166 THE BEE-HIVES. 
more readily, and rot less. If the bottom is nailed on the 
cross-blocks, it will not be in danger of warping. 
Our Swiss friends make the bottom-board with the grain 
running from side to side. They say that in this way 
they can make it fit exactly in the lower rabbet of the hive, 
without swelling or shrinking. They also make the apron, 
with hinges fastened on the bottom-board, and in snowy or 
cold weather, they raise it and lean it against the hive, to 
protect the entrance. 
344. The adjustable bottom board is convenient in many 
instances. If in taking the bees from a winter repository, 
it is found wet and mouldy, you can at once exchange it for 
a dry one, and wipe the wet board at leisure. Or, if a 
comb breaks down in Summer, by weight and heat, the 
hive can be lifted off its bottom, and placed on a clean 
stand, so that the leaking honey and broken combs can be 
instantly removed, and robbing or daubing of bees avoided. 
Moreover, the bottom-board is the first part of the hive to 
decay, and a hive-body and cover will usually outlast two 
bottom-boards. The movable bottom allowing the raising 
of the hive for ventilation, in extremely hot weather, en- 
ables us also to discard the back ventilator, of the old hive 
(fig. 63.) 
345. The body of the hive is made double on the back, 
which should always be the North side of the hive. (567.) 
This, with the division-board inside, on the West, shelters 
the colony more efficiently than a 
<q single board against the cold North- 
{ West winds of Winter. If the bees 
SSJ are to be wintered indoors, the 
double back may be dispensed with. 
A more simple form of body, setting 
flat on the bottom, as in fig. 70, can 
Fig. 71. also be made. 
The rabbet in which the frames hang, is made with a 
