174 
SUMMER. 
engaged in the body of the hive, more room is unne- 
cessary. 
MAKING HOLES AFTER THE HIVE IS FULL. 
Whenever it is required to put boxes on a hive that 
has no holes through the top, it need not prevent 
your getting a few pounds of the purest honey that 
may be had, just as well as to have a portion of the 
bees idle. I always endeavor to ascertain in what 
direction the sheets of comb are made, and then mark 
off the row of holes on the top, at right angles with 
them. 
ADVANTAGE OF PROPER ARRANGEMENT. 
Two inches being nearly the right distance, each 
one will be so made that a bee arriving at the top 
of the hive between any two sheets will be able to 
find a passage into the box, without the task of a long 
search for it ; which I can imagine to be the case when 
only one hole for a passage is made, or when the row 
of holes is parallel with the combs. A hive might 
contain eight or ten sheets of comb, and a bee desirous 
of entering the box might go up between any two, 
many times, before it found the passage. It has been 
urged that every bee soon learns all passages and places 
about the hive, and consequently will know the direct 
road to the box. This may be true, but when we recol- 
lect that all within the hive is perfect darkness— that 
this path must be found by the sense of feeling alone — 
that this sense must be its guide in all its future travels — 
! 
