For wintering in a cellar, the hive is perhaps good enough. But I do not want to be _obliged_ to house my bees. Sometimes I have plenty of room in the cellar, and sometimes not. If the hives are of suitable form for wintering in the open air, I can let them remain out, when it is not convenient to carry them in. But the great objection to them is in early spring. Dr. P. asks if it is the fault of the hive that the _old_ bees die off, or that bees are destroyed by cold winds? Of course it is not. But if a swarm is not breeding enough to make up that loss, there must be a fault somewhere. When we take bees from the cellar, we expect that they will have brood in all stages, from the egg just laid to young bees just gnawing out. We expect too that the queen will continue to deposit eggs, even more rapidly, because of the excitement produced by the bees flying, and especially if they are fed rye meal, as mine always are. I said, after they had been out _a month_, there appeared to be fewer bees than when first carried out. We expect a loss the first day or two after taking them out, but soon afterward, the bees should be increasing; and at the end of a month, which brings it into April, there should be a decided increase. In deeper hives, according to my experience, it is so; and the deeper the hive the greater the increase. The reason why the shallow hive is not good for early spring, as I understand, is this: as soon as severe weather is past, we want to confine the animal heat as much as possible to the hive, that the bees may breed rapidly. Consequently we shut off all upward ventilation. The coldest part of a hive is near the entrance and so along the bottom board. The farther the bees get from the bottom, the warmer they find the temperature. These hives being so low, before the bees get out of the way of the cold air coming in at the entrance, they are bumping their heads against the top. And, instead of spreading the brood in a circle, which is the best form to economise heat, they are obliged to carry it along horizontally, and after all work at a disadvantage. In a tall hive they can draw up and get well out of the way of the cold air from the entrance. The top of the hive being small, _the animal heat_, _brood_, and bees are all compact, and in the best condition for rapid breeding. The faster they breed, the faster they can breed, as there are more bees to keep up the heat; and as it naturally ascends, the smaller the hive is across the top, the more compact the heat will be kept.