840 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
The central combs had eggs and unsealed brood. No. 3 
was most thoroughly protected by double sides, filled in 
with cha'rcoal, and all the holes in its honey-board were left 
open. It had a little frost, as No. 1. and its central combs 
contained eggs and some sealed brood. Although it had 
a better stock of bees than either of the others, it ap¬ 
peared to have begun to breed only a few days earlier. 
Jan. 30 th. —This month has been the coldest on record 
for more than fifty years. My hives have been exposed 
to a temperature of 30° below zero, and tor forty-eight 
hours together the wind blew a strong gale, and the mer¬ 
cury rose only once to G° below zero. No. 1 was again 
examined, and the bees found in good condition. The 
central comb was almost filled with sealed brood, nearly 
mature; all the combs were free from mould, and the 
interior of the hive was dry. In a hive as well protected 
as No. 3, but which had no upward ventilation , the 
vapor, or breath of the bees , which had frozen in it, having 
melted in consequence of a sudden thaw, both combs and 
bees were in a wretched condition. 
As long as the vapor remains congealed, it can only 
injure the bees by keeping them from stores which they 
need; but, as soon as a thaw sets in, hives which have no 
upward ventilation are in danger of being ruined.* 
Mr. E. T. Sturtevant, of East Cleveland, Ohio, so widely 
known as an experienced Apiarian, in a letter to me, thus 
gives his experience in wintering bees in the open air: 
No extremity of cold that we ever have in this climate, will 
Injure bees, if their breath is allowed to pass ofF, so that they are 
• In March, 1S56, I lost some of my best colonics, under the followlrg circom- 
etauccs: The Winter had been intensely cold, ond the hives, having no upward ven¬ 
tilation, were filled with frost, and. in some instances, tbo lee on their glass sides 
was nearly a quarter of an inch thick. A few days of mild weather, In which tho 
frost began to thaw, were followed by a temperature below zero, accompanied by 
furious winds, and in many of the hives, the bees, which wero still wot from the 
ilmw. were frozen toy ether in an utmost solid mass. 
