AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



49 



the empty spaces between with some 

 warm material. I consider that such a 

 precaution here is quite superfluous, but 

 by no means injurious to the bees ; for 

 the less heat that escapes unnecessarily, 

 the more economically and healthily will 

 bees winter, and the longer will they be 

 able to delay from flying out. 



It is of course necessary that there 

 should be a sufficient supply of fresh air, 

 for as a fire in a stove becomes extin- 

 guished when oxygen is excluded ; all 

 generation of heat, and life itself, in the 

 bee-hive ceases when all the oxygen has 

 been consumed. Ay, there's the rub ! 

 The want of air fit for breathing, and 

 perhaps also of water, is the cause of 

 bees becoming restless, which ignorant 

 and superficially-informed people at- 

 tribute to excessive heat. 



But even should the irrepressible im- 

 pulse of bees to cleanse themselves be the 

 cause of the restlessness in a colony, 

 which is quite imaginable, it will in any 

 case be advantageous to keep bees suffi- 

 ciently warm and active to enable them 

 to get to the entrance and cleanse them- 

 selves there, instead of being obliged to 

 do so, half-chilled, in the cluster, which 

 would almost certainly cause the imme- 

 diate ruin of the colony. 



We know very well, that as long as 

 bees are able to get at their stores of 

 honey, they can stand severe cold ; and, 

 if examples are mentioned of bees having 

 wintered well in high northern latitudes, 

 this proves nothing against the expe- 

 diency of providing as much protection 

 against the cold as possible. 



Some Italians, who accompanied the 

 Austrian Polar expedition, survived the 

 fearful Winter of those cold regions, 

 without any apparent injury to their 

 health ; but no sensible man can possibly 

 doubt that they would have felt much 

 more comfortable in their own native 

 country, where the climate is mild. 



For bees to be obliged to draw closely 

 together, to tremble with cold, and to 

 pipe in a higher key, has always to be 

 considered an evil which a sensible and 

 careful bee-keeper will endeavor to guard 

 against, as much as possible. Though 

 he cannot procure for them the mild air 

 of Italy, he should at least make their 

 Winter-quarters as warm as possible, in 

 order to lessen the injurious effect of the 

 cold. 



There can be no objection to reducing 

 the number of combs moderately in the 

 Spring, and after a colony has done 

 swarming, when the bees are able to re- 

 new them in a short space of time, which 

 they evidently do with eagerness ; and I 

 myself frequently have recourse to this 



means, in order to obtain guide-comb ; 

 but to destroy, in Autumn, the Winter- 

 quarters which the bees have arranged 

 for themselves, and to expose them dur- 

 ing a long Winter to the direct influence 

 of a fierce cold ; and, finally, to advocate 

 destroying bees by brimstone, is a bar- 

 barism of which societies for the protec- 

 tion of animals should inform the police, 

 in order to have the offenders punished ! 

 Want of water afflicts, and even ruins, 

 many colonies, when obliged to consume 

 candied honey, or honey which has be- 

 come very thick. 



DISEASE FROM FOUL-BEOOD. 



But more dangerous than candied 

 honey is the honey gathered from fir and 

 pine trees. When bees are able to fly 

 out, it does not appear to affect them 

 injuriously, but if compelled to use it 

 exclusively, at a time of extreme cold, in 

 the Winter, there is a great risk of its 

 doing them harm. Such honey being 

 slimy, capable of being drawn out in 

 the shape of a rope when the tempera- 

 ture is low, appears to be almost insolu- 

 ble in the absence of water, and less 

 nutritious and warming than other kinds 

 of honey, for which reason a large 

 quantity of undigested matter is re- 

 tained by the bees in their body, which 

 generally causes diarrhea when bees are 

 confined to their hives for some consid- 

 erable time. 



After a long and severe Winter thou- 

 sands of colonies die of diarrhea, which 

 disease is quite unknown in Southern 

 countries, where the Winter is mild and 

 of short duration. 



QUEENLESSNESS IS FATAL. 



The number of colonies which perish 

 from queenlessness every year is also 

 very large ; for if an old queen dies in 

 Autumn or Winter, or a young queen is 

 lost during her wedding trip, or if she 

 remains unfertilized, the bees in the 

 hive, sooner or later, disperse, or the 

 colony becomes a prey to bees from other 

 hives. 



According to the opinion and experi- 

 ence of Baron von Ehrenfels, the num- 

 ber of colonies of wild bees which perish 

 through having lost their queen is 

 greater than those which die from star- 

 vation, as he infers from traces of 

 drone-brood which he discovers. 



As, however, districts and seasons 

 vary considerably, we may expect to 

 find a great difference in this respect. 



STARVATION. 



During a Winter, preceded by a season 

 unfavorable to bees, it is very likely that 



