WINTERING BEES. 
341 
the hive, and carries off all the moisture as fast as 
generated. 
TEMPERATURE OF ROOM. 
The temperature of such a room will vary accord- 
ing to the number and strength of the stocks put in ; 
100 or more would be very sure to keep it above the 
freezing point at all times. Putting a very few into 
such a room, and depending on the bees to make it 
warm enough, would be of doubtful utility. If these 
means will not keep the proper temperature, proba- 
bly some other method would be better. All full - 
stocks would do well enough, as they would almost 
any way. Yet I shall recommend housing them 
whenever practicable. If the number of stocks is 
few, let the room be proportionably small.* It is the 
smallest families that are most trouble : if they are too 
cold, it may be known by bees leaving the hive in 
cold weather, and spots of excrement on the combs ; 
they should then have some additional protection f 
close part or all of the holes in the top, cover the open 
bottom partially or wholly, and confine to the hive as 
much as possible the animal heat ; when these means 
fail, it may be necessary to take them to a warm room, 
during the coldest weather. 
* As an additional proof that this method of inverting hives in the 
house for winter is valuable, I would say that Mr. Miner, author of 
the American Bee-Keeper’s Manual, seems fully to appreciate it. In 
the fall of 1850, I communicated to him this method ; giving my rea- 
sons for preferring it to the cold method recommended in his Manual. 
The trial of one winter, it appears, satisfied him of its superiority, sc 
much so that within a year from that time he published an essay re- 
commending it ; but advised confining the bees with muslin, &c. 
