WINTERING BEES. 
337 
The Apiarian, should, thorefore, late in the Fall, cut, 
with a pen-knife, a hole, an inch in diameter, in the centre 
of each comb, about one-third from the top.* 
Great care should be taken to shelter hives from the 
piercing winds, which in Winter so powerfully exhaust 
the animal heat of the bees ; for, like human beings, if 
sheltered from the wind, they will endure a low tem- 
perature far better than a continuous current of very 
much warmer air.f 
In some parts of the West, where bees suffer much 
from cold winds, their hives are protected, in Winter, by 
sheaves of straw, fastened so as to defend them from both 
cold and wet. With a little ingenuity, fanners might 
easily turn their waste straw to a valuable account in 
sheltering their bees. 
If the colonies are wintered in the open air, the 
entrance to their hives must be large enough to allow 
the bees to fly at pleasure. Many, it is true, will be lost, 
but a large part of these are diseased ; and, even if they 
were not, it is better to lose some healthy bees than to 
incur the risk of losing, or greatly injuring, a whole 
* If these holes ore mode beforo they feel the need of them, thoy will frequently 
closo them. Mr. Win. W. Cnry (p. 204) has Invented a process of making these 
holos without removing the combs. lie makes a hole in the side of tho hire, 
which, when not In uso, is covered with a button or plug (PL V., Fig. 16), through 
which ho slowly worms an instrument In tho shape of a .flour or hutter-toster 
(sharpened at the end), until it strikes tho opposite side of the hive. By this 
process of making the Winter passages, only a very few bees aro hurt. As tho 
queen always runs away from danger, sho is not liablo to be hurt An application 
for a patent on tills dovice is now ponding. If tho patent Issues, the right to use it 
will be free to oil owning tho right to uso the movablo-comb hivo. 
I strongly advise overy one using my hives to make Winter passages for their 
bees. As tho frames touch neither tho top, bottom, nor sides of tho hives, tile bees 
have such extraordinary facilities for intercommunication, that they cannot be 
depended on to leave any holes in their combs. 
t The Inter of 1855-6 will long bo reinembored, not only for the uncommon 
degree and duration of Its cold, but for the tremendous winds, which, often for 
dej s together, swept iiko a Polar tornndo over the land. Apiaries standby in 
nnpueod situations wero, in many instances, nearly ruined. 
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