a 
an 
plist 
106 How to manage Bees in Winter. 
fo difeafed, that, when good weather returned, 
and they came abroad, very great numbers 
would have died within a day or two thereaf- 
ter ; and the hive in general would have been 
greatly reduced. It is evident, that their long 
confinement 
before putrifaction takes place, which will otherwife happen 
within two:days at moft, after they are frozen. Laft winter 
(1794-5) it was perhaps as cold here, at leaft for one week dur- 
ing the ftorm, as it is in Ruffia or Siberia, in fome moderate 
winters. Some of our bees were, at that period, as completely 
and irrecoverably frozen, during thofe eight days, as ever any 
hive could be in Ruffia; and all the heat that human power | 
could apply, however gradual or moderate, could not have re- 
“covered them to life again. 
As a proof of this, any perfon may make the following expe- | 
riment: Take a bee, during a hard froft, and lay it upon a 
ftone ; within two minutes it will be frozen, and to all appear- 
ance dead. Ifit ly on the ftone, for fix or eight hours, it will 
be as completely frozen, as if it had been eight days in the cold-. 
eft place in the world. Yet, by warming it in a warm bed, for 
half an hour, it may be brought to lite again; whereas, if it be 
allowed to ly for eight days upon the fame ftone, (during which 
time it would be as completely frozen, as if it had been eight 
days in Ruffia) neither the heat of a bed, nor any other degree 
of heat whatever, will ever be able to recover it. On the 
whole, I am of opinion, that all poffible care fhould be taken to 
preferve bees from fevere cold in every corner cf the world ; 
and I doubt much, if ever there was a fingle hive, that was once 
completely frozen for twenty days, that, even in Ruffia itfelf, or 
any other part of the globe, was ever recovered to life again. 
