346 
WINTERING BEES. 
dead — their temperature must he kept considerably above 
the freezing point , and to do this, food is required. Now 
if the bees are governed by the same laws, and cold 
air carries off more heat than warm, and their source 
of renewing it is in the consumption of honey in pro- 
portion to the degree of cold, common sense would 
say, keep them warm as possible. As a certain de- 
gree of heat is necessary in all stocks, it may take 
about such a quantity of honey to produce it, and 
this may explain why a small family requires about 
the same amount of food as others that are very large. 
THE NEXT BEST PLACE FOR WINTERING BEES. 
A dry, warm cellar is the next best place for winter- 
ing them ; the apiarian having one perfectly dark, 
with room to spare, will find it a very good place, in 
the absence of a room above ground. If a large 
number was put in, some means of ventilation should 
be contrived for warm turns of weather. I know an 
apiarian, who by my suggestion has wintered from 
sixty to eighty stocks in this way, for the last six 
years, with perfect success, not having lost one. 
Another has wintered thirty with equal safety. 
As for burying them in the earth, I have not the 
least doubt, if a dry place should be selected, the hive 
inverted, and surrounded with hay, straw, or some 
substance to absorb the moisture, and protected from 
the rain, at the top of the covering, that perfect suc- 
cess would attend the experiment. But this is only 
theory ; when I tried the experiment of burying, and 
had the combs mould, the hives were right side up. 
