FORTY YliAKS A.MIJNC. TIIF. BKICS. 17 



That g;ave ample ventilation, for when the hives were re- 

 versed the entire upper surface was open, all being closed 

 below. I doubt that any better means of ventilation could 

 be devised for wintering bees in the cellar. There is 

 abundant opportunity for the free entrance of air into 

 the hive, without anything to force a current through it. 

 Equally good is the ventilation when all is closed at the 

 top and the whole bottom is open, as when the hives with- 



I'ig. 4. — irtddmi Super. 



out any bottom-boards are piled up in such manner that 

 the bottom of a hive rests upon the top of a hive below 

 it at one side, and upon another hive at the other side, 

 and the ventilation is perhaps as good when there is a 

 bottom-board so deep that there is a space of two inches 

 or more under the bottom-bars, 



SEASON' OF 1863. 



The four colonies wintered through, and I find charged 

 to the bees' account for 1863 three movable-frame hives at 



