THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



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keep theii" bees without proper pi-otec- 

 tion dnriiiii; the winter, juul have lost 

 iiearl_y every slvip". There is one fact in 

 which all intellii'-ent bee-keepei-s will 

 ii«:^ree, which is, that a colony of bees 

 will pass the winter best when the hive 

 is kept in a location wliere the tempera- 

 ture will not be rapidly affected by the 

 rapid transitions from warm to very 

 cold, and vice irrsa. Cue thing in par- 

 ticular should be guarded against, 

 which is this: No hive should be ))Iaced 

 where it will be exposed even for a 

 single hour to the rays of the sun. 

 When a hive stands in the sunshine for 

 i\ few hours, the walls will be warmed 

 up, the little workei-s will be eidivened 

 and the pleasant outlook will invite 

 thousands of them to spread their wings 

 and tly away to the fields. But, before 

 ihey have flown a hundi-ed yards, they 

 are frequently chilled to such an extent 

 that they drop to the ground and perish, 

 as they cannot i-ecover sufficient 

 strength to return to their homes. 

 This teaches the eminent importance of 

 guarding eveiy hive from the fury of 

 fierce winds and also from the cheerful 

 sunshine. When the hive is in an iso- 

 lated place it needs a cover to turn the 

 rain and snow, and boards, rails or brush 

 placed on every side to obscure the light 

 of the sun and to break the force of a 

 cold wind. So long as the bees are kept 

 in the shade, well pi-otected, w^hero they 

 can discover little or no light, the tem- 

 perature of the interior of the hive will 

 be "more uniform, and only a limited 

 number will escape from the hives and 

 ])erish.— A^. r. Herald. 



Ventilation. 



Bees require houey in winter to keep up 

 nnimal heat — the carbon of the honey is burn- 

 ed in the body of the bee as coal burns in a 

 stove. If the hive is too cokl, the bees will 

 be found to flap their wings in the chister and 

 thus increase their lieat as man does by clap- 

 ping his hands in cokl weather. This requires 

 just so much more expenditure of honey as 

 food. Dr. Carpenter, speaking of an experi- 

 ment, says a bumble bee was found to pro- 

 duce one-third of a cubic inch of carbonic 

 acid in the course of a single liour, during 

 which its whole body was in a state of agita- 

 tion, from the excitement consequent upon its 

 capture, and yet, during the whole twenty-four 

 liours of the succeeding day, which it passed 



in a state of eomiiarative rest, tlie quantity of 

 carbonic acid geiicraled bv it was absolutely 

 less. 



From tlic.se consiilerations, it is manifest 

 tliat unnecessary loss of heat is exactly ecpiiva 

 lent to unnecessary loss of honey ; tlie walls 

 of the liive, therefore, should be as non-con- 

 ducting as possitde, and in ordei- to make these 

 tlie most non-conducting, they should be kept 

 dry. Ventilation is a nu)st important means 

 of keeping the walls dry. This will be seen 

 if we consider the fact that heated air has a 

 much greater capacity to absorb vai)or than 

 cold air, and that the v^q)or thus absorbed 

 rises. Now if there be an escape for this vaj)- 

 or at the top of the hive, the air heated inside 

 the hive by the bees will pass olT charged with 

 moisture, and thus leave the inside dry. And 

 the admission of air at the bottom Avill bring 

 cool air, which whim heated by the bees will 

 absorb the moisture and pass it off at the toj), 

 and thus by a circulation keep the inside dry, 

 and warmer than if this moisture were retain- 

 ed. — Live Stock Journal, 



Letter from Miss Anna Saunders. 



Mr. Editor: I have just reached 

 home after an absence of several weeks 

 and find many letters applying for seed 

 of the sage tree, and information con- 

 cerning it. I am sending the seed to 

 all applicants, but will answer most of 

 the questions through the Bee Journal, 

 as they seem to be of general interest. 



This tree was grown from a cutting 

 and commenced blooming about the 

 second year. T liave never known it 

 to be cut down, or injured by cold 

 weather, as many of our tropical plants 

 are ; so, I think that with careful culti- 

 vation during its early years, it may 

 adapt itself to your climate. I do not 

 know whether it is honej" or pollen, or 

 both, that the bees get from its blos- 

 soms. It commenced blooming about 

 the 1st of last July. 



Peaches, plums, &c., are in bloom now 

 (Feb. 9), and my bees are exceedingly 

 busy. They are carrying in loads of 

 pollen, and, I suppose, honej^, but 1 

 have not examinecl the hives to see, 

 fearing the little baby bees would be 

 chilled. The mercury has been 62° 

 the greater part of to-day. Will some 

 wise bee-keeper tell us what is the low- 

 est temperature at w^hich it is safe to 

 open hives out of doors? 



Woodville, Miss. 



