OF MANAGING BEES. 69 



CHAPTER XII. 



ON WINTERING BEES. 



Turn ever the drawers so as to prevent the entrance of 

 the bees, or their breath, in September or fore part of Octo- 

 ber. When cold weather oommenoes, suspend the bottoni 

 board half an ;nch, and open the ventilator. 



• REMARKS. 



The w^atery substance which is caused by the breath and 

 other exhalations of the bees, and collects in the drawers in 

 cold weather, should be kept out of them ; because frost 

 forms in them, and runs down through the apertures on to 

 the bees as often as it melts, and makes the bees damp, and 

 the comb mould; besides, this vapor penetrates and fills the 

 timber, (drawers and chamber,) and causes a disagreeable 

 stench in and about the hive the whole of the following sea- 

 son, and is the cause of introducing the little ants into the 

 chamber. 



A great improvement on the usual way is found in win- 

 tering bees over a box two or three inches deep, made to fit 

 the bottom of the hive, with a space an inch or two wide on 

 one of its sides, covered with wire screen, so as to prevent 

 the escape of any of the bees from the hive when the mouth 

 is stopped, and a bit of wire screen confined over the venti- 

 lator, which should always be kept open in the winter : at 

 the same time, the box receives all the filth of the bees dur- 

 ing the winter, and is removed in the spring, leaving the apiary 



