344 THE HIVE AND IIONEY-BEE. 



January till the Spring fairly opens (unless the weather permit* 

 them to fly safely), they will not suffer. This water may be 

 placed in a wet sponge in a feeding-box, directly over the bees, 

 and protected by a cushion of moss. A hundred or more colonies 

 may thus, without disturbance, be quickly supplied." 



That bees cannot raise brood without water, has been 

 known from the times of Aristotle. Buera, of Athens 

 (Cotton, p. 104), aged 80 years, said in 1797 : "Bees daily 

 supply the worms with water ; should the state of the 

 weather be such as to prevent the bees from fetching 

 water for a few days, the worms would perish. These 

 dead bees are removed out of the hive by the working- 

 bees, if they are healthy and strong ; otherwise, the ^tock 

 perishes from their putrid exhalations." I have repeat- 

 edly known colonies to suffer severe losses, for want of 

 water ; and in my correspondence with bee-keepers, the 

 last Winter (1858-9),* have directed their attention to 

 this point, and have had my estimate of the value of water 

 to bees in Winter greatly increased. But as yet, I have 

 had no satisfactory evidence that any colonies, whose 

 honey was not candied, have died from water-dearth. 



The Baron Yon Berlepsch says, that " death from this 

 cause more rarely occurs in districts where there is late 

 Fall bee-forage than in those like his own, where pas- 

 turage fails occasionally in July, and usually early in 

 August. In such regions, the honey becomes very thick 

 in Winter, and sometimes thoroughly candiedf before 



* I am particularly indebted to Mr. William W. Gary, Mr. Richard Colvin, Rev. 

 J. C. Bodwell, Mr. E. T. Sturtevant, and Eev. Levi "Wheaton, for careful observa- 

 tions made last Winter, at my suggestion on wintering bees. 



t Madame Vicat, in some observations on bees, published in 1764 see Wild- 

 man, p. 231 speaks of finding, " on the 24th of March, when the weather was so 

 cold that the bees of her other hives did not go abroad, much candied honey on the 

 bottom of a hive, and bees which seemed to be expiring. A singular noise was made 

 in the hive, at intervals, and at such times numbers of bees would fall into tho 

 candied honey, and perish. The bees not being able to swallow the candied honey 

 emptied it out of their combs to get at such as they could swallow." 



