FLOOR OR HIVE BOARDS. 15 
upwards. It may be four to five inches wide, and 
its sides should bevel a little outwards. This gives 
facilities for the introduction of movable blocks 
or mouth-pieces, for the convenience of contracting 
or altogether stopping up the entrance, as may be 
required. ‘The blocks are an inch wide (in the 
direction front and back), and must all be of one 
size, and of the same length and bevel as the 
entrance-way. In height they should be three- 
quarters of an inch in front; cut down behind, for 
half the width, to three-eighths of an inch. Thus 
made, the lower half of one of the blocks is inserted 
within the mouth of the hive, and the other half 
projects on the outside. To suit all cases and 
seasons, blocks so formed may be cut on the lower 
part, from front to back, with any required passage- 
way through them at pleasure. The preceding 
engraving exhibits the hive-board described, with a 
back and front view of four blocks thus varied; the 
third one being fitted with perforated zinc. 
An entirely covered entrance, for those who desire 
it, is afforded by a double board, in which the 
passage is cut through the floor, altogether within 
the hive; and it may be thus made :— 
Take a piece of inch seasoned wood, an inch or 
