92 miner's AMERICAN 



in regard to the quantity of water taken on very windy 

 days, and also on wet, drizzly days, when the bees could 

 not go to the fields. During such days as the winds 

 were so high, that the bees could not safely go abroad — 

 and we had a few such — the bees crowded around, and 

 into the water pan, in three-fold the number they did in 

 ordinary mild, pleasant weather. My apiary had recently 

 been removed to a high and exposed situation, where the 

 winds had a fair sweep ; and on one or two days during 

 the month of April, the winds blew so hard, that the 

 hair on a man's head, almost, I think I may say, re- 

 quired to be held on. I had erected a board fence on 

 the most exposed sides of my hives, to be let down, 

 when the high spring winds had subsided ; and the 

 water-pan being within this enclosure, the bees could 

 approach that without feeling the effects of the blast that 

 swept past them without the yard. 



It was on the occasion of the prevalence of such high 

 winds, as before stated, that the bees finding it impossi- 

 ble to go forth to the fields, without being in danger of 

 being dashed to the ground, that they turned their atten- 

 tion to the use of watei', to an extent far beyond what 

 they were ordinarily accustomed to use. 



THE USE THAT BEES MAKE OP WATER. 



Here is a question to be solved, viz : — what use did 

 the bees make of this large quantity of water on those 

 windy days ? One would suppose, that when the gene- 

 ral labors of the bees were suspended, that no water at 

 all would be required. 



