36 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
colonies building in the open shows to us that bees 
need less protection beneath than on the sides or 
above, for the heat they produce by their respiratory 
processes* is gradually carried up, by ascending air- 
currents, to the spot where their combs are being 
enlarged, and as these grow downwards the builders 
descend with them. The heat-preserving layer of 
bees above is mainly needed to save this warm 
air from too rapid dispersion, clearly showing the 
importance of at first limiting the top surface, or roof, 
of the hive in which a swarm is placed, to the amount 
that can be actually covered ; so that the heated air 
has no lateral escape, but is held in the requisite 
position, not by bees, but by the hive itself. 
It is true that hives gather no honey, but, in so 
far as they effect the objects which have engaged our 
attention, they are the cause of much being gathered ; 
and since hives of very simple construction may in 
this respect be perfect in action, we admit at 
once, as the old type of bee-keeper is fond of 
urging, that bees may become as rich and as strong 
in a skep or box as in the most perfectly-constructed 
hive of the modern school — i.e., if that hive be left 
without intelligent management. But we urge that 
the skep or box bars much of that management 
which the bee-master finds conducive to his highest 
advantage ; and we therefore turn from the old 
forms, which no doubt were, in not a few cases, hives 
for the bees, to those \vhich we regard as hives for 
the bee-keeper. 
* See “ Trachea?,” page 34, Vol. I., and “ AVintering,” Vol. II. 
