WINTERING BEES. 305 



Bmoth.ering, or freezing. Indeed, bees could haivily spend 

 the winter in a more desirable situation. In a few hours 

 after the snow has covered them, it is melted for a space 

 of four inches on all sides of the hive, and sufficient air 

 circulates through it, for all their necessities. 



SHADE. 



It has been strongly urged to keep all hives out of 

 the sun, without regard to the strength of the colony, 

 because an occasional warm day allures the bees out- 

 side, when they get on the snow and perish. This is a 

 loss, to be sure, but there is a possibility of inducing a 

 still greater one by endeavoring to avoid the lesser. I 

 have already said, that the second rate or poor stocks 

 may occasionally starve with plenty of stores in the hive, 

 on account of frosty combs. 



If the hive is kept from the sun, in the cold, the periods 

 of temperate weather may not occur as often as the bees 

 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 enough sunny days for this purpose, 

 but when such a one occurs, stocks of this class should 

 be taken to a warm room, once in eight or ten days, for 

 a few hours at a time, to give them an opportunity to get 

 at the honey. 



LOST ON THE SNOW. 



As for bees being lost on the snow when flying out, 

 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 them chilled and lost on the ground by 

 hundreds, when a casual observer would not have noticed 



