Chapter 7

PROTECTION AGAINST EXTREMES OF HEAT, COLD AND DAMPNESS. Many colonies destroyed by extremes of weather. Evils of thin hives. Bees not torpid in Winter. When frozen are killed, 114. Take exercise to keep warm. Perish if unable to preserve suitable degree of warmth. Are often starved in the midst of plenty. Eat an extra quantity of food in thin, cold hives, 115. Muscular exertion occasions waste of muscular fiber. Bees need less food when quiet than when excited. Experiment, wintering bees in a dry cellar, 116. Protection must generally be given in open air. None but diseased bees discharge fæces in the hive. Moisture, its injurious effects. Free air needful in cold weather, with the common hive, 117. Loss by their flying out in cold weather. Protection against extremes of weather of the very first importance. Honey, our country favorable to its production. Colonies in forests strong. Reasons for this, 118. Russian and Polish bee-keepers successful. Their mode of management, 119. Objection of want of air answered, 120. Bees need but little air in Winter if protected. Protection in reference to the construction of hives. Double hives, preferable to plank. Made warm in Winter by packing. Double hives, inside may be of glass, 121. Advantages of glass over wood, 122. Advantages of double glass. Disadvantages of double hives in Spring. Avoided by the improved hive, 123. Covered Apiaries exclude the sun in Spring. Reason for discarding them. Sun, its effect in producing early swarms in thin hives. Protected hives fall for want of sun. Enclosed Apiaries, nuisances. Thin hives ought to be given up, they are expensive in waste of honey and bees, 124. Comparative cheapness of new and old hives, 125. Protector against injurious weather. Proper location of bees. Preparations for setting hives, 126. Protector should be open in Summer and banked in Winter. Cheaper than an Apiary. Summer air of Protector like forest air. In Winter uniform and mild, 127. Bees will not be enticed out in improper weather. Secures their natural heat. Dead bees, &c., to be removed in Winter. Temperature of the Protector, 128. Importance of the Protector. Its economy in food, 129.