VENTILATION. 135 



" Extremes of heat or cold, alike are hurtful to the bees." 

 In order to make artificial ventilation of any use to the great" 

 majority of bee-keepers, it must be simple, and not as in 

 Nutt's hive, and many other labored contrivances, so com- 

 plicated as to require almost as constant supervision as a 

 hot-bed or a green-house. 



In the Chapter on the Requisites of a good hive, I have 

 spoken of the importance of furnishing ventilation, indepen- 

 dently of the entrance. By such an arrangement, I am able 

 to improve upon the method which the bees are compelled 

 to adopt in a state of nature. As they have no means of 

 admitting air, and at the same lime, of effectually excluding 

 all intruders, they are obliged in very hot weather, and in a 

 very crowded state of their dwellings, to employ a larger 

 force in the laborious business of ventilation, than would 

 otherwise be necessary. By the use of my blocks, I can 

 keep the entrance so small, that only a single bee can go in 

 at once, or I can, if circumstances require, entirely close it, 

 and yet the bees need not suffer for the want of air. In all 

 ordinary cases, the ventilators will admit a sufficient supply, 

 and the bees can, at any time, easily increase their efficiency 

 by their own direct agency, while yet they will, at no time, 

 admit so strong a current of chilly air, as to endanger the 

 life of the brood. 



As respects ventilation from above, as well as from below, 

 so as to allow a free current of air to pass through the hive, 

 I am decidedly opposed to it, in cool and windy weather, 

 when such a current often compels the bees to retire from 

 the brood, which are thus destroyed by a fatal chill. In thin 

 hives, ventilation from above may be desirable in Winter, to 

 carry off the superfluous moisture, but in properly construct- 

 ed hives, there is, as has already been remarked, little or no 

 dampness to be carried off. The construction of my hives 



