TEMPERATURE. 
21 
plenty of honey around them. The bees on the outside of 
the cluster will change places with those further in, and in 
extremely cold weather the whole colony will resort to an agi- 
tating motion to generate heat. Visit a large apiary in a 
very cold calm morning, and the hum may be heard two or three 
rods ; in moderate weather they cannot be heard. This dis- 
comfort and increased activity of the bees seems to create a 
greater demand for food. As a matter of economy s«me pro- 
tection is necessary. When the combs are entire from top 
to bottom, with no holes in the centre of them to ad- 
mit of the passing of the bees from the outside to tho 
centre, a sudden cold spell will freeze a number of them be- 
tween the outside combs. Holes made through the centre of 
these combs in the fall would remedy the evil. In common 
hives a hole could be bored through them ; in movable comb 
hives the combs could be lifted out and holes cut in them. I 
said a populous hive of bees could endure a great amount of 
cold if kept dry inside. Bee-keepers have gone to their hives 
in a warm day, immediately succeeding a cold spell, and found 
water running down the inside of the hive, and standing in 
puddles on the bottom board, and have wondered where so 
much water came from, as their hives were well covered. Bees * 
are constantly perspiring, and the perspiration rises and set- 
tles on the sides and top of the hive and on the combs Turn 
a box hive bottom up after a night’s hard freezing, and the 
combs inside of the hive will be found covered with frost If 
the freezing should 'continue several weeks, the amount of ice 
would be considerable. In the winter of '55 and ’50, hard 
freezing continued two or three months, until, in many cases, 
where there was no upward ventilation, there was moisture 
congealed to the amount of from a pint to a quart. One warm 
day thawed it and it ran among the combs and bees, and the 
same evening there set iu a hard freeze, and many colonies 
of bees perished. It is estimated that one-half of the bees 
in the State of Ohio died that winter, although generally 
rich in honey. Hives that had holes in the top and empty 
boxes setover them, or were otherwise ventilated, fared much 
better. 
PREPARING TO WINTER. 
It is not good economy to attempt to winter bees not amply 
supplied with honey to last them until the flowers appear in 
