its sides. It must be allowed to cool very gradually, otherwise the cake which it forms will crack; and, therefore, it should be kept in a warm place.
Management of Bees during Winter.—The honey-harvest being now over, it will be necessary to prepare the stock-hives for passing the winter in safety. For this purpose, certain preliminary precautions are requisite, and none more so than to guard against pillage. After the process of separating the honey from the wax, it is usual and economical to carry out to the apiary, the vessels and implements employed in the manipulation; and the bees will readily avail themselves of whatever honey may adhere to them, and clean them effectually. Pieces of refuse comb, also, are presented to them, and in a very short time the industrious insects rifle them of every particle of saccharine matter. Having exhausted these sources, the bees are tempted often by the more than usually strong odour exhaled from the hives in consequence of their recent luxurious feasting, to rob their neighbours of their share of the booty; and a scene of pillage ensues which sometimes ends in the total destruction of the besieged hives. If the colony attacked be pretty strong in population, the evil may be put a stop to, perhaps, by contracting the entrance. Every proper door has one or two small holes at the bottom, which may be opened or shut as occasion requires, just large enough to admit the passing of a single bee. This contracted entrance greatly assists a besieged colony; but the doors are generally so thin, that the robbers often effect an entrance by adroitly slipping
