OF MANAGING BEES. 17 



• 

 nearly as wide as the chamber, and one or two inches longer 



than the length of the chamber. The other two should be 

 the same length as the first, and half its width only. 



All hives, and all their appendages, should be made ex- 

 ^actly of a size and shape, in the same apiary. The trouble 

 of equalizing colonies is far less than it is to accommodate 

 hives to swarms. [See Appendix.] Much perplexity, and 

 sometimes serious difficulties, occur, where the apiarian uses 

 different-sized hives and drawers. But this part of the sub- 

 ject will be more fully discussed in its proper chapter. 



A perfect snow-white is the best color for a bee-hive. All 

 shades of colors are conductors of heat and cold, in propor- 

 tion to their proximity towards a perfect black. It is better 

 to let the hive remain the color of the wood than paint any 

 shade of color, which may be the cause of melting the comb 

 in summer, or freezing the bees in winter. To preserV*e the 

 greatest uniformity of temperature in the hive, both summer 

 and winter, the apiarian will find it for his interest to make 

 all his hives of plank at least one and a half inch thick, or 

 boards three-fourths of an inch thick, doubled in such a man- 

 ner as to exclude insects from the joints. 



2* 



