OUT-DOOR SIIKLTKRING. 



339 



better to lose some healthy bees than to incur the risk of 

 losing, or greatly injuring, a whole colony by the excite- 

 ment created by confining them when the weather is warm 

 enough to entice them abroad. 



If the sun is warm and the ground covered with new- 

 fallen snow, the light may so blind the bees, that they will 

 fall into this fleecy snow, and quickly perish. E\en at such 

 times, it is hardly advisable to confine them to their hives. 

 A neighbor of ours killed four colonies, all he had, by 



rig. 105. 



TWO-STORY DOUBLE-WALLED LAHGSTROTH HrVB, OLD STYLE. 



closing the entrances with wire-cloth for Winter. We had 

 advised him to remove it, but he did not do so because 

 some one had told him that his bees would get lost in the 



snow. 



638. Great injury is often done by disturbing a colony 

 of bees when the weather is so cold that they cannot fly. 

 Many that are tempted to leave the cluster, perish before 

 they can regain it, and every disturbance, by rousing them 

 to needless activity, causes an increased consumption of 

 food. On the other hand, it is of the utmost importance 



