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 ; 
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 tall of 1850, I communicated to him this method ; giving my rear 
sons for preferring it to the cold method recommended in his Manual. 
The trial of one winter, it appears, satisfied him of its superiority, so 
much so that within a year from that time he published an essay re- 
commending it | but advised confining the bees with muslin, &c. 
