How to manage Bees in Winter. 103 
of their hive to eafe nature, and return again, 
when the weather forbids their going abroad. 
It is faid by many writers on this fubjed, - 
that a fine winter is dangerous to the bees, and 
_ that many more of them die in a mild winter 
than inacold one. They argue, that as the 
appetite of the bees increafes by their going 
often out, they confume their provifions, and 
die of famine ; whereas, when long confined 
in their hives, they hardly eat any. * I ac- 
knowledge 
* Some Authors, particularly Mr Srerpaen Wuirz, alledge, 
that fevere cold is rather falutary for bees, as it keeps them in 
atorpid ftate, in confequence of which they eat none at all. 
I acknowlege, that they eat much lefs in cold weather than in 
warm, becaufe they have little or no exercife, and their appe- 
tite increafes or decreafes in proportion to the exercife they take. 
An November, December, and January, bees eat very little food, 
as any perfon may be convinced, by weighing their hivesin the be- 
gining and the end of thefe months, when he will find very little 
difference in point of weight. But if he will weigh a hive in 
the beginning of March, and weigh it again at the end of it, he 
will find a confiderable decreafe ; for the bees, having now much 
exercife, eat more honey during that month, than during all the 
three above mentioned cold months; and [ am perfuaded, that 
they devour three times as much in May asin March, owing 
to the fame caufe operating in an increafing proportion. But 
that the bees eat none at a//in cold weather is a great miftake, 
and may eafily be refuted: For let any perfon, in winter, put a 
number of bees into a hive that has nothing but empty combs, 
and 
