me of the warm-blooded animals--the horse, ox, and
sheep, for instance, that require a constant supply of food, that they
may generate as much caloric as is thrown off on the cold air. This
seems to be regulated by the degree of cold, else why do they refuse
the large quantity of tempting provender in the warm days of spring,
and greedily devour it in the pelting storm? The fact is pretty well
demonstrated, that the quantity of food needed for the same condition
in spring, is much less when protected from the inclemency of the
weather, than when exposed to the severe cold. The bee, unlike the
wasp, when once penetrated with frost, is dead--_their temperature must
be kept considerably above the freezing point, and to do this, food is
required_. Now if the bees are governed by the same laws, and cold air
carries off more heat than warm, and their source of renewing it is in
the consumption of honey in proportion to the degree of cold, common
sense would say, keep them warm as possible. As a certain degree of
heat is necessary in all stocks, it may take about such a quantity of
honey to produce it, and this may explain why a small family requires
about the same amount of food as others that are very large.

THE NEXT BEST PLACE FOR WINTERING BEES.

A _dry_, warm cellar is the next best place for wintering them; the
apiarian having one perfectly dark, with room to spare, will find it a
very good place, in the absence of a room above ground. If a large
number was put in, some means of ventilation should be contrived for
warm turns of weather. I know an apiarian, who by my suggestion has
wintered from sixty to eighty stocks in this way, for the last six
years, with perfect success, not having lost one. Another has wintered
thirty with equal safety.

As for burying them in the earth, I have not the least doubt, if a dry
place should be selected, the hive inverted, and surrounded with hay,
straw, or some substance to absorb the moisture, and protected from the
rain, at the top of the covering, that perfect success would attend the
experiment. But this is only theory; when I tried the experiment of
burying, and had the combs mould, the hives ware right side up.

EVILS OF WINTERINGS IN THE OPEN AIR CONSIDERED.

As a great many bee-keepers will find it inconvenient, or be unable to
avail themselves of my method of wintering, it will be well enough to
see how far the evils of the open air, which we have already glanced
at,