26 
freezing or remains long below 38° F. is not a suitable place in which to 
winter bees. When in repositories, the bees have no opportunity for a 
cleansing flight, nor do they, when the temperature rises outside, always 
warm up sufliciently to enable the cluster to move from combs from 
which the stores have been exhausted to full ones, hence in a cold 
repository they are liable to starve with pleuty of food in the hive. As 
a rule, colonies would be better off out of doors in their summer hives 
than in such places. 
OUTDOOR WINTERING,. 
Cold ard dampness are the great winter enemies of bee life. A single 
bee can withstand very little cold, but a good cluster, if all other con- 
ditions are favorable, can defy the most rigorous winters of our coldest 
States. But if not thoroughly dry, even a moderate degree of cold is 
always injurious, if not absolutely fatal. Dampness in winter is there- 
fore the most dangerous element with which the bee keeper has to 
contend. The matter would, of course, be quite simple if only that 
dampness which might come from the outside were to be considered, 
but when the air ef the hive, somewhat warmed by the bees and more 
or less charged with the moisture of respiration, comes in contact with 
hive walls or comb surfaces made cold by outside air, condensation 
takes place, and the moisture trickles over the cold surfaces and cluster 
of bees, saturating the air about them or even drenching them, unless 
by forming a very compact cluster they are able to preventit from pen- 
etrating, or by greater activity to raise the temperature sufficiently to 
evaporate the surplus moisture, or at least that portion near them. But 
this greater activity is, of course, at the expense of muscular power 
and requires the consumption of nitrogenous as well as carbonaceous 
food. Increased cold or its long continuance greatly aggravates 
conditions. 
Nature has provided that the accumulation of waste products in the 
body of the bee during its winter confinement should be small under 
normal conditions, but unusual consumption of food, especially of a 
highly nitrogenous nature like pollen, necessitates a cleansing flight, or 
diarrheal difficulties ensue, combs and hives are soiled, the air of the 
hive becomes polluted, and at last the individual bees become too weak 
to generate proper warmth or drive off the surplus moisture which 
then invades the cluster and brings death to the colony; or, what is 
more frequently the case, a cold snap destroys the last remnant of the 
colony, which has been reduced by constant loss of bees impelled by 
(lisease to leave the cluster or even to venture out for a cleansing flight 
when snows and great cold prevail. 
The problem then is: To retain the warmth generated by the bees, 
which is necessary to their well-being, and at the same time to prevent the 
accumulation of moisture in the hive. A simple opening at the top of the 
hive would permit much of the moisture to pass off, but of course heat 
would escape with it and a draft would be produced. Absorbent mate- 
i a  _ 
