n6 BEES AND THE WEATHER 



tions on the weather as related to bees. By 

 weighing a hive each day over the whole period 

 from April to August — during which honey is 

 ordinarily gathered — and tabulating the gains or 

 losses against the various features of the weather 

 as indicated by the barometer, thermometer, 

 hygrometer, rain gauge and wind vane, I was able 

 to form a very fair estimate of the conditions 

 necessary to enable bees to thrive and store 

 honey in large quantities. For the sake of com- 

 parison I weighed two colonies, one of which was 

 a very strong one, the other rather weakly. The 

 results were extremely interesting. 



As compared with the barometer, the bees' 

 efforts seemed to rise and fall with it, for, although 

 the readings of this instrument were extremely 

 high over the whole period and the weather 

 correspondingly settled and fine, when I divided 

 the readings into three parts, high, medium, and 

 low, I found an exact proportion of gain had been 

 made by the bees ; that is to say, on the days of 

 medium pressure, the bees gained on the average 

 twice as much as those on low pressure, while 

 again, when the barometer stood high, the gains 

 were double those when it was of only medium 

 height. 



With the matter of temperature, when the 

 mean maximum was over 75 degrees F., the 

 gains were very much greater than when it was 

 between 66 degrees and 75 degrees. These gains 



