OF MANAGING BEES. 33 



ia June, when the weather is cold and chilly, may find its 

 way into the lower part of the hive ftid destroy the chrysalides, 

 and swarming be greatly retarded, if not entirely prevented. 

 If larvae are destroyed by a chill, or otherwise, the bees dis- 

 cover their fate, and clear the hive of the nuisance immediate- 

 ly. But not so with the chrysalides. They are confined in 

 their cells by being sealed up, and are supposed by the bees 

 to be in a state of repose, perfectly secluded from the obser- 

 vation of any of them, all waiting for their final transforma- 

 tion to the perfect fly ; and their true condition is unknown 

 to any of the bees until, in many instances, a great propor- 

 tion of the breeding-cells are found filled up with dead putre- 

 fied carcasses, already changed to corruption, which renders 

 every attempt to clean the hive on the part of th^lsees per- 

 fectly fruitless ; and is frequently the cause of so much de- 

 rangement in their whole community, that the queen is com- 

 pelled to enter the chamber for a more comfortable retreat 

 to increase her stock, or the bees are driven to desperation, 

 and gradually pine away and perish by the moths. But, on 

 the other hand, the air does not enter through the apertures 

 into the drawers in sufficient quantities in very hot weather 

 to facilitate the labors of the bees with the ventilator and bot- 

 tom board both closed ; hence the apiarian should close the 

 ventilators to all his hives in the spring, before the moths 

 begin to fly, and keep his bottom boards closed up during 

 very chilly turns of weather until the breeding season is over, 

 which usually lasts, in Vermont, from March to October. 

 Every bee-master should clean his bo^jjhn boards and lower 

 edges of the hive, so that no web can be formed there, as 

 often as once or twice a week, until the hive is so replenished 

 with bees as to be able to guard themselves from the attack 

 of their enemies. 



