196 Bees and Bee- Keeping. 



winter and guarding them ; for it is a fatal mistake on 

 the part of many people in towns to suppose that bees 

 simply hibernate the whole winter and never wake up. 

 On the contrary they are very wakeful, much more so 

 than the bee-master always wants, and in certain kinds 

 of weather will give him a good deal of trouble and 

 concern. In the occasional blinks of warmer sunny 

 weather we sometimes have in winter at mid-day, 

 certain of the bees will be apt to steal out, and to be- 

 come so intoxicated with the sweets of the ivy flowers, 

 that they will stay too long and get benumbed with 

 frost, and never manage to get back to the hive. I 

 have seen them just struggle to get on to the little 

 platform in front of the hive, and die there from frost. 



The bee-master must prevent this by dint of various 

 attentions. A small tube slipped into the hole of the 

 hive with honey and sugar is a good one, and a very 

 peculiar thing may be noted with regard to the intelli- 

 gence of bees (of some bees, at all events) in this 

 matter. As soon as their tube is empty, instead of 

 flying out in the mid-day " blink," they will employ 

 themselves in hauling this tube right out of the hive to 

 the little platform in front, so that their condition or 

 want cannot be overlooked by the bee-master. At 

 first I fancied this was due to intermeddlers, and made 

 many inquiries of those about the house whether the 

 bee's tubes had been touched, but met with decided 

 "noes" at every point. Mentioning this to the man 

 from whom I had got my " swarms," he said, " Tis 

 queer, ain't it, but that's what my bees alius do ; and, 

 would you believe it o' them mites o' things ? I ha' 

 seen 'em with my own eyes a pullin' of the tube out, 

 just like a row of sailors a pullin' of a boat down the 

 beach to the water — so many one side, so many t'other 



