114 PROTECTION. 



CHAPTER Vlir. 



Protection against extremes of Heat and Cold, sudden and severe 

 changes of Temperature, and Dampness in the Hives. 



I specially invite a careful perusal of this chapter, as the 

 subject, though of the very first importance in the manage- 

 ment of bees, is one to which but little attention has been 

 given by the majority of cultivators. 



In our climate of great and sudden extremes, many colo- 

 nies are annually injured or destroyed by undue exposure to 

 heat or cold. In Summer, thin hives are often exposed to 

 the direct heat of the sun, so that the combs melt, and the 

 bees are drowned in their own sweets. Even if they escape 

 utter ruin, they cannot work to advantage in the almost 

 sufibcating heat of their hives. 



But in those places where the Winters are long and 

 severe, it is much more difficult to protect the bees from the 

 cold than from the heat. Bees are not, as some suppose, in 

 a dormant, or torpid condition in Winter. The wasp, hornet, 

 and other insects which do not, like the honey-bee, live ia 

 families in the Winter, lay up no stores for cold weather, 

 and are so organized as to be able to endure in a torpid 

 state, a very low temperature ; so low that it would be cer- 

 tain death to a bee, which when frozen, is as surely killed 

 as a frozen man. 



As soon as the temperature of the hives falls too low for 

 their comfort, the bees gather thenoselves into a more com- 

 pact body, to preserve to the utmost, their animal heat ; and 

 if the cold becomes so great that this will not suffice, they 

 keep up an incessant, tremulous motion, accompanied by a 

 loud bumming noise ; in other words, they lake active exer- 



