14 AN EASY METHOD 



cessive layers, down along with them. The bees being often 

 thus vexed, perplexed, and tormented, get discouraged, and 

 flee to the woods for a more safe tenement. The little round 

 old-fashioned sticks commonly used are surely better than 

 none, because one of their principal uses is to sustain the 

 weight of the bees at the time they are making new comb, 

 instead of supporting themselves by the comb, where no de- 

 pendence for strength ought to be placed. It is proper, then, 

 that sticks should be made of inch boards, at least three 

 inches wide in the centre, tapering towards each end nearly 

 to a point, planed smooth, and scratched the under side, to 

 enable the bees to hold fast. Every establishment of bees 

 should be furnished with a number of bottom boards made 

 and hung like common ones, with a hole through the centre 

 of each, seven or eight inches square, and covered with wire 

 screen, the meshes of which should be so small as to pre\ent 

 the escape of any of the bees, so that, when attached to the 

 hive, the common entrance may be closed in whole or in 

 part, as the nature of the case may require, to prevent rob- 

 bing, facilitating the removal of the bees to great distances 

 without danger of suffocation, melting down, &c. 



A hole five-eighths or three-fourths of an inch in diameter 

 should be made near the top of the lower apartment of the 

 hive, to let the excess of animal heat escape in the hottest 

 weather, and also to serve as a ventilator, to let off the vapor 

 of the bees, which frequently causes their death in the winter 

 by freezing. [See directions for making hives in Appendix.] 



The door to the chamber should be made to fit in the rab- 

 betings of the same against the jambs, in such a manner as to 

 exclude the light from the windows of the drawers, and also 

 to prevent the entrance of the little ants. It should also be 

 hung by butts, or fastened by a bar running vertically 

 across the centre of the door, and confined by staples at each 



