ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 193 



powers of the bees. Labor, activity, anxiety, are wearing to mortal 

 flesh. To live long-, one must live slowly. We wish our bees to have 

 the same degree of physical vigor in April which they possess in No- 

 vember. I would emphasize the adverb in the phrase 'cluster 

 closely,' in using it as an earmark of the condition desired. The 

 quietness sought should be a quietness to the eye, and not to the ear 

 alone. The right cluster is knit together, and the individual bees 

 thereof onl}!^ aroused to full consciousness by positive disturbance. 

 Bees in a loose cluster, or spread through the hive, often make little 

 sound when wearing themselves out by premature brood rearing 

 or by over feeding. How does temperature affect the desired 

 condition ? 



Most bee-keepers know that temperature below a certain point 

 causes activity among the bees on account of the necessity they feel 

 of keeping up the warmth of the cluster by exercise, in order to pre- 

 vent themselves sinking into such a degree of chilliness that they 

 shall no longer have the power to resuscitate themselves; and all 

 know that as the period of rest lengthens, the bees become more and 

 more susceptible to a high temperature, and are very likely to be 

 pushed by it into unseasonable activity. Again, the temperature 

 may be so low and so long continued that, notwithstanding their 

 efforts, they perish either of cold or starvation. 



Of course, the temperature that determines the welfare of a 

 colony is that within its own hive, so it becomes very important in 

 fixing the temperature to consider the strength of the colonies, and 

 size, warmth and ventilation of the hives. A temperature that would 

 enable a weak colony to winter safely would almost surely greatly 

 injure a strong colony in a hive of like size and condition, unless its 

 storeswere of good quality, and vice versa. Weak colonies should be 

 protected by contraction and a closer hive — the stronger given more 

 ventilation. A moist atmosphere conveys away animal heat much 

 more rapidly than a dry one, so that the best temperature in one cel- 

 lar might vary many degrees from that which would be best in 

 another. 



I have no doubt in my mind that, with stores which are excep- 

 tional, every normal colony would winter well in any ordinary bee- 

 cellar, where the temperature ranges from 32 to 50 degrees, Fahren- 

 heit, and that we err when we attempt to make successful wintering 

 turn upon anything aside from food; still, no doubt the temperature 

 may be made to assist the bees in contending with the distresses 

 arising from the unfit food. Warmth makes the discomfort of their 

 diarrhoetic disease less unbearable. In a low temperature, bees 

 afflicted with diarrhoea soon perish miserably. So, for bees thus 



