MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
35 - 
will cause a dampness, and they will become sour and 
mouldy. 
REMARKS. 
If the drawers are permitted to remain in the cham- 
bers after freezing weather commences, the breath of 
the colony will cause a dampness in drawers, a thick 
frost will collect in them, in a warm day it will melt 
and run down into the Hive, moisten the comb, and 
prove injurious to the swarm. 
If the chambers are empty and the apertures remain 
unclosed, the dampness will swell the Hive open the 
joints, and give the miller access to the inner portions 
of the Hive, besides causing a sourness in the chamber, 
which makes it obnoxious to the Bees and congenial 
to ants and spiders. 
The chambers and drawers should always be kept 
dry and clean. If the apertures are well covered, the 
breath will pass off through the ventilator, and prevent 
mould and sourness within the Hive, and the whole 
inner' Hives will be dry and healthy. 
There are three principal causes of death among 
Bees in the Winter, viz: want of honey , want of air 
and freezing. 
Bees sometimes die of hunger with honey in the 
Hive. But this occurs only in extremely cold weather. 
If the colonly be small they will cluster together in a 
small compass in order to keep warm, and at the same 
time their breath and vapor collect in frost, in all parts 
of the Hive except the region they occupy. The hon- 
ey becomes crusted over with frost, and the Bees are 
compelled to remain in the cluster to prevent freezing. 
If the weather does not moderate so as to thaw out the 
honey, they will remain in the cluster till they die of 
absolute starvation. This however, is seldom the case 
with old and large swarms. 
Bees may be chilled till they are to all appearance 
dead, and be resuscitated by exposing them to the ac- 
tion of a warm atmosphere. This experiment may be 
repeated three times before life is extinct. I once had 
a very small swarm in a large box Hive. The Bees 
