THE beekeepers' DIRECTORY. 73 



the loss of heat which nature has taught them is life ; and had 

 beekeepers been as wise as the physiologist who said "heat is 

 life," we should have saved thousands upon thousands of colo- 

 nies lost in wintering, largely through the follies of upward ven- 

 tilation. It has been a dear lesson indeed Jhat has taught us 

 that our theories of absorbents have been all wrong. We now 

 know, if we can retain the heat, there is no difficulty about get- 

 ting out the moisture. The heat expels it as heat expels moist- 

 ure from a kiln of lumber even when sealed up as tight as it can 

 be made, and it is heat that causes evaporation of moisture and 

 dryness everywhere. 



Where the temperature about the hives never goes below 40° or 

 54°, as in cellar wintering, we have a different state of things than 

 exists in out-door wintering. Even with very free bottom ven- 

 tilation if the hive is tight on top the bees may get too warm and 

 become restless. Hence it will be seen that bees must ,be ven- 

 tilated to suit their surroundings, the leading object being always 

 to keep them in winter confinement in as torpid a state as pos- 

 sible ; for we have learned that activity means waste of tissue, ex- 

 cessive consumption of food, loss of vitality and premature death. 

 Spring dwindling can be traced to no other source. The bees 

 are worn out with activity, with constant struggles, with adverse 

 conditions of their life. • Successful wintering means conservation 

 of vitality which is best accomplished through what is known as 



Hibernation. ' 



This state which bees begin to enter, upon the approach of 

 frosty nights in the fall^ is one which cannot ehcit too close atten- 

 tion by beekeepers ; for upon it hinge the greatest successes of the 

 future. It is simply a conservative state that the bee enters, en- 

 abling us to bring the bee of the fall to the bee of the spring with 

 ^U of its vitality and working capacity intact, and unchanged by 

 ithe intervening time. A bee's Ufe is only too short but its length 

 is measured by its activity ; hence, to span the long winter 

 months, it must have rest from its labors. Nature has provided 

 this rest in what we shall henceforth call hibernation. It is not of 

 course the profound hibernation of many other insects, nor does 

 anyone claim that. The bee becomes torpid, lethargic and re- 

 spires imperceptibly. There is considerable reduction of temper- 

 ature of the cluster that acisting in that state of activity to the 

 lowest point consistent with vital action,— a slight respiration and 



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