WINTERING BEES. 337 



The Apiarian, should, therefore, late in the Fall, cut, 

 with a pen-knife, a hole, an inch in diameter, in the centre 

 of each comb, about one-third from the top.* 



Great care should be taken to shelter hives from the 

 piercing winds, which in Winter so powerfully exhaust 

 the animal heat of the bees ; for, tike human beings, if 

 sheltered from the wind, they will endure a low tem- 

 perature far better than a continuous current of very 

 much warmer air.f 



In some parts of the West,' where bees suffer much 

 from cold winds, their hives are protected, in Winter, by 

 sheaves of straw, fastened so as to defend them from both 

 cold and wet. With a tittle ingenuity, farmers might 

 easily turn their waste straw to a valuable account in 

 sheltering their bees. 



If the colonies are wintered in the open air, the 

 entrance to their hives must be large enough to allow 

 the bees to fly at pleasure. Many, it is true, will be lost, 

 but a large part of these are diseased ; and, even if they 

 were not, it is better to lose some healthy bees than to 

 incur the risk of losing, or greatly injuring, a whole 



* If these holes are made before they feel the need of them, they will frequently 

 close them. Mr. Wm. W. Gary (p. 204) has Invented a process of making these 

 holes without removing the combs. He makes a hole in the side of the hive, 

 which, when not in use, is covered with a button or ping (PI. V., Fig. 16), through 

 which he slowly worms an instrument in the shape of a flour or butter-taster 

 (sharpened at the end), until it strikes the opposite side of the hive. By this 

 process of making the Winter passages, only a very few bees are hurt. As the 

 queen always runs away from danger, she is not liable to be hurt. An application 

 for a patent on this device is now pending. If the patent issues, the right to use it 

 will be free to all owning the right to use the movable-comb hive. 



I strongly advise every one using my hives to make Winter passages for their 

 bees. As the frames touch neither the top, bottom, nor sides of the hives, the bees 

 have such extraordinary facilities for intercommunication, that they cannot be 

 depended on to leave any holes in their combs. 



t The Winter of 1855-6 will long be remembered, not only for the nncon mon 

 degree and duration of its cold, but for the tremendous winds, which, often for 

 days together, swept like a Polar tornado over the land. Apiaries standing in 

 exposed situations were, in many instances, nearly ruined. 

 15 



