WINTERING BEES. 347 



sheltered from piercing winds, they have all the condi- 

 tions essential to wintering successfully in the open air. 



Great injury is often done by disturbing a colony of 

 bees when the weather is so cold that they cannot fly. 

 Many which are tempted to leave the cluster, perish 

 before they can regain it, and every disturbance, by 

 rousing them to needless activity, causes an increased 

 consumption of food. About once in six weeks, however, 

 it will be advisable to clean the bottom-boards of hives 

 wintered in the open air, of dead bees, and other refuse. 

 Where permanent bottom-boards are used, this may be 

 done with a scraper (Plate XI., Fig. 30), made of a piece 

 of iron-wire, about two feet long ; this, when heated, is 

 bent about four inches, and flattened to one-quarter of an 

 inch wide, both edges being made sharp.* 



Bees very rarely discharge their faeces in the hive, 

 unless they are diseased or greatly disturbed. If the 

 Winter has been uncommonly severe, and they have had 

 no opportunity to fly, their abdomens, before Spring, often 

 become greatly distended, and they are very liable to be 

 lost in- the snow, if the weather, on their first flight, is not 

 unusually favorable. After they have once discharged 

 their faeces, they will not venture from their hives, in un- 

 suitable weather, if well supplied with water. . 



Having given the necessary precautions for wintering 

 bees out of doors, the methods for defending them 

 against atmospheric changes, by placing them in special 

 depositories, will be described. 



In some parts of Europe, it is customary to winter all 



* Where a ventilator is made on the back of the hive (Plate V., Fig. 16), any 

 refuse may be llown out by a pair of bellows. A very little smoke should be used 

 before cleaning the bottom-board. Palladius, who nourished nearly two thousand 

 years ago, says that bees ought not to be disturbed in Winter, except for the pur 

 pose of cleaning their hives of dead bees, &c. 



