30 
FOLLOWING THE BEE LINE 
will be blocked by bees, pressed against the screen¬ 
ing by multitudes behind, and all will smother. 
However, I had moved hives a few times, un¬ 
eventfully, without making the entrance larger; so 
I disregarded this particular warning, dubbing it 
something of a quibble. 
Then, one sultry August morning, I bought an 
old “box hive” from a neighboring beekeeper. Like 
other box hives, there were no frames, and the combs 
were just fastened across the underside of the top 
according to the bees’ whims. The entrance was 
only about two inches long by one inch wide, and 
the owner had fastened a strip of netting across this 
opening just before daybreak, according to my in¬ 
structions. 
By nine o’clock it was very warm indeed and the 
bees were clamoring to go out to work. 
As I drove off with the hive, their clamor in¬ 
creased. When halfway home I noticed that they 
had fallen silent. ... I was glad that they had 
quieted down. . . . But when I lifted out the 
hive at home, they were still silent. And there was 
an ominous note in that dead silence. 
As I set the hive in place on its stand and tore 
off the wire netting with trembling fingers, a mat 
of lifeless bees tumbled out. It was literally a “si- 
