ENTRANCES TO HIVES 
303 
Under the heading Enemies of Bees 
reference was made to the depredations of 
mice during the winter. It often becomes 
necessary to screen the entrances of hives 
put in the cellar. W. D. Keyes of Wilkins- 
burg, Pa., uses a very simple device, con¬ 
sisting of two triangular blocks and a strip 
of coarse-mesh cloth, just coarse enough to 
let bees thru it and yet exclude the mice. 
It is very quickly applied; and, if there is 
Coarse wire mesh that will let bees thru hut ex¬ 
clude mice. 
one to each hive, it will make very little 
expense, especially considering that a 
mouse on even one frame of young brood 
may do enough mischief in a single colony 
to pay the expense of the excluder. They 
will seldom gnaw a %-inch slot in an 
entrance-contracting cleat. For colonies 
wintered outdoors such a contracted en¬ 
trance is all that is necessary for excluding 
mice. 
The accompanying illustrations show how 
the entrance is provided for in a modern 
dovetailed hive. The bottom is made up of 
an outside rim of framework, into which 
are inserted the floor-boards % inch thick. 
These slide into grooves so cut that on one 
side the bottom-board provides a %-inch 
space, and on the other side %. The 
usual practice is to use the deep side up, 
and an entrance-contracting cleat as shown. 
While some prefer to use the shallow 
side of the bottom-board up the year round, 
it is better to use the deep side, and then 
make the necessary contraction of entrance 
with the contracting cleat as shown. Dur¬ 
ing the warm part of the year, when bees 
need an abundance of ventilation (spoken 
of under Comb Honey, to Produce, and 
Swarming, Prevention of), the wide or 
deep entrance is used without the entrance 
cleat. As cooler weather comes on, or if 
the colony is not strong, the cleat is inserted 
in the entrance. 
a plurality of entrances. 
While it is true that a plurality of en¬ 
trances may be a detriment in a brood- 
chamber, this does not necessarily hold 
good during the honey season when the 
hive is tiered up two or three stories high. 
It then becomes difficult, and wasteful of 
bee energy that might be better employed, 
to ventilate the whole hive from one en¬ 
trance, however large it is, for the bees 
have to maintain a current of air rushing 
in, and another going out at the same aper¬ 
ture. If queen-excluders are used the case 
is made worse. It almost goes without say¬ 
ing, that, during the period in which the 
honey is evaporated while in the combs, 
there should be more than one entrance 
to the hive—at least two, and, during very 
hot weather, more, one to each story, with 
the cover or roof slightly raised at the back 
to furnish additional means for the bad air 
to escape at the top of the hive. 
It is said by those who have tried this 
method of air control that it is a great pre¬ 
ventive of swarming, and it looks reason¬ 
able. The brood-chamber is far less crowd¬ 
ed, since the field workers arrive and de¬ 
part from the upper entrance to a great 
extent, saving overcrowding of the brood- 
chamber, which surely leads to swarming. 
On the other hand, there is danger of the 
