no cold or icy top, or sides, on which to condense,
and from which it must drip upon the bees, destroying their lives, or
enfeebling their health, by filling the interior of their dwelling with
mould and dampness. As they are very quiet, they eat but little, and
hence their bodies are not distended and diseased by accumulated faeces.
Often they do not stir from their hollows, from November until March or
April; and yet they come forth in the Spring, strong in numbers, and
vigorous in health. If at any time in the winter season, the warmth is
so great as to penetrate their comfortable abodes, and to tempt them to
fly, when they venture out, they find a balmy atmosphere in which they
may disport with impunity. In the Summer, they are protected from the
heat, not merely by the thickness of the hollow tree, but by the leafy
shade of overarching branches, and the refreshing coolness of a forest
home.

The Russian and Polish bee-keepers, living in a climate whose winters
are much more severe than our own, are among the largest and most
successful cultivators of bees, many of them numbering their colonies by
hundreds, and some even by thousands!

They have, with great practical sagacity, imitated as closely as
possible, the conditions under which bees are found to flourish so
admirably in a state of nature. We are informed by Mr. Dohiogost, a
Polish writer, that his countrymen make their hives of the best plank,
and never less than an inch and a half in thickness. The shape is that
of an old-fashioned churn, and the hive is covered on the outside,
halfway down, with twisted rope cordage, to give it greater protection
against extremes of heat and cold. The hives are placed in a dry
situation, directly upon the hard earth, which is first covered with an
inch or two of clean, dry sand. Chips are then heaped up all around
them, and covered with earth banked up in a sloping direction to carry
off the rain. The entrance is at some distance above the bottom, and is
a triangle, whose sides are only one inch long. In the winter season,
this entrance is contracted so that only one bee can pass at a time.
Such a hive, with us, as it does not furnish the honey in convenient,
beautiful and salable forms, would not meet the demands of our
cultivators. Still, there are some very important lessons to be learned
from it, by all who keep bees in regions of cold winters, and hot
summers. It shows the importance which some of the largest Apiari