draft, and so that the field mice cannot enter while the bees are 
quiet and off guard. 
A beginner in bee-keeping is sometimes horrified to find a pile of 
dead bees on the ground near the entrance to a hive; he feels that all 
his bees in that hive have died, and when Spring arrives is agreeably 
surprised to find that that particular hive is among the strongest in 
the apiary. A weak colony of bees does not clean the hive as care- 
fully as a strong colony does, and therefore fails to remove the dead, 
which remain in the hive until the bee-keeper comes to the rescue and 
cleans the hive in the Spring. 
Should an apiary be in an exposed position, a windbreak is neces- 
sary. On a farm the easiest and cheapest windbreak is corn-fodder 
or stalks tied together in bundles as they are before they are stacked 
together in shocks in the fields. These are laid against the rough sup- 
port and tied securely. The only drawback to this kind of windbreak 
is that it attracts rats and mice. A rough board or closely picketed 
fence will do; but the ideal plan is to place the bees where there is a 
natural windbreak, such as a hedge, a stone wall, woods or a hill. 
When Spring comes, a very important thing to remember is not 
to remove the packing too soon, as there are many cool nights in April 
and early May, and rearing the young now is very important, too, for 
the eggs laid in March are the bees that will gather nectar from the 
fruit bloom, and those laid in April, will prove the working force 
of late May and June, when the clover is in bloom. Any extra 
honey left from Winter is put to use as it is almost literally turned 
into bees. 
When a hive comes through the Winter in a weak state, either 
short of honey or with few bees, a condition called Spring dwindling 
is likely to occur. It is called this when the old bees die off faster than 
the young bees can replace them. Even if the hive is not reduced to 
this state but will recover in time, it means that there will be no suiplus 
honey stored by this colony. 
A beginner in bee-keeping invariably wants to increase the number 
of his hives, even when he knows it is at the expense of his honey crop. 
A veteran bee-keeper, on the other hand, if he finds any colonies that 
are weak or that are not producing the honey crop they should, will 
unite* them to another hive and out of two or three indifferent hives 
make one strong vigorous colony. 
Strong colonies are worth more than a number of weak ones be- 
cause — 
1. They store up surplus honey ; 
2. They resist disease better; 
3. They winter better. 
*Read chapter on Uniting Bees in "A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture." 
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