66 WINTERING BEES. 
of the sun by day, and chilled and benumbed by the severe frost of night. 
That bees will sometimes survive the winter, when properly buried, 
and consume but a small amount of honey, I will not deny; but in 
nine cases out of ten it will eventually prove their ruin, as the combs 
are very liable to mould, and in that case they are unfit for use. The 
same difficulty is liable to attend them when kept in cellars, unless it 
be a very dry cellar, and the hives well ventilated. If the apiary be 
an out-door one, the hives may be removed into an out-building, if it be 
a dry, unoccupied one; care, however, should be taken in supplying them 
with a suitable degree of ventilation, and protecting them against the 
attacks of mice. The common square hive may be ventilated in the 
following manner during winter, and while it secures the bees against 
vermin and all intruders, it confines them in the hive:—Take four 
strips of board, (hard wood is best) of such length as will form a hol- 
low square or frame, just the size of the hive at the bottom. These 
pieces may be from one to one and ahalf inches wide, and about the 
same thickness. With a common hand-saw, saw across the pieces from 
the upper side down to within one-fourth of an inch of the lower 
side. The nearer together the slats are cut, the better, as it gives 
more ventilation. Place them under the edges of the hives, with the 
sawed side up. Hives ventilated in this manner, whether in a build- 
ing or out, should be well enveloped in hay, straw, or something 
(some apiarians have adopted the plan of setting boxes over their 
hives) to entirely exclude the light, and keep the bees in as even tem- 
perature as possible. A box a few inches larger than the hives 
set over them answers a very good purpose, as they will remain 
much more quiet, and consume far less honey than when left ex- 
posed to all the various changes of a northern climate. If one or 
two holes be made in the top of the hive with a half-inch or three- 
quarter auger, and a small box set over it, it will be beneficial 
in affording 4 means for the vapor to escape, that is produced 
by the breath of the bees, especially if the colony be a populous one, 
as large colonies require a much greater amount of ventilation than 
a small one, on the same principle that mankind do. If we confine 
ten persons in a room say twelve feet square, it is plain to every one 
that they would require hut one-tenth as much ventilation as one 
