space at the door 
should be given laterally, rather than in height. 
This is not only more convenient to the bees, but 
shuts out from admission into the hive such guests 
as the snail or the mouse. In a board thus con- 
structed, a convenient mode of occasionally con- 
tracting the entrance-way is by means of small 
wooden blocks, of different widths, so formed that 
the lower half can be pushed within the hive’s 
mouth. The board just described, and its blocks, 
are shown in the engraving beneath. 
Another kind of hive-board, suitable for gome 
descriptions of boxes (the square wooden hives to 
be presently described), is made by euttine a rabbet 
of any required width, and three-cichths of an 
inch deep, on all its sides, leaving the raised 
part of the board the size of the outside of the 
box, with an additional half-inch beyond this every 
way. The passage into the hive is to be cut from 
the edge of the rabbet, and on the same level, 
for about two inches; after which it must slope 
