S6 BEES. 



devouring the honey. The cement has also the advantage 

 of heing- cheap, and g'reatly assists in fixing* windows and 

 other appHances. The coating should be tolerably thick, 

 and then not even the insidious moth can obtain an entrance 

 except through the door, where the bees will keep a good 

 watch, and the hive will lose less heat in winter, and gain less 

 m summer than can be managed even by the most careful 

 dressing and undressing the hive with straw bandages. If 

 the hive is as it should be, placed in a shed, the bees may be 

 considered as quite secure from cold. 



If the stock does not appear strong enough, another should 

 be added to it, and the conjoint stocks will not require an ounce 

 more honey than the original inhabitants. One foe, not the less 

 dangerous from being unsuspected, is an internal dampness, 

 which gives no outward sign, but has caused the destruction cf 

 many a hive of bees, much to the astonishment of the owner, 

 who has probably bestowed great care on them. A very 

 effectual method of preventing this misfortune is to place 

 over the aperture in the top of the hive a bell glass, covered 

 with flannel or cloth, and wiping away the moisture as it 

 appears on the inside of the glass. This precaution is more 

 necessary in a wooden than in a straw hive, as the latter 

 partially absorbs the vapour. In all probabiHty bees sustain 

 the severity of a Russian winter better than they do our com- 

 paratively mild season, because the air is much more dry than 

 in England. 



■ Several experiments have been tried, some very success- 

 fully, many completely the reverse, upon the apparently 

 murderous plan of burying the hives in the winter, only 

 leaving* a tube to communicate from the mouth of the hive 

 with the air. In or two cases the bees survived through 

 the whole winter, and only consumed a few ounces of hone}', 

 but in many other cases, the experiments were terminated by 

 the death of the bees. 



When the spring begins to appear, the hives should be 

 still more carefully shaded from the sun's rays, and if they 

 should begin to swarm about the entrance, a shower from 

 a watering-pot will lead them to believe that it is rain- 

 ing, and that they had better go on with their work within 

 the hive. 



Aspect. — A north, north-east, or liorth-vvest aspect is 



