THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



47 



and otherwise ventilating my cellar, 

 I was killing off all of my most ac- 

 tice bees. 



BEES ROAR WHEN MOVING HONEY INTO 

 THE CLUSTER. 



There is always a commotion in a 

 hive when the bees are moving hon- 

 ey from the outside combs to the cen- 

 ter of the cluster for daily use. It is 

 l-orfoctly natural for bees to roar when 

 thus moving honey; and where a large 

 number of colonies are kept in a room, 

 even if only a few are engaged at one 

 time in moving honey, they make a 

 great noise, which causes one to think 

 liis bees are in trouble while the fact 

 is, they are as happy as a kitten at 

 play. 



When I was In the habit of airing 

 ray bees in winter quarters, they did 

 all of their roaring in the cellar, but 

 when thev got to their stands in the 

 spring there was no roar left, for 

 there would not be enough bees left 

 to get up a good respectable roar. Af- 

 ter I learned that bees would winter 

 nicely with what air was in the cel- 

 lar, and what naturally finds its way 

 there, I found my bees did their roar- 

 ing on the wing; and 75 or 80 per cent 

 of them were ready for the sections 

 when set out. 



ANY CELLAR THAT WILL KEEP VEGETA- 

 BLES WILL WINTER BEES. 



Any cellar that will keep vegetables, 

 such as potatoes, without freezing, 

 will be all right for bees if kept dark; 

 but, if it freezes, it is too airy. If 

 cold can get in, warm air can, also; 

 and if the bees are to be kept quiet 

 they must not get a sniff of outside 

 air while in winter quarters; that is, 

 direct from the outside, such as we 

 get in March and April when the snow 

 is leaving. 



Vegetables can be kept in the same 

 cellar with the bees, and daily visits 



made for them, and, with proper care, 

 no harm is done; In fact, the bees 

 pay no attention unless the stay there 

 is unnecessarily long. 



One of the most successful bee- 

 keepers in this locality, living near 

 me, has 242 colonies in his cellar right 

 under his living I'ooins, with potatoes, 

 apples, turnips, cahbagos, and all such 

 supplies for winter, onions, carrots 

 and beets with the rest, and no ventil- 

 ator of any kind, yet all do well, ex- 

 cept it is a little too hot for some of 

 the vegetables, as some of them have 

 pretty good tops on when the bees are 

 set out; but the bees come out in a 

 roaring condition, as I have said, and 

 a large part of the hives full from 

 side to side and are ready for sec- 

 tions. 



Doolittle never wrote or said a truer 

 thing than he did when he said, in 

 Gleanings, that airing bees in winter 

 quarters was a step backward. 



BEES STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. 



This yard of bees, that I have been 

 describing as wintering so well in the 

 cellar, numbered 150 last spring, and 

 was wintered with all this stock of 

 vegetables, the winter before, and 

 Avas able to fill over 10,000 414 sections 

 of fine clover honey amid all the rains 

 we had. besides furnishing 1,500 lbs. 

 of extracted honey from partly filled 

 sections, and then was struck by light- 

 ning at the close of the season. Nine 

 colonies were struck with one bolt. 

 The one that the bolt struck first was 

 shattered all into fragments, the 

 lightning killing every bee and scat- 

 tering the contents of the hive in 

 every direction, then darting away in 

 four different directions, and striking 

 eight other hives, splitting strips of 

 wood from the sides and ends where- 

 over it touched them. It appeared to 

 enter the hives by way of the nails, 

 then from thorn to the wires in the 



