222 A Modern Bee-Farm 
exciting cause whatever, there is then no need for an 
undue exertion of the digestive organs; food is partaken 
of less frequently, and the numerous members of the 
winter nest, but more especially those farthest from the 
centre of the cluster, are very slow to awake to a 
consciousness of any change in their surroundings. 
It may almost be said that the bees take turns in 
hibernating, those cooling on the margins changing to the 
interior of the nest, while the centre of the throng, like 
the pulsating heart of a single being, maintains a blood-heat 
temperature, without which the marginal units would soon 
become extinct. 
Hibernating is the Essence of Economy ; 
economy in food—economy in vital force and energy 
—a saving of life to the bees and of money to the owner, 
at a time when flights abroad would mean instant death 
to the individual members of the community, which only 
exists as a whole, through the combined heat of the 
clustering, compact mass of units. 
Excitement 
on the other hand—even the simple excitement of 
muscular action—means the consumption of stores beyond 
normal requirements; and consumption means a corre- 
sponding waste of energy, which in Autumn and Winter 
should be avoided as far as possible, because at that period 
there is no compensation—no profit to balance the waste. 
The Winter Season. 
On some cold morning just take a peep under the quilt 
at the bees of your strongest stock. Be as quiet as you 
can, dare hardly to breathe, and jar nothing near the hive. 
Well if you have not made such an examination at any 
other period of cold, you will be almost startled into 
