236 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL. 
on till the return of breeding-time in March. But 
to ensure so protracted an existence it is necessary 
that they should be subjected to absolutely no exer- 
tions; whereas, when, with all our best efforts to 
avoid it, the temperature now and then does fall, 
much labour to the bees ig entailed in the process 
of keeping up a suflicient heat. There should be 
an ample youthful progeny in the hive to undergo 
this toil; otherwise, even if the elder bees did manage 
to live on till laying recommenced, they would hardly 
sustain the further labours of hatching and rearing 
the brood, and the hive would be doomed to speedy 
extinction. 
It follows from the cardinal fact above alluded to 
respecting the consumption of stores, that the larger 
the colony, the less will require to be consumed by 
each individual bee. And the less cach bee consumes, 
the less of a variety of evils ensuc. ‘There is less of 
the activity which fecding begets, and hence less of the 
consequent shortening of life; while the very presence 
of the large population, by itself increasing the tem- 
perature, renders the need for this activity still less. 
There is less excretion in the hive, and at the same 
time less fear of dysentery from its enforced omis- 
sion; and there is less exuding of moisture from 
the bodies of the insects, and less carbonic acid to 
vitiate their atmosphere. 
The closest connection exists between these con- 
siderations and that of the tempcrature maintained. 
The higher and more equable the temperature, the 
less will be the requisition for food or for exertions ; 
whilst if the hive is allowed to become too cool, 
