rivulet runs near the apiary, it is well. If
not, place water in shallow pans, with pebbles in them, on which the
bees can stand to drink. Change the water daily. It is too late to speak
of the improvidence of killing bees, to get their honey. Use boxes of
any size or construction you choose. In common hives, boxes should be
attached to the sides, and not placed on the top. It is a wasteful tax
upon the time and strength of loaded bees, to make them travel through
the whole length of the hive, into boxes on the top. Place boxes as near
as possible to their entrance or below that entrance. Bees should be
kept out of the boxes until they have pretty well filled the hive, or
they may begin to raise young bees in the boxes.

_Wintering bees_ successfully, is one of the most difficult matters in
bee-culture. Two evils are to be guarded against, dampness and
suffocation. Excessive dampness, sometimes causes frost about the
entrance that fills it up and suffocation ensues. Sometimes snow falls,
or is blown over the entrance, and the bees die in a few hours for the
want of air. Many large colonies, with plenty of honey, are thus
destroyed. Dampness is very injurious to bees on other accounts. In a
good bee-house there is no danger from snow, and little from dampness.
Bees, not having honey enough for winter, should be fed in pleasant fall
weather, after they have nearly completed the labors of the season.
Weighing hives is unnecessary. A moderate degree of judgment will
determine whether a swarm has a sufficient store for winter. If not,
feed them. Never give bees dry sugar. They take up their food, as an
elephant does water in his trunk; it, therefore, should be in a liquid
form. Boil good sugar for ten minutes in ale or beer, leaving it about
as thick as honey. Put it in a feed trough; which should be
flat-bottomed.

Fasten together thin slats, one fourth of an inch apart, so as to fit
the inside of the feed trough and lie on the surface of the liquid, so
as to rise and fall with it. Put this in a box and attach it to the
hive, as for taking box-honey, and the bees will work it all up. Put
out-door, it tempts other bees, and may lead to quarrels, and robbery.

It is not generally known, that a good swarm of bees may be destroyed,
by feeding them plenty of honey, early in the spring. They carry it in
and fill up their empty cells and leave no room for raising young bees;
hence the whole is ruined for want of inhabitants, to