JANUARY.
Should the cold be intense, no operation whatever should be performed on the Bees that requires the removal of the hives. If snow be on the ground keep the perforated sliders ([page 18.]) closely down that air may be admitted, but not a Bee allowed to escape until it be thawed; but immediately upon the disappearance of the snow remove the slider, and give them full liberty. I have known many stocks lost by not attending to this precaution, and more especially after a long confinement, do not suffer the snow to melt either upon the covers or hive-boards, but brush it off every day as it falls. Attend regularly to the condenser ([page 90.]) which to boxes with flat roofs is a very necessary and useful appendage.
FEBRUARY.
Upon a mild day in this month let the floor board of each hive be cleaned, and a little food administered, should the stock of honey be very low. See that the coverings be sound, and that no moisture comes upon the top of the hives. Should it be found that any of the hives have perished, which will sometimes occur, and from causes which cannot be exactly ascertained, let them be immediately removed, and the honey which they contain taken out, and reserved for feeding those that may require it.
MARCH.
Clean the hive-boards again, and should any of the stocks require feeding, supply them, attending strictly to the directions given in Chap. IX. Towards the end of this month place a vessel, containing water, near the Bees, as directed in [page 3]. This also will be found a good time to examine the pedestals upon which the hives stand, for after remaining some years in the ground they are subject to decay at a few inches below its surface, especially if regard was not paid to the quality of the timber at the time of fixing them.
APRIL.
Clean the hive-boards for the last time, and supply food, if required, as before directed. The Wax-moth, that redoubtable enemy to Bees, appears this month; they may be seen frequently at twilight running upon the outside of the hives: destroy them as much as possible, and, as Huish says, "frighten not away the Bats that fly about the hives, for they destroy numbers of them." A full supply of small hives, boxes, glasses and adapters should now be provided, old ones cleaned, or new ones purchased. A few large hives also should be ready, for if from inattention to giving room and ventilation, a swarm should be compelled to leave their hive, they will be wanted.
Weak hives are now very subject to an attack from robbers, the best protection that can be afforded them is the slider page 18, with the help of which three or four Bees will guard the entrance more effectually than many times that number without it.