AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



643 



For a time it was aimed to arrange 

 the packing over the bees so as to keep 

 them warm, and the difficulty was to 

 know how the bees fel't, which was im- 

 possible to tell. On the other hand, it 

 is easy to tell when the bees are dry and 

 sweet, from an examination of the pack- 

 ing over the cluster. By quietly pulling 

 away the warm packing down to the 

 quilt, and lifting the quilt gently, we 

 can look at the bees for half a minute 

 before they seem to know they have a 

 caller. All the indication there is that 

 they know of our presence is, that they 

 will suddenly raise their bodies, a few 

 wings will tremble a little, and they 

 settle down as motionless as before, and 

 not a bee changes its position. 



This quietness might be supposed to 

 be caused by the bees being chilled by 

 the loss of warmth through the porous 

 packing, indeed I labored under the very 

 delusion for several Winters, when I 

 observed that these same colonies which 

 were so still when the temperature was 

 30° below zero, were just as motionless 

 when it was 40° above zero, and the 

 snow thawing away. But there was a 

 great difference in the size of the clus- 

 ter at the different temperatures, show- 

 ing that they regulate the warmth by 

 compact and loose clustering. 



As before stated, the packing directly 

 above the bees should be dry and warm. 

 This statement is misleading. Directly 

 above the cluster it is always the driest 

 part of the packing. Of course it should 

 be dry and warm directly above the 

 cluster, but we must go further and see 

 that it is dry at the edges of the packing 

 where the upper edge of the hive, or 

 where the division-board, meets the 

 packing overhead. 



It is a poor conclusion that we arrive 

 at when we poke a hand down into the 

 packing directly above the cluster, and 

 say the condition of the hive or colony is 

 dry. 



At and behind the division-board, 6 

 inches from the cluster, it may be damp, 

 and water standing in drops, or frost, if 

 it is cold enough to freeze. If this 

 moisture extends into the brood-chamber 

 one inch at the top of the hive, that is, 

 the width of one comb. Three inches . 

 lower down inside the hive, and the 

 moisture has possession of the second 

 comb. Three inches further down, and 

 it extends to the third, and so on to the 

 fourth, until the dry space in the hive 

 which the bees occupy, may be compared 

 to an Inverted cone. There is seldom 

 more moisture than of mold, as the combs 

 plainly show in the Spring, where the 

 outside comb is very moldy, the next one 



half-covered with mold, and the next 

 less still, and so on. 



With plenty of upward ventilation the 

 combs stay dry. 



About Feb. 1, we had just had about 

 three weeks of quite cold weather, after 

 which it has turned warmer, so that the 

 bees could fly if they wished to. But 

 suppose the weather had not been quite 

 warm enough for a flight, and then 

 started in on a month or two more of 

 cold weather, just at the time the honey 

 that was dry was consumed, and the 

 cluster had been obliged to move, and 

 everything was covered with sweat or 

 frost. When the combs are covered 

 with moisture in a warm spell, even in 

 Winter, the honey sours, and the mold 

 grows in a bee-hive just as much as in 

 Summer. 



The cold may crack the combs clear 

 through, and the moisture bursts the 

 honey-cells open so that the combs are 

 a dauby, sticky, fermenting mass, and 

 every breath of warmth the bees pro- 

 duce that cannot escape irom the brood- 

 nest turns into a befouling agent. 



I have observed in hives where there 

 were 6 Langstroth combs, and the bees 

 were clustered on one side on four 

 combs, that the warmth passed upward 

 on the side of the cluster nearest the 

 vacant combs, and flowed over the first 

 top-bar into the next empty bee-space. 

 At the point where the warm current 

 met the colder air that was behind the 

 comb, was where moisture continued to 

 condense and run down on the outer side 

 of the unoccupied comb. This was an 

 exceptional instance. At other times 

 the moisture condensed as the warmth 

 circulated around the sides of the un- 

 occupied combs, very slowly in progress, 

 but with long spells of weather of nearly 

 the same kind of weather the hive and 

 combs became covered with large drops. 

 A decided change in the weather made 

 the condition either better or worse. 



Variable Winters need variable pack- 

 ing. 



It is as reasonable to vary the prep- 

 aration for the ventilation of the bee- 

 hives out-of-doors for the different Win- 

 ters, as to vary the fuel burned in our 

 stoves, the necessary banking around 

 our bee-cellars, or the clothing on our 

 beds. One Winter in my remembrance 

 (1886-87), there were in the month of 

 January 21 days in succession when the 

 temperature did not come up to zero, 

 and for 7 weeks it did not thaw on the 

 south side of buildings. Three or four 

 of the days the temperature was 40° 

 below zero. 



