352 WINTEKING. 



then with a thick layer of straw, and another, of earth. 

 Wooden pipes are placed at the bottom (fig. 114), and 

 one in the shape of a chimney, at the top, for an air-draft. 

 The requisites are the same as in cellar wintering, an equal 

 temperature, sufficient ventilation, a fairly dry atmosphere, 

 and quiet. 



658. We must warn novices against the wintering of 

 bees in any repository in which the temperature descends 

 below the freezing point. In such places the bees consume 

 a great deal of honey, and they soon become restless, for 

 want of a flight. Their Summer stand even without shelter, 

 is far safer than any such place, because they can at least 

 take advantage of any warm Winter day to void their ex- 

 crements. These facts are demonstrated beyond a doubt. 



Speing Dwindlinq. 



659. When the conditions necessary to the successful 

 wintering of bees are not complied with, and they have 

 suffered from diarrhea (784), many colonies may be lost 

 by Spring dwindling, especially if the Spring is cold and 

 backward. Even colonies, which appeared to have gone 

 through the Winter strong in numbers, may slowly lose 

 bee after bee till the queen alone remains in the hive. This 

 is sometimes mistaken for desertion (407), as will be seen 

 in the following paragraph, which we quote from The 

 London Quarterly Review, and in which the author attrib- 

 utes to lack of loyalty in the bees, that which evidently 

 must have been due only to Spring dwindling : 



"Bees, like men, have their dliTerent dispositions, so that even 

 their loyalty will sometimes fail them. An instance not long 

 ago came to our knowledge, which probably few bee-keepers 

 will credit. It is that of a hive which, having early exhausted 

 its store, was found, on being examined one morning, to he 



