284 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



fresli pollen can be gathered abroad. Mature bees do not sub- 

 sist upon it, but often die of starvation with a plenty of it in 

 the hive. 



Bee-House. — The bee-house which was once thought to be 

 essential to bee-culture, is found, in various respects, to operate 

 unfavorably, and all the advantages which it affords can be 

 secured much better in some other way. Bees should never be 

 exposed to the direct rays of the sun except in the morning and 

 at evening. The intense heat of the sun often causes them to 

 lie in a cluster upon the outside of the hive or to melt down — 

 a circumstance which proves fatal to them. The bee-house, if 

 properly constructed, may afford protection from the injurious 

 and excessive heat of the sun ; but, as it is usually constructed, 

 it is too narrow even for this. Being open on one side, as it 

 usually is, with a southern exposure, the sun acts with all its 

 intensity upon the bees (or hive) in spite of the bee-house. 

 The bee-house attracts the sun in winter, and so much warmth 

 is occasioned that the bees are induced to leave the hive, and 

 are soon chilled. They fall upon the snow, and, being unable 

 to rise, soon die. Great numbers are lost from this cause 

 alone, when they would have remained in the hive had it not 

 been for the accumulated and reflected heat of the sun occa- 

 sioned by the presence of the bee-house. Its protection, in 

 winter, against the cold, the bees do not need. It is impossible 

 to freeze them in our climate, unless the swarm is quite small ; 

 in that case the probability is they will perish from some other 

 cause. Those swarms which lie the most dormant in winter, 

 (that is, occupy the coldest place,) eat the least, come out 

 brightest in the spring, and increase and prosper most during 

 the following summer. The kind of protection from the exces- 

 sive heat of the sun, which the bees need, will be spoken of 

 when I come to treat of the bee-hive. The bee-house furnishes 

 the best kind of protection for ants, millers, bugs, worms, and 

 every kind of insect which delights to collect in or about a bee- 

 hive. Here they find convenient lodging places. They are 

 attracted thither by the scent or delicious contents of the hive, 

 and they often collect there in great numbers. The miller, 

 especially, from which the bee-moth proceeds, — the greatest 



