The best wood for them is by some said to be red cedar; the chief grounds of preference of which wood are--its effects in keeping moths out of the boxes, and its being a bad conductor of heat. But of whatever kind of wood Bee-boxes are made, it should be well seasoned, perfectly sound, and free from what carpenters term _shakes_. Good, sound, red deal answers the purpose very well, and is the sort of wood of which most of my boxes have been made hitherto. The sides of the boxes, particularly the front sides, should be at the least an inch and a half in thickness; for the ends, top, and back-part, good deal one inch thick is sufficiently substantial; the ends, that form the interior divisions and openings, must be of half-inch stuff, well dressed off, so that, when the boxes and the dividing-tins are closed, that is, when they are all placed together, the two adjoining ends should not exceed five-eighths of an inch in thickness. These communication-ends, the bars of which should be exactly parallel with each other, form a communication, or a division, as the case may require, which is very important to the Bees, and by which the said boxes can be immediately divided without injuring any part of the combs, or deluging the Bees with the liquid honey, which so frequently annoys them, by extracting their sweets from the piled or storified boxes. This is not the only advantage my boxes possess: the receptacles or frame-work for the ventilators, which appear upon each of the end-boxes,--the one with the cover off, the other with it on--must be four inches square, with a perforated, flat tin of nearly the same size, and in the middle of that tin must be a round hole, to correspond with the hole through the top of the box, and in the centre of the frame-work just mentioned, an inch in diameter, to admit the perforated, cylinder, tin ventilator, nine inches long. This flat tin must have a smooth piece of wood well-made to fit it closely, and to cover the frame-work just mentioned, so as to carry the wet off it, then placing this cover over the square, perforated tin, your box will be secure from the action of wind and rain. The perforated cylinder serves both for a ventilator, and also for a secure and convenient receptacle for a thermometer, at any time when it is necessary to ascertain the temperature of the box into which the cylinder is inserted. Within this frame-work, and so that the perforated, flat tin already described may completely cover them, at each corner make a hole with a three-eighths centre-bit through the top of the box. These four small holes materially assist the ventilation, and are, in fact, an essential part of it.