■WINTERING BEES. 849 



weather might not occur as often, as the bees would 

 exhaust the honey within their circle or cluster. But 

 on the contrary, when the sun can strike the hive, it 

 warms up the bees, and melts the frost more frequently. 

 The bees may then go among their stores and obtain 

 a supply, generally, as often as needed. We seldom 

 have a winter without sunny days enough for this 

 purpose; but should such an one occur, stocks of this 

 class should be brought into a warm room, once in four 

 or five days, for a few hours at a time, to give them a 

 chance to get at the honey. Stocks much below sec- 

 ond-rate cannot be wintered successfully in this cli- 

 mate ; the only place for them is the warm room. I 

 have known bees thoroughly covered in a snow-drift, 

 and their owner was at considerable trouble to shovel 

 the snow away, fearing it would smother them. This 

 is unnecessary, when protected from the niipe and ven- 

 tilated as just directed ; a snow-bank is about as coii\- 

 fortable a place as they can have, except in the hpusQ. 

 When examined a short time after being so covered, 

 the snow for a space of about four inches on every 

 side of the hive is found melted, and none but quite 

 poor stocks would be likely to suffer with this protec- 

 tion. A little snow around the bottom, without a vent 

 in the side of the hive, might smother them. 



EFFECTS OF SNOW CONSIDERED. 



As for bees getting on the snow, I apprehend that 

 not many more are lost there, than on the frozen earth ; 

 that is, in the same kind of weather. I have seen then! 

 chilled, and lost on the ground by hundreds, when a 



