18<t5 



GLEANiNbS IN BEE CULTURE. 



59 



Later.— To-day is the last day in the year, 

 and wo look in vain for the beauty which greet- 

 ed ns on our arrival. During tht! night of the 

 27th, 28th, and 2i»ih of December there were 

 heavy frosts, and on the 38th ice formed two 

 inches thick, while tlie thermometer registered 

 1.5' above zero. Orange-trees and lemons look 

 sickly, and pear-trees are brown and seai'. 



St. Andrews. Fla. 



Br G.M.DOOHTTLE.BORODINO.N.Y. 



inininiiiMMniyiiiju.Biiiiii.nminiMii ■iiimi » 



DAMPNESS IN BKE-RKPOSITORIKS. 



Question. — 1 went to my bee cellar to-day 

 and found things quite wet with collected mois- 

 ture — so mucli so that the sawdust on the floor 

 was saturated, and a post in the center, and 

 also the inside of the roof, was quite wet, caus- 

 ed by this dampness. The bees appear very 

 quiei. and are apparently doing well so far. 

 Will this dampness do any particular harm, or 

 accunailate to a sufficient extent to injure the 

 bees before it is time to set them out in the 

 spring ■:■ 



^-fjisu'e)'.— Many seem to suppose that a cellar 

 in which bees are wintered should appear abso- 

 lutely diy in all of its parts; and if it does not, 

 or shows a condition of things similar to that 

 described by our correspondent, they become 

 fearful of the final results, often taking the 

 bees out too early in the spring, or putting 

 them into another cellar or room exhibiting 

 more dryness. It will be noticed that it is 

 staled that the bees " appear very quiet." Now, 

 I wish to say to each and every one, that, so long 

 as bees are quiet, or very quiet, no matter 

 where they are, whether in the cellar, in a 

 room above ground, or on the summer stand, 

 they are wintering in the best possible con- 

 dition, and should be left undisturbed, no mat- 

 ter if the place where they are is dripping with 

 moisture, or so dry that you may fear the bees 

 are suffering from want of water. Quietness 

 is the essential quality for safe wintering, 

 for with it always comes the least consumption 

 of stores, and with a minimum consumption of 

 stores comes the least possible exhausted vi- 

 tality and the greatest longevity during the 

 spring and early summer days. Under such 

 circumstances I have had individual bees by 

 the thousand, in single colonies, live from the 

 first of September till July first of the following 

 year, or for a period of ten months, this being 

 known by a change of queens on or about the 

 tenth of August. On the other hand, I have 

 had colonies which would notquiet down during 

 the fall, and bees which were hatched in such 

 colonies the latter part of September were worn 

 out with old age, and died before the first of 

 February, not having lived to exceed four 



months. From all the experience of the past, 1 

 am convinced that the temperature of the bee- 

 repository has more to do with the safe winter- 

 ing of bees than any other one thing, and espe- 

 cially is tills the case where the repository is af- 

 fected witii dampness as was the one our corres- 

 pondent describes. Should the temperature in 

 such a ri:pository sink to near or quite to the 

 freezing-point, it will be found that the bees 

 will no longer be quiet, but will become uneasy, 

 and go to roaring, and running out of their 

 hive?, should such a temperature continue long; 

 but if the temperature can be kept at from 42° to 

 48°, all things will continue as they are at 

 present, unless some disiurbing element enters 

 in besides moisture. 



That I might better tell you regarding this 

 matter 1 have just been to my bee-cellar, where 

 1 consider my bees wintering well, to see how I 

 found things. I iiave 80 colonies in it, to where 

 1 have usually had only from .50 to (50, and I find 

 tliat the extra number of colonies give off more 

 moisture into the air than has usually been the 

 case in years past — so much so, that, on this 

 Second day of January, I find the inside of the 

 bee-cellar fully as damp, or wet, as I presume 

 many would call it, as it generally is by the 

 first of March; while, instead of the tempera- 

 ture staying at about 44°, as has usually been 

 the case, it now stands at 47°, or within half 

 a degree of this all the while. Well, how wet 

 do you find tlie Inside of the cellar? The saw- 

 dust on the Hoor, tlie furthest from the door, is 

 so wet tlaat I can nearly squeeze water out of 

 it, while near the door end it is barely moist 

 enougli to be pliable in the hand. This sawdust 

 has been unchanged for two weeks: but after 

 the examination, i have spread evenly over the 

 floor another tiour-sackful, this covering up all 

 dead bees and the sawdust there when 1 went 

 in. In two weeks I shall put on another sack- 

 ful, and in this way the floor is kept sweet and 

 nice. The roof, or upper ceiling, of the cellar is 

 covered with flagstone, as the older readers of 

 Gleanings will remember, and i find that the 

 moisture has condensed on these stones suf- 

 ficiently to be running down on the under side 

 (very much as you see the steam or moisture 

 from your room trickle down llie inside of 

 the window-panes in the kitchen when you are 

 boiling vegetables for dinner), to an extent suf- 

 ficient to form little pudales of water at the 

 foot of the stones where they rest on tlie mason- 

 work walls. The moisture condenses on the in- 

 side of the door, and runs down in the same 

 way it does from the stones, as the door is 

 a painted one; and, in spite of there being four 

 doors in the entranceway, this Inside door is the 

 coolest place in the whole cellar. 



Now I think I hear some one say, " Why, 

 that cellar is absolutely wet;" but such is not 

 the case, for the hives and all about them (they 

 do not touch the wall or floor of the cellar) 

 appears as dry as in summer, and will so long 



