The drawers should be turned over, so as to let the bees into them as soon
as they have built their combs nearly to the bottom of the hive. If the
swarm is so large that the lower apartment will not hold all of them, they
should be let into one or both of the drawers, at the time of hiving;
otherwise they may go off for want of room. Bees should be let into the
drawers in the spring as soon as blossoms are seen.

RULE III.

ON VENTILATING THE HIVE.

Graduate the bottom board and ventilator at pleasure, by means of the
button or otherwise, so as to give them more or less air, as the
circumstances may require.

REMARKS.

Bees require more air in order to enable them to endure the heat of summer
and the severity of winter, than at any other time. If they are kept out
in the cold, they need as much air in the winter as in the heat of summer.
It is in a mild temperature only, that it is safe to keep them from the
pure air. If placed below frost in a dry sand-bank, they seem to need
scarcely more than is contained in their hive at the time they are buried,
during the whole winter. If kept in a clean, dry cellar, the mouth so
contracted as to keep out mice, gives them enough. But if they are kept in
the apiary, there should be a slow current of air constantly pressing in
at the bottom and off at the top thro' the ventilator.

RULE IV.

ON PREVENTING ROBBERIES.

At the moment it is observed, that robbers are within, or about the hive,
raise the bottom board so near the edge of the hive as to prevent the
ingress or egress of the bees, and stop the mouth or common entrance and
ventilator. At the same time take care that a small space on all sides of
the hive be left open, so as to afford them all the air they need. Open
the mouth only at evening, and close early in the morning, before the
robbers renew their attack.

REMARKS.

Bees have a peculiar propensity to rob each other, and every precaution
necessary to prevent it, should be exercised by the cultivator. Families
in the same apiary are more likely to engage in this unlawful enterprize
than any others, probably because they are located so near each other, and
are more likely to learn their comparative strength. I never could
discover any intimacy between colonies of the same apiary, except when
they stood on the same bench; and then, all the social intercourse seems
to subsist between the nearest neighbors only.

Bees are not likely to engage i