364 SPRING bWtNDLI»j(j. 



have a colony whose population is so much reduced that it 

 cannot warm, to the degree needed for breeding, more than 

 500 cubic inches of space. If we leave the brood-chamber 

 without contraction, as its surface, in a 10-frame Langstroth 

 hive, will be about 270 square inches, the cubic space 

 heated will have about two inches in thickness at the top, 

 since heat always rises. If, on the contrary, we have 

 reduced the number of frames to three, the depth of the 

 space warmed at the top will amount to more than three 

 times as much, or to more than six inches. Thus, the 

 bees will not only be more healthy, but the laying of the 

 queen, not being delayed by the cold, and the number of 

 the bees increasing faster, they will be able to repay the 

 bee-keeper for the care bestowed, instead of dwindling, or 

 remaining worthless for the Spring crop. 



3d. The heat should be concentrated in the brood apart- 

 ment, by all means, and not allowed to escape above. The 

 entrance also must remain reduced. 



4tJi. The bees should be provided with sufficient stores 

 of honey, pollen, and water. 



662. Apiarists in general, do not attach enough import- 

 ance to the necessity of furnishing water (271) to bees in 

 cold Springs, in order that they may stay at home in quiet. 

 Although Berlepsch laid too much stress on the question of 

 water, the lack of which he even said was the cause of dys- 

 entery, yet he was right in calling our attention to the need 

 of it for breeding : 



" The Creator has given the bee an instinct to store up honey 

 and pollen, which are not always to be procured, but not water, 

 which is always accessible in her native regions. In Northern 

 latitudes, when confined to the hive, often for months together, 

 they can obtain the water they need only from the watery parti- 

 cles contained in the honey, the perspiration which condenses 

 on the colder parts of the hive, or the humidity of the air which 

 enters their hives. 



" In March and April, the rapidly-increasing amount of brood 



