340- THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



The central combs had eggs and unsealed brood. No. 3 

 was most thoroughly protected by double sides, filled in 

 with charcoal, and all the holes in its honey-board were left 

 open. It had a little frost, as No. 1. and its central combs 

 contained eggs and some sealed brood. Although it had 

 a better stock of bees than either of the others, it ap- 

 peared to have begun to breed only a few days earlier. 



JAN. 30TH. This month has been the coldest on record 

 for more than fifty years. My hives have been exposed 

 to a temperature of 30 below zero, and for forty-eight 

 hours together the wind blew a strong gale, and the mer- 

 cury rose only once to 6 below zero. No. 1 was again 

 examined, and the bees found in good condition. The 

 central comb was almost filled with sealed brood, nearly 

 mature ; all the combs were free from mould, and the 

 interior of the hive was dry. In a hive as well protected 

 as No. 3, but which had no upward ventilation, the 

 vapor, or breath of the bees, which had frozen in it, having 

 melted in consequence of a sudden thaw, both combs and 

 bees were in a wretched condition. 



As long as the vapor remains congealed, it can only 

 injure the bees by keeping them from stores which they 

 need ; but, as soon as a thaw sets in, hives which have no 

 upward ventilation are in danger of being ruined.* 



Mr. E. T. Sturtevant, of East Cleveland, Ohio, so widely 

 known as an experienced Apiarian, in a letter to me, thus 

 gives his experience in wintering bees in the open air : 



" No extremity of cold that we ever have in this climate, will 

 injure bees, if their breath is allowed to pass off, so that they arc 



* In March, 1856, I lost some of my best colonies, under the followirg circum- 

 stances: The Winter had been intensely cold, and the hives, having no upward ven- 

 tilation, were filled with frost, and, in some instances, the ice on their glass sides 

 was nearly a quarter of an inch thick. A few days of mild weather, in which the 

 frost began to thaw, were followed by a temperature below zero, accompanied by 

 furious winds, and in many of the hives, the bees, which were still wet from the 

 thaw, were frozen together in an almost solid mas. 



