316 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



warm enough, the problem has been to keep it cool 

 •enough. 



UNFAVORABLE CONDITIONS. 



Conditions for successful wintering were by no 

 means the best. 



The workmen that set up the furnace were late in 

 finishing up the last part of the work in the cellar, so that 

 the bees were not put in till the 8th of December. On that 

 day the temperature was 8 degrees below zero. It would 

 have been much better to have left them out for another 

 flight if I had been sure of a day warm enough without 

 waiting too long. But I was not sure of that, and I 

 thought it better for them to be taken in in rather bad con- 

 dition than to run the risk of leaving them out longer. 

 The sequel showed I was wise in so doing, for no day 

 warm enough for a flight came until February 26. 



A thin partition of lath and plaster is all that sepa- 

 rates the bee-room from the room in which the furnace is 

 located, and the thermometer in the bee-room generally 

 •showed a temperature of 50 degrees. Some of the hot-air 

 pipes pass through the bee-room overhead : and a ther- 

 mometer laid on one of the two hives directly under one 

 of these pipes nearest the furnace showed a temperature 

 of 70 degrees. The pipe is covered with asbestos paper, 

 but there was only a space of about three inches be- 

 tween the pipe and the top of the hives. There was plenty 

 of room to set these colonies in a cooler place, but they 

 were allowed to stay right where they were to see what 

 the result would be. They wintered beautifully — until 

 they died. They starved to death, and that not so very 

 late in winter, although I think they were well supplied 

 with stores. No doubt the heat kept them so active that 

 thev used up their stores with unusual rapidity. 



BAD WINTERING. 



Under the circumstance? I figured on considerable 

 loss. The loss went beyond my figuring. Not that the 



