REQUISITES OF A COMPLETE DIVE. 
99 
the bees ought not, as in most hives, to lose valuable time 
in searching for it. 
27 . It should give the requisite ventilation, without en¬ 
larging the entrance so much as to expose the bees to 
moths and robbers. 
28 . It should furnish facilities for admitting at once a 
large body of air, that the bees may be tempted to fly 
out and discharge their fteccs, on warm days in Winter, 
or early Spring. 
If such a free admission of air cannot be given, the bees, 
by losing a favorable opportunity of emptying themselves, 
may sufier from diseases resulting from too long confine¬ 
ment. 
29 . It should enable the Apiarian to remove the excess 
of bec-bread from old stocks. (See p. 82 .) 
30 . It should enable the Apiarian to remove the combs, 
brood, and stores, fi om a common to an improved hive, so 
that the bees may be easily able to attach them again 
in their natural positions. A colony transferred to my 
hive will repair their combs, in a few days, so as to work 
as well as before their removal. 
31 . It should permit the sale and easy dislodgement of 
the bees from the hive. ^ 
This requisite is especially important, when it becomes 
necessary to break up weak stocks, to join them to 
others. 
32 . It should allow the bees, together with the heat and 
odor of the main hive, to pass in the freest manner, to the 
surpius honey-receptacles. 
In this respect, all other hives with which I am ac¬ 
quainted are more or loss deficient: the bees being forced 
to work in receptacles difficult of access, and in whicdi, in 
cool nights, they find it impossible to maintain the requi¬ 
site heat for comb-building. Bees cannot, in such hives, 
