330 INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF SNOW. 



that the mere mention of it is sufficient. Few will try it a 

 second time, and they who have tried it the first, will have 

 to repent of the total loss of their hives. 



Snow is a great cause of the mortality of bees, but it is 

 so easily avoided that he who allows one of his bees to 

 perish in the snow deserves to lose the whole of his hives. 

 The snow is no sooner on the ground, than the bees, 

 allured by the great reflection of light, issue out of the hive 

 the first day of sunshine, and falling on the snow, are im- 

 mediately benumbed to death. In order to obviate this evil, 

 our tin entrances will be found of the most essential benefit ; 

 let the two perforated sliders be let down, even on the 

 appearance of snow, nor should they be removed until the 

 snow be entirely dissolved. A sufficiency of air will be 

 admitted through the perforations of the sliders to insure 

 the health of the bees, even should their confinement endure 

 for a month. 



The snow should never be allowed to remain on a hive, 

 even although it may have a covering supposed to be im- 

 pervious to all the influence of the weather. The gradual 

 melting of it will occasion a certain degree of humidity, 

 which cannot fail more or less to penetrate into the hive ; 

 which, if it be of two or three years' standing, will by the 

 increased humidity become so rotten, as to be totally unfit 

 for the habitation of the bees. 



There is one cause of the decline of a hive, which is 

 difficult to discover, and still more difficult to remedy, and 

 that is the death of the queen. This event takes place in 

 general so secretly, and so secluded from all observation, 

 that the most skilful apiarian frequently finds his hive 

 depopulated, before he has the slightest suspicion of any 

 defect existing in it. In the spring and summer, there are 

 certain criteria by which the loss of a queen may be ascer- 

 tained, but in winter when the bees are in a state of 

 inactivity, and no means present themselves of thoroughly 



