142 THE BEE-MASTER OF WARRILOW 
their unique adaptability to circumstances forced upon 
them. 
In the matter of ventilation, however, they seem 
to make a very determined and highly successful 
stand against imposed conditions. Bee-keeping 
cannot be made a profitable occupation unless the 
work of the bees is kept strictly within certain 
sharply-defined limits, and probably the modern 
movable comb hive is the best means to this end. 
That it leaves the necessity of ventilation wholly 
unprovided for is not the fault of the bee-master, 
but of the bees themselves. They refuse point- 
blank to have anything to do with human notions 
of hygiene. Many devices have been tried, in the 
form of vent-shafts and the like, to carry off the 
vitiated air of the hive, but all have failed, because 
the bees insist on stopping up every crack or crevice 
left in walls, roof, or floor. For some inscrutable 
reason they will have only the one opening, which 
must serve for all purposes, and the hive-maker has 
had to learn by hard-won experience that the bees 
are right. 
Perhaps, in any attempt to follow the reasoning 
of the bees in this matter, it is well first of all to 
get rid of the word “ fanning ’”’ altogether. The 
wing-action of the ventilating bees is more that of 
a screw-propeller than a fan. The air is not beaten 
to and fro, as a fan would beat it, but is driven 
backwards, and thus the ventilating squadron on 
the flight-board really sets up an exhaust-current, 
which draws the contaminated air out of the hive. 
This implies an equally strong current of fresh air 
passing into the hive, and explains why the bees 
work at the side of the entrance only, the central, 
