WINTERING. 
519 
when the surrounding air stands at about 40°, or a 
little more, which is, consequently, the most favourable 
for wintering; and could it be preserved without 
variation, as it practically may be by the plan of 
‘‘cellaring” (adopted largely in America, but here little 
used, because our climate is relatively so mild that 
bees may be quite successfully wintered on their 
summer stands), the bees would come through to the 
spring, not only in good order, but, for the purposes 
of the colony, young, with life before them. 
The lives of bees vary much in duration according 
to the season of the year, for their age is not to be 
reckoned by number of days so much as amount of 
service and the sum of the energy they have been 
called upon to exert. In summer, when everything 
prompts to the highest activity, the store of vitality 
— the birth heritage of every bee, and apparently 
a uniform and constant quantity — is quickly worn out, 
and at six weeks, or at most two months, decrepitude 
or death supervenes. But during the winter, if con- 
ditions are favourable, the busy throng gives place to 
the quiescent cluster, yielding usually but the slightest 
evidence of movement. In this restful state bee life 
is paid out slowly, and, at five or six months, those 
inhabitants of the hive that were hatched so late as 
to have no demand for honey-gathering made upon 
them, are still possessed of so much of their initial 
vigour that they can labour for the colony yet a 
month or two when spring returns. Such bees, and 
such only, can be said to have been successfully 
wintered. 
The conditions regulating the amount of activity of 
