THE BEE IN WINTER 383 



coming home like dusty millers. At the same time, 

 they were taking syrup through the top of the hive 

 and storing it at the rate of nearly half a pint a 

 day. The wise beekeeper finishes his feeding before 

 the end of September. It has not only to be stored, 

 but medicated, by the bees, and capped before it 

 can be a safe stand-by for winter use. The production 

 of wax, even for capping, must be a wearing process. 

 The handful of bees in our little hive only twice 

 got up the wax-producing temperature, which seems 

 almost like that of boiling water, and when they had 

 taken some four pounds of syrup they ceased to take 

 more. Towards the end of October they gave no 

 signs of life for three or four days at a stretch, and 

 then, on a fine day, would come out and fly round in 

 a cloud for exercise, while even so late as October 14 

 one or two of them came home with signs of having 

 visited the balsam blossoms so much had they 

 been awakened by transfer from their cottage-skep 

 to a frame-hive in London. 



At the end of October they had another change of 

 locality, and at the same time were closed in the hive 

 and kept entirely in the house. They stood upon a 

 dressing-table, and were thus under close observation 

 at shaving-time. It was high time for them to be 

 asleep, or at any rate to stay entirely at home. For 

 the most part, the only sign of life was the daily 

 conveyance of a little chipped wax and other debris 

 to the farthest limit of the porch. Sometimes the 

 little scavenger of the day could be seen at its brief 

 work. A week or two later there was sometimes the 

 body of a dead sister to be brought out, and when 

 these grew to an average of two a day the bee-master 



