330 WINTERING BBE8. 



" I wished, says Mr. Quinby, " by keeping my bees warm 

 to save them as well as honey, and at the same lime, get rid 

 of the moisture usually collected in a hive. I have found 

 that a large family expelled it much better than small ones ; 

 and if all were put together in a close room, the animal heat 

 from a large number combined, would be an advantage to 

 the weak ones, at least, — this proved of some benefit. Yet 

 I found on the side of a glass hive, that large drops of wa- 

 ter would stand for weeks." 



" The following suggestion then came to my relief. If 

 this hive was bottom up, what would prevent all this vapor 

 as it arises from the bees from passing off? (It always risea 

 when warm, if permitted.) The hive was inverted ;* in a 

 few hours the glass was dry." 



" This was so perfectly simple, that I wondered I had not 

 thought of it before, and wondered still more that some one 

 of the many intelligent apiarians had never discovered it. I 

 immediately inverted every hive in the room^ and kept them 

 in this way till spring; when the combs were perfectly 

 bright, not a particle of mould to be seen, and was well satisfi- 

 ed with the result of my experiment. Although I was fearful 

 that more bees would leave the hives when inverted, than if 

 right side up, yet the result showed no difference. I had now 



tried both methods, and had some means of judging." 



****** 



" I have thus wintered them for the last ten years, and am 

 extramely doubtful if a better way can be found. For sev- 

 eral years I made use of a small bed-room in the house, 

 made perfectly dark, in which I put about 100 stocks. It 



* Tho?e using my hives, can leave off the spare honey-boards, when 

 they place them in such a winter depositary ; this will permit aH 

 dampness to escape, and will at the same time, prevent dead bees, and 

 other refuse, from falling among the combs, which cannot be avoided 

 when hives are turned up-side down. 



