166 BEEKEEPING 



In the report of their experiments with 

 wintering bees, Demuth and Phillips 

 compare a colony with a furnace and the 

 illustration is so good that I will not at- 

 tempt to improve on their words but will 

 quote it just as it is given. They say: 

 "Let us assume that we have a furnace for 

 heating a building so constructed that 

 ashes may be removed only when the tem- 

 perature of the outside air is warm. If 

 the house has thin walls and many open- 

 ings, the furnace can not maintain a high 

 temperature in extreme cold weather, the 

 amount of fuel is increased, the ashes ac- 

 cumulate rapidly and clog the furnace, and 

 in a desperate effort to raise the house 

 temperature we would probably burn out 

 the furnace. On the other hand, if the 

 house is well built and heavily insulated, 

 a low fire will suffice, and as a result 

 there will be a minimum amount of ashes. 

 The better the fuel, the less the amount of 

 ashes in either case. 



"It is permissible to compare a colony 



