5i8 bees and bee-keeping. 
is adopted by some of the most successful bee-keepers. 
It is known as Hill’s device, and consists in placing 
over the frames several curved laths so nailed together, 
concave side downwards, that they, forming a shallow 
dome of lattice work, hold up the top covering, and 
give opportunity to the bees to cluster above the top 
bars. I prefer starting with a cake of candy, as it 
makes the clustering of the bees above absolutely 
certain. 
As we proceed, the necessity for husbanding the 
heat of the cluster, as far as practicable, will become 
apparent. In order to grasp the position, we must 
trace the manner in which bees maintain their tem- 
perature, and the fluctuations to which it is liable — a 
matter bound up with the management of the mouth 
and top of the hive. All advanced apiarians are agreed 
that bees do require considerable ventilation, notwith- 
standing the extraordinary whim, much discussed a 
year or two since, that all the air needed in winter 
may pass through the hive side; but they are not 
agreed as to the manner in which this ventilation is 
best given. Bees hybernate, as the Rev. W. F. Clarke 
has recently taught, and respecting which he is un- 
doubtedly original, although he will find I gave the 
outlines of hybernation* in bees six years earlier. 
Yet they are, strictly speaking, warm-blooded, main- 
taining a temperature which, though not constant, is 
not suffered in the centre of their cluster to sink to 
less than 65°, even in the most severe weather. 
This temperature is kept up with the least effort 
* “ The Causes of Abdominal Distension of the Hive Bee during 
Winter,” Frank R. Cheshire, May, 1879. 
