ination of practical, common sense bee-keepers, who have had
the largest experience in the management of bees, and are most
conversant with the evils of the present system; and who are therefore
best fitted to apply them to an invention, which, if I may be pardoned
for using the enthusiastic language of an experienced Apiarian on
examining its practical workings, "introduces, not simply an
_improvement_, but a _revolution_ in bee-keeping."

FOOTNOTES:

[12] A writer in the New England Farmer for March, 1853, estimates that
the mild winter has been worth in the saving of fodder to the farmers of
New Hampshire alone, two and a half millions of dollars! By suitable
arrangements, bees even in the very coldest climates can have all the
advantages of a mild winter.

CHAPTER VIII.

PROTECTION AGAINST EXTREMES OF HEAT AND COLD, SUDDEN AND SEVERE CHANGES
OF TEMPERATURE, AND DAMPNESS IN THE HIVES.

I specially invite a careful perusal of this chapter, as the subject,
though of the very first importance in the management of bees, is one to
which but little attention has been given by the majority of
cultivators.

In our climate of great and sudden extremes, many colonies are annually
injured or destroyed by undue exposure to heat or cold. In Summer, thin
hives are often exposed to the direct heat of the sun, so that the combs
melt, and the bees are drowned in their own sweets. Even if they escape
utter ruin, they cannot work to advantage in the almost suffocating heat
of their hives.

But in those places where the Winters are both long and severe, it is
much more difficult to protect the bees from the cold than from the
heat. Bees are not, as some suppose, in a _dormant_, or _torpid_
condition in Winter. It must be remembered that they were intended to
live in colonies, in Winter, as well as Summer. The wasp, hornet, and
other insects which do not live in families in the Winter, lay up no
stores for cold weather, and are so organized as to be able to endure in
a torpid state, a very low temperature; so low that it would be certain
death to a honey-bee, which when frozen, is as surely killed as a frozen
man.

As soon as the temperature of the hives falls too low for their comfort,
the bees gather themselves into a more compact body, to preserve to the
utmost, their animal heat; and if the cold becomes so great that this
will not suffice, they keep up an incessant, tremulous motion,
accompanied by a loud humming n