118 THE BEE KEEPEK'S MANTTAI,. 



When bees, in unsuitable hives, are exposed to all the 

 variations of the external atmosphere, they are frequently 

 tempted to fly abroad if the weather becomes unseasonably 

 warm, and multitudes' are lost on the snow, at a season 

 when no yoiing are bred to replenish their number, and 

 when the loss is most injurious to the colony. 



From these remarks, it will be obvious to the intelligent 

 cultivator, that protection against extremes of heat and cold, 

 is a point of the very first importance ; and yet this is 

 the very point, which, in proportion to its impgrtance, has 

 been most overlooked. We have discarded,. and very wise- 

 ly, the straw hives of our ancestors ; but such hives, with 

 all their faults, were comparatively warm iil Winter, and 

 cool in Summer. We have undertaken to keep bees, where 

 the col-d of Winter, and the heal of Summer are alike in- 

 tense ; and where sudden and severe changes are often fatal 

 to the brood : and yet we blindly persist in expecting suc- 

 cess under circumstances in which any marked success is 

 well nigh impossible. 



That our country is eminently favorable to the production 

 of honey, cannot be' doubted. Many of our forests abound 

 with colonies which are not only able to protect themselves 

 against all their enemies, the dreaded bee-moth not excepted, 

 but which often amass prodigious quantities of honey. Nor 

 are such colonies found merely in new countries. They 

 exist frequently in the very neighborhood of cultivators 

 whose hives are weak and impoverished, and who impute 

 to a decay of the honey resources of the country, the inevit- 

 able consequences of their own irrational system of man- 

 agement. It will not be without profit, to consider briefly 

 under what circumstances these wild colonies flourish, and 

 how they are protected against sudden and extreme 

 changes of temperature. 



