THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



137 



TIhe First Trfp to Noirtlhierii 

 Mlclhiitfaiiio 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



©N the second day of April, my 

 brother Ehner and myself met in 

 Sag^inaw, and turned our faces north- 

 ward on a prospecting tour of inspec- 

 tion and selection in the raspberry 

 region of Northern Michigan. 



A DAMP CLAY CELLAR HARD ON THE 

 BEES. 



Our first stop was at McBain, in 

 Missaukee county, where Mr. Cava- 

 nagh, whose bees we are to manage, 

 lias three apiaries. We first visited 

 the home-apiary, where 75 colonies 

 were in an out-door cellar, partly 

 under ground, dug in clajs covered 

 with earth, and no roof over it. The 

 temperature was 43, but there was a 

 dampness, a chilliness, a sickening 

 mould}' kind of an odor, that struck me 

 as a foreboding of disaster. However, 

 most of the colonies were alive, only 

 eight being dead, but many were quite 

 weak, while some of them were in very 

 fair condition. We carried them out, 

 scattering them about the yard, and 

 there was very little mixing up. 



A DRY CELLAR IN SAND BRINGS THE 



BEES THROUGH IN FINE 



CONDITION. 



In the afternoon we drove some five 

 or six miles to the south yard, where 

 60 colonies in chaff hives had wintered 

 well, but nearly consumed their stores. 

 We carried 35 colonies out of a cellar 

 at this yard, and I never saw greater 

 contrast between the wintering of two 

 lots of bees, in cellars, than there was 

 between this lot and those at the home- 

 apiary. The cellar at the south yard 

 was dug in a knoll of light sand, iind 

 covered with a roof, eind was so dry 

 that the bottom was really dusty. 



Every colony was just booming— not a 

 dead colony, and very few dead bees. 

 It was a warm afternoon, and when 

 carried out, I tell you the bees did 

 make the welkin ring. 



PILE THE HIVES IN SINGLE PILES IN 

 THE CELLAR. 



Right here let me protest against the 

 plan of putting bees in a cellar, and 

 stacking up the hives a la Boardman; 

 that is, setting them six or eight inches 

 apart in the first row, then piling the 

 next row on top so as to bring the bot- 

 tom of each hive over the opening left 

 between two hives of the lower row. 

 It is all right so far as the wintering 

 of the bees is concerned, but the trouble 

 comes in when carrying them out. 

 Each hive taken out jars the whole 

 pile, and by the time a dozen hives are 

 carried out, the bees in every hive are 

 aroused and read}' for business. Put 

 an empty hive on the cellar bottom; 

 lay across it two pieces of wood 2x2 

 inches square; set the first hive of bees 

 on this, leaving oiT the bottom board. 

 Put two sticks of wood across the top 

 of this hive, and set on another. Pro- 

 ceed in this manner until the pile 

 reaches the top of the cellar. When 

 carrying out the bees, only the bees in 

 one pile, perhaps four or five hives, are 

 disturbed at one time. 



HOW MICE CLOSED THE ENTRANCES. 



The hives in the other apiary at 

 INIcBain were packed in straw, four 

 hives in a box, and had wintered fairly 

 well, but it was fortunate that we 

 appeared on the scene when we did, as 

 the covers had been left otT many of 

 the hives, the frames simply being 

 covered with burlap, and the mice had 



