Students of the ways of the honey-bee find many things to at, but little to excite their wonder more than the unique system of ventilation established in the hive.  
Under natural conditions it is a point whether bees concern themselves at all with the ventilation of their nests.  Wild bees usually fix upon a site for their where there is ample space for all possible developments; and the ventilation of the home—as with most human tenements—is left pretty much to chance causes.  At least, in the course of many years’ observation, the writer has never seen the fanners at work in the entrance of a natural bee-settlement.
 
Probably this fanning system originated in a new want felt by the bees, when, in remote ages, their began, and they found themselves cooped up in hives which, in their very earliest form, were possibly roughly-plaited baskets, daubed over with clay, or earthen pots baked dry in the sun.  This form, originally adopted by the bee-keeper as a protection against honey-thieves of all sorts, as well as against the weather, brought about a new order of things in bee-life.  The free circulation of air which would obtain when the bee-colony was established naturally in a of a rock or in a hollow tree became no longer possible.  And so—as they have been proved to have done in many modern instances—the bees set to work to evolve new methods to meet new necessities, and the present ventilation-system gradually became an established habit of the race.
 
Watching a hive of bees on any hot summer’s day, one very curious, not to say startling, fact must strike the most superficial observer.  If the fanning bees were stationed round the flight-hole in a merely casual, irregular way, their obvious employment would be surprising enough.  But it is at once seen that each fanner forms part in an ingenious and carefully thought-out plan.  Outwardly, the fanners are arranged in regular rows, one behind the other, all with their heads towards the hive, and all working their wings so fast that their movement becomes nearly invisible.  These rows of bees extend sometimes for several inches over the alighting-board, and on very hot days there may be as many as seven or eight ranks.  The ventilating army never covers the whole available space.  It is always at one side or the other; or, where the entrance is a wide one, it may be divided into two wings, leaving a centre space free.  The fanning bees, moreover, do not keep close together, but stand in open order, so that the continual coming and going of the nectar-gatherers is in no wise .  There is a constant flow of worker-bees through the ranks in both directions; yet the fanning goes on uninterruptedly, and, under certain conditions, the current of air thus set up may be strong enough to blow out the flame of a candle held at the edge of the flight-board.
 
In all study of the ways of the honey-bee, the safer plan is to begin with the assumption that a reasoning creature is under observation, and then to work back to the surer, well-beaten tracks of thought concerning the lower creation—that is, if the observed facts warrant it.  But this question of the ventilation of the modern beehive—only one of many other problems equally astounding—helps the orthodox of the old school very little on his comfortable way.  We know that the wild bee generally chooses a situation for her nest which is neither nor confined, but has in most cases ample space available for the future growth of the colony.  Security from storm or flood seems to be the first consideration.  The fact that the interior of a bee-nest is more or less in darkness appears to be mainly accidental.  Bees have no particular for absolute darkness, nor, in fact, is any hive free from light.  Experiment will prove that a very small is sufficient to admit a considerable amount of reflected and light, quite enough for the needs of the hive.  It may be supposed, therefore, that the bees would have no objection to building in broad daylight, or even sunlight, if, in conjunction with the first necessities of shelter, security, and equable temperature, such a location were easily obtainable under natural conditions.  It would only be another instance of their unique to circumstances forced upon them.
 
In the matter of ventilation, however, they seem to ............