68 MANAGEMENT OF HONEY BEES. 
ef atmosphere, destroy them in hundreds. 
In the clear cold mornings and evenings of | 
autumn, their eagerness for foraging entices 
them abroad early and late; when, alighting 
on the ground, many are chilled and quickly 
perish ; and should they escape the blight- 
ing atmosphere of the close of autumn, a 
bright sunshine in a winter day, when the’ 
ground perhaps is covered with snow, brings. 
them abroad in multitudes, and the half of 
them never return. From these causes, in- 
dependent of the numbers which fall a prey 
to enemies, a swarm which, in July amount- 
ed to fifteen or twenty thousand, will, by the 
following February or March, have dwin- 
dled to a mere handful. It is otherwise 
with the queen; going seldom abroad, she 
is little exposed to accidents. Her natural 
life is prolonged to several years, though the 
precise extent has not been accurately ascer- 
tained ; yet they have been known to live 
three or four years, 
