246 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE. 



huge warm and dry nests, wherein they sleep till the warm days of 

 spring awake them. 



Are not these, collectively, analogous of the requirements of 

 hees, and has not Nature taught our bees how to act ? Has she not 

 implanted in them an instinctive knowledge how to overcome the 

 obstacles of winter in the various climatic zones of the earth ? 

 Nevertheless, they have an instinct that will never leave them — 

 that of storing. In those parts of the State where "never-ending 

 spring abides," they store with all the energy and prudence as in 

 the northern world, and that trait of storing will never forsake 

 them. If left to their own instinct they will store food sufficient 

 to overcome almost any winter. But the bee-keeper, with that sel- 

 fish greed for gain, too often extracts the last pound of honey, in the 

 hope that his bees will be able to weather the winter's storms. By 

 so acting, spring will show him that he has "killed the hen that laid 

 the golden egg." I do not mean to say that it is always the bee- 

 keeper's fault that the bees die. Sometimes our summers and 

 autumns are cruel and unkind to our bees, withholding the honey 

 flow, and they die from natural want. 



Can you not gather from what I have already said, what are 

 the essentials necessary for wintering bees; a sufficiency of food, 

 perfectly dry quarters, the heat obtained by density of clustering, 

 fresh air and ventilation ; for in all the cases mentioned air is to be 

 noted as one of the constituents. 



A sufficiency of food ; but what kind of food, and what quan- 

 tity ? The quantity of food necessary for a strong colony to pull 

 through winter, and to come out in spring healthy and vigorous, is 

 about 25 lb. This will depend on the length of the winter and its 

 severity. It is far better to leave a pound too much than an ounce 

 too little. The winter's supply should be of capped comb, and so 

 distributed that the two outer combs on either side should have 

 about equal quantities ■ and where the winters are most severe, pop- 

 holes should be made through the combs to save the bees the danger 

 of coming in contact with the cold air surrounding the inner side 

 of the walls of the hive. 



The kind of food. "What is good for the goose is good for the 

 gander." What is good for the babe is good for the parent; but 

 not all that is good for the parent is good for the babe. No mother 

 would fill the stomach of a week-old babe with corned beef, pickled 

 onions, and boiled cabbage; but where is the adult who would not 

 live and thrive on baby food ? Indeed in cases of physical decay, 

 caused by starvation or disease, human sufferers have to return 



