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 charcoal, 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. 30tii. —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 for forty-eight 
hours together the wind blew a strong gale, and the mer¬ 
cury rose only once to 0° 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 lees , 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. Sturtcvant, 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 ofT, so that they aro 
• In March, 1856, I lost some of my best colonics, under the followirg circum¬ 
stances: The Winter had been Intensely cold, and the hives, having no uyrcnrd ven¬ 
tilation, were filled with frost, and, in some instances, the ice on their glass sides 
was nearly a quarter of an Inch thick. A few days of mild weather, in which the 
frost began to thaw, were followed by a temperature below zero, accompanied by 
furious winds, and in many of the hives, the bees, which were still wet from tlia 
Shaw, were frozen together in an almost solid mass. 
