WINTERING BEES. 
347 
sheltered from piercing winds , they have all the condi- 
tions essential to wintering successfully in the open air. 
Great injury is often done hy disturbing a colony of 
bees when the weather is so cold that they cannot fly 
Many which are tempted to leave the cluster, perish 
before they can regain it, and every disturbance, by 
rousing them to needless activity, causes an increased 
consumption of lood. About once in six weeks, however, 
it will be advisable to clean the bottom-boards of hives 
wintered in the open air, of dead bees, and other refuse. 
Where permanent bottom-boards are used, this may be 
done with a scraper (Plate XI., Fig. 30), made of a piece 
of iron-wire, about two feet long ; this, when heated, is 
bent about four inches, and flattened to one-quarter of an 
inch wide, both edges being made sharp.* 
Bees very rarely discharge their feces in the hive, 
unless they are diseased or greatly disturbed. If the 
Winter has been uncommonly severe, and they have had 
no opportunity to fly, their abdomens, before Spring, often 
become greatly distended, and they are very liable to be 
lost in the snow, if the weather, on their first flight, is not 
unusually favorable. After they have once discharged 
their feces, they will not venture from their hives, in un- 
suitable weather, if well supplied with water. 
Having given the necessary precautions for wintering 
bees out of doors, the methods for defending them 
against atmospheric changes, by placing them in special 
depositories, will be described. 
In some parts of Europe, it is customary to winter all 
* Whore a ventilator is made on the back of tho hive (Plate V., Fig. 16), any 
refuse may be blown out by a pair of bellows. A very little smoke should be used 
before cleaning the bottom-board. Palladius, who flourished neurly two thousand 
years ago, says that bees ought not to be disturbed in Winter, except for the pur* 
pose of cleaning their hives of dcud bees, Ac. 
