344 WINTERING AND SPElNG DWINDLING. 



another, upon the combs, upon the floor, and at the entrance 

 of the hive, "which bees in a healthy state are particularly 

 careful to keep clean." 



If bees can void them, in flight (TS), before it is too late, 

 they experience no bad effects, hence it is indispensable that, 

 when wintered out of doors, bees should be enabled to fly, at 

 intervals, during the Winter. 



637. From numerous experiments made, it is evident that 

 the purest saccharine matter will feed them with the least pro- 

 duction of faeces. Hence watery, unripe, or sour honey, and 

 all honey eontaming extraneous matter, are more or less in- 

 jurious to confined bees. Dark honey containing a large pro- 

 portion of mellose is inferior to clover-honey or sugar-syrup. 

 Honey harvested from flowers which yield much pollen 

 (363), is likely to contain many floating grains of it, and 

 will be more injurious than clear, transparent honey, in cases 

 where bees will be confined to their hives by cold for five or 

 six weeks. Honey-dew (355) seems worse yet. The juices 

 of fruits, apples, grapes, etc. {S77), are worst of all. After 

 the Winter of 1880-81, we purchased the remains of some 90 

 colonies, that had been winter-killed, and in which the only 

 food left was apple-juice, that had been carried in, during the 

 preceding Fall, and had turned to cider. This unwholesome 

 food in Winter confinement, by causing diarrhoea, had killed 

 bees everywhere around us (784). 



638. Happily these instances, of bees storing apple- juice, 

 are scarce, but the practical bee-keeper will not allow such 

 food to remain in the hive. It may be extracted (749), 

 boiled, and fed back in Spring, for bees do not suffer from 

 this food when not confined to their hives. The same may be 

 said of inferior or unripe honey (361). 



Much unsealed honey in the comb is injurious for Winter, 

 even if the honey is ripe. This unsealed honey gathers 

 moisture on account of its hygrometric properties, and be- 

 comes thin and watery. In addition to this peculiarity, honey, 

 when cold, condenses the moisture or steam from the bees, in 



