No. 63. J 235 



more than one bushel of space to begin with; when the bees have 

 pretty well filled this space, they may be admitted into collaterals, or 

 into the chamber; but if a swarm weighs from eight to eleven or 

 tw^elve pounds, they must be admitted to one or more of the collate- 

 rals or chambers; but this will depend very much on the state of the 

 weather; and the exact state of a large swarm of bees can always be 

 known by the thermometer in the course of five or six minutes, when 

 placed in its appropriate chamber in the collateral box. If the ther- 

 mometer falls below fifty degrees, there is certainly great danger of 

 a chill among the young broods. If this happens, the whole stock 

 of bees soon becomes worthless. If the chrysalis are so chilled in 

 their cells as to perish there, the bees have not the instinct to know 

 this fiict, until it is too late for them to exercise any power over them, 

 to remedy the fatal consequences of having their breeding cells filled 

 up with dead, putrified and rotten carcases of a host of young 

 which had met with a premature death; dead larvae never produce 

 any deleterious effects upon a hive of bees, other than the loss of 

 their numbers; as the bees discover their death, they are speedily re- 

 moved; but not so with the chrysalis; the bees feed the larvse or 

 grubs as soon as they are hatched from the eggs laid by the queen, 

 until they have obtained their full size, and refuse to accept any more 

 pollen, water, or food from the hand of their nurses. Then they are 

 sealed up to wind themselves in a silken case to pass a season of re- 

 pose, and transform to the perfect fly; during which time i.he com- 

 mon bees, and drones too, brood over them to keep them waim and 

 guard them from their enemies, (unless driven from their post by the 

 chill, to keep themselves warm near the center of the hive;) but as 

 the bees are unable to count time, or to know the precise day that 

 the lives of the chrysalis were destroyed by a chill, or the time that 

 nature should have performed her perfect work, before the bees are 

 aware of the fact that their labor is in vain and worse than in vain; for in 

 this case, the breeding department is not only deranged by its useless 

 cells, but the stench of these putrified young broods renders the whole 

 hive obnoxious to its inmates; for the bees have not the power to re- 

 move the nuisance, nor the will to expose their tenement or compan- 

 ions to any more of the deadly eflfluvia of their diseased sisters, by 

 uncovering their premature graves. I have known many swarms to 

 dwindle away and perish under these circumstances. The cause is, 

 too much cold air in the hive in the spring and summer months. 

 The remedy \b^ prune out these diseased combs in season. The pre- 

 ventive is tn keep the hive tight, and admit as little cold air as possi- 

 ble in chilly turns of weather; but there is another side to be shown 

 in the principle of ventilation. It is often urged that the instinct of 

 bees are the most perfect guide to their master in the selection of 

 hives and managing them. Some ancient writer, Virgil, if I am not 

 mistaken, says bees have been known to accept of the " stomach of a 

 slain heifer as a residence," {may be so.) Others contend that bees 

 prefer a hollow og or a hole in the rocks; but this by no means 

 proves that bee will do better in either, than in good well made 

 hives; for in es mating the quantity of honey taken from sixteen 



