358 



THE BEE-KEBPERS' REVIEW. 



each side, and then the division boards, 

 packing these colonies in leaves the same 

 as I did the others. The 65 that were 

 given the sealed combs of clover honey 

 wintered finely and were very strong with 

 bees in the spring, and gave a large yield 

 of honey in 1885. The lothathad mixed 

 stores dwindled dovin very nnich iti the 

 spring, and gave me but very little honey 

 that season. The ten colonies that I tried 

 to winter on nothing but honey dew soil- 

 ed their hives very badly, and the most of 

 them died before spring, and the balance 

 "petered out" and was gone before the 

 middle of April. 



When the clover season is nearing the 

 end I leave five sealed combs in each top 

 story for winter stores, and extract from 

 the other super combs until the season 

 ends, and when the time comes to prepare 

 my bees for winter I have 5 combs of 

 choice stores to put into each brood-cham- 

 ber for the bees to winter on. If I had 

 left all the bees to winter on honey dew 

 in 1884, when the brood chambers were 

 filled up full with it, I should have lost 

 nearly all mv bees. It doesn't pay to try 

 to winter bees on poor stores. 



If one does not wish to feed sugar for 

 winter-stores, then the plan of Mr Mc- 

 Evoy, that of saving out combs of well 

 ripened honey for use in the wintering of 

 the bees, is to be recommended. My plan 

 would be that of feeding sugar when the 

 bees either lacked in stores, or the stores 

 in the hive were not suitable for winter. 

 Sugar is cheaper than honey, and has no 

 superior as a winter-food. The work of 

 feeding may be urged as an objection. 

 It is some work, but with proper applian- 

 ces the work is not great, and the differ- 

 ence in the price of sugar and hone}' will 

 well repay the labor. 



thh: wintering problrm. 



Some Hints on the Care of Bees While in the 

 Cellar. 



The wintering of bees in thecellar is be- 

 coming more and more a science. It is 

 mostly a question of food and tempera- 

 ture. There are other factors that have 

 some bearing, but they are not so very 

 weighty if these two are right. On the 

 care of bees while in the cellar, Harry 



Lathrop, of Wisconsin, has some very 

 seasonable hints in the Wisconsin Agri- 

 culturist. Among other things, he 

 says: — 



In this climate, I prefer to winter in 

 the cellar or special repo.sitory. Not be- 

 cause bees cannot be successfully winter- 

 ed outside, but because, with cellar win- 

 tering, we can use a cheaper hive, and 

 one that is handier for summer manipu- 

 lation; also because there is a saving of 

 stores, as bees do not require as much 

 honey to winter them in the cellar as they 

 do when outside. In regard to the cellar, 

 the main point is to keep the temperature 

 at about 41. to 45 degrees and the air pure 

 and wholeso-.jie; dampness, or even water 

 standing on the floor ma}' do no harm 

 provided other conditions arerij,'ht. The 

 air should be so dry and pure that mould 

 will not gather on hives or walls. I have 

 a dug-out cellar which has a sand bottom, 

 stone sides, plank top, with two feet of - 

 dry earth on the plank, and a board roof 

 over the dirt. This cellar is situated in 

 the valley, and during the early spring, 

 for several weeks previous to the time of 

 removing the bees, there are often five or 

 six inches of water in the bottom of the 

 cellar; the result of continuous rains fill- 

 ing the soil of the valley with water. It 

 seems to do no harm, as the air remains 

 pare and measurably dry above. There 

 is a ventilator, or wooden tube, passing 

 from within about two feet of the cellar 

 bottom up through the roof. This is the 

 best arrangement I know of to use in a 

 dug-out cellar for the purpose of carry- 

 ing off the bad air 



If a cellar is situated under a dwelling 

 or other building it should have a chim- 

 ney extending down to 1he1)ottom of the 

 cellar and provision made for a stove. I 

 have found that an occasional fire is a 

 good thing during winter. It purifies the 

 air of the room nicely as well as warm- 

 ing it up in cases where the temperature 

 is to low. Some have tried oil stoves, 

 but they are dangerous to the health and 

 comfort of the bees, and are as unfit for 

 a bee cellar as they are for a sleeping- 

 room. Bees are like human beings. 

 They will be quiet while they are coinfor- 

 table, but deprive them of good air, or 

 place them where they will be chilled or 

 too warm, and they soonjbecnme restless 

 and uneasy. This causes them to wear 

 themselves out. The condition to 

 be souyht after is to keep them just as 

 quiet and contented as possible. Noise and 

 jars have been mentioned by some as 

 very detrimental, but I think they are 

 nothing as compared to improper condi- 



