Read RULE III of A Manual / An Easy Method of Managing Bees, free online book, by John M. Weeks, on ReadCentral.com.

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.

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