32 HiNDY BOOK OF BEES. 



going out and iu to ascend and descend witli sure and 

 speedy steps. 



In the spring months bees are anxious to hatch as many 

 young hees as possible, and therefore spread themselves 

 out as widely as they can. In this way they cover more 

 eggs. Sometimes the weather suddenly becomes cold, 

 causing the bees to have some fears about the brood 

 being cliUled. How do the bees then act to protect 

 the brood — or, in other words, to keep up the warmth 

 of the hive? In the most orderly manner they gather 

 themselves into a cluster at the door of the hive, and 

 thus prevent the cold from going in ; or, as our more 

 accurate scientific friends would say, keep the heat in. 

 The wisdom of closing their doors in cold weather during 

 the breeding season, and the manner in which the bees 

 do it, ever command the admiration of the thoughtful 

 observant bee-master. Often is the door so closely 

 wedged up — so nicely corked — by these clusters, that 

 there is just room left for one bee to go out and in. On 

 the return of warm weather these protecting " sandbags " 

 are removed. 



The story of the dead snail in a bee-hive is worth men- 

 tioning. Snails are very fond of honey, and often take 

 lodgings for months, in the winter, inside a bee -hive. 

 They eat both honey and wax. Bees attack and drive 

 out of their hives every enemy but snails and worms. 

 These they will not touch. It happened that a snaU 

 died in one. It was more unpleasant to the bees after 

 death than before, but they could not cast it out. Their 

 ingenuity was set to work, resulting in a cofl&n of wax 

 being built around the snail. If my memory serves me 

 well, an instance of this happened in one of my father's 

 hives when I was young — some fifty years ago. 



Once we put a queen nearly dead on the flight-board of 



