VENTILATION OP THE BEE-HIVE. 181 



contracted, speedy accessions will be made to their num- 

 bers, both inside and outside of the hive; and if it is closed 

 entirely, the heat and impurity quickly increasing, the 

 whole colony will attempt to renew the air by rapidly vi- 

 brating their wings, and in a short time, if unrelieved, will 

 die of suffocation. 



365. Careful experiments show that pure air is neces- 

 sary not only for the respiration of the mature bees, but for 

 hatching the eggs, and developing the larvae; a fine netting 

 of air-vessels enveloping the eggs, and the cells of the larvae 

 being closed with a covering filled with air-holes (168). 



366. Ventilation is also necessary to ripen the nectar 

 harvested in the fields and evaporate the water that it con- 

 tains. ^ 



In Winter, if bees are kept in a dark place, which is 

 neither too warm nor too cold, they are almost dormant, and 

 require very little air; but even under such circumstances, 

 they cannot live entirely without it; and if they are excited 

 by atmospheric changes, or in any way disturbed, a loud 

 humming may be heard in the interior of their hives, and 

 they need almost as much air as in warm weather. (621). 



367. If bees are greatly disturbed, it will be unsafe, es- 

 pecially in warm weather, to confine them, unless they have 

 a very free admission of air; and even then, unless it is ad- 

 mitted above, as well as below the mass of bees, the venti- 

 lators may become clogged with dead bees, and the colony 

 perish. Bees under close confinement become excessively 

 heated, and their combs are often melted; if dampness is 

 added to the injurious influence of bad air, they become 

 diseased; and large numbers, if not the whole colony, may 

 perish from diarrhoea. Is it not under precisely such cir- 

 cumstances that cholera and dysentery prove most fatal to 

 human beings'? the filthy, damp, and unventilated abodes 

 of the abject poor, becoming perfect lazar-houses to their 

 wretched inmates. 



368. We have several times examined the bees of new 



