The Honey Bee 1527 



to winter our bees in the particular cellar we use. Learn when 

 it is best to use quilts, or boards over the brood hive, etc. The 

 best cellar that I winter bees in has water running freely in a 

 ditch just outside of where the bees are located, and it runs on 

 three sides of the space used for them. In this cellar the bees 

 will remain quiet until late in the spring — I once kept them in 

 until May first. I usually prefer setting bees out early in the spring 

 but not always. This is the most delicate time of the beekeeping 

 business, since we do not know just what the weather is going to 

 be. If I can get my bees out quite early, and they get a good 

 cleansing flight, without wasting bees very much, I feel sure 

 that I have wintered them well. I then prefer to have the weather 

 keep cool for two weeks, so that the bees will not fly very much, 

 because after the bees have had a day or two of good cleansing 

 flight, the queen begins to lay eggs quite freely. We need these 

 old bees in the hive to care for the early brood. When the old 

 bees begin to fly out freely everyday, they die off very fast, but if 

 we have the young bees and brood coming on to take their places, 

 we will have stronger colonies by May 15 than if we had set our 

 bees out so late in the spring that they could fly every day and 

 gather honey and pollen. There are some exceptions to this rule. 

 After the bees are set out on their summer stands, I like to walk 

 out into the apiary, some sunshiny day when the bees begin to fly 

 out in a natural way, and watch them for a time to see that there 

 is a goodly number of bees flying from each hive and that the 

 entrances are clear of dead bees. Then I look at the tag on the 

 hive to see how much honey they had last fall. If I feel sure that 

 they have enough honey and plenty of flying bees, I just let them 

 alone. I do not open many hives in early spring, if they have 

 been well tended in the fall and have wintered well. I do not unite 

 weak swarms very much in the spring of the year; most of my 

 uniting of colonies is done in the fall. I unite bees as I please 

 during the summer to carry out desired notions. I winter 70 

 colonies in the chaff-packed hives, out of doors. Sometimes they 

 winter as well or even better than those wintered in the cellars; 

 but on the whole, I consider cellar wintering the safest, cheapest, 

 and best mode of wintering bees in this climate. 



