420 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Possibly you may say, "I think I know how to manage it; be sure 

 to take them in early; then, if a warm day comes, take them out for 

 a flight and take them back again." It would be hard to say why 

 that is not a good plan, but actual practice shows that it does not 

 work well and is not advisable. 



llaving decided that it is time for the bees to go into the cellar, 

 put them in the evening after their flight, or within a day or two. 

 If there is hard freezing, the hives may be frozen down so that when 

 you crack them up it will stir up the bees badly. Crack them up 

 twelve or twenty-four hours before carrying in, and put a nail under. 

 The hives will be taken into the cellar with the covers on, just 

 as they were on the summer stand. They need no ventilation above, 

 providing they have big ventilation below. But box-hives may be 

 turned upside down so as to have all upward ventilation. It will 

 not make the bees dizzy to stand on their heads. 



Unless your bottom boards are so deep as to leave one or two 

 inches space under the bottom bars, it is as well not to carry them 

 in the cellar. But if you do take them in, be sure that there is abund- 

 ant ventilation below. The hives may be blocked up an inch or more. 

 If you want to take up little room, set a row of hives with, perhaps, 

 ten inches of space between them. Then set a row of hives with- 

 out any bottom boards over these, each upper hive resting on two 

 of the lower ones. That will leave an open space under each hive, 

 and you may thus pile them up as high as the room will allow. They 

 will take up still less room if your bottom boards are one or two 

 inches (better two inches) deep, for then you can pile each hive 

 directly over another and pack the piles closely together. You 

 will generally find the bees very quiet the next day after having a 

 flight, and if you are careful in handling them they will not be 

 likely to fly out. 



If it should happen to be warm for some days after they are 

 in the cellar, leave doors and windows of cellar wide open every 

 night. They may even be left open in day time if you find the bee« 

 do not fly out. After the bees are in the cellar, every bee that 

 flies out of the hive is a dead bee, for it never finds its way back to 

 the hive. Bees will find their way back if they crawl out upon the 

 outside of the hive, and you need not be alarmed if sometimes quite 

 a cluster hangs out. When the weather gets cold, whether it be the 

 next day or three weeks later, keep all closed up. Whenever it seems 

 loo warm in the cellar, cool off a little at night. Put a thermometer 

 in the cellar, and see at what temperature the bees are most quiet, 

 and after that try to keep the temperature as near that point of quiet 

 ns you can. If the cellar is too warm the bees will stir about and be 

 somewhat noisv. If it gets too cold they will make a sort of hum- 

 ming sound in trying to keep warm, and the colder it is the louder 



