944 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



place to suggest that, in addition to it-; otlier ad- 

 vautages. ciamiuing tlie brood-nest wiih stores is 

 nractically making less room in ii for llie l^ees to 

 keep warm. Whether in general a colony maybe 

 crowded on so small a number of combs as to be 

 overwarm and restless, as M r. Crane holds, may be 

 one of the things that would bear ••further discus- 

 sion " ■■ Furtuer discussion " is also provoked by B. 

 Taylor's insisting that uees sliould cluster "over 

 their stores." It seems to me tliat his bees must 

 have extra training to induce them to pack their 

 stores below the cluster. Better wintering is secur- 

 ed in shallow hives by F. Greiner. and in hives after 

 the Heddon pattern by J. A. Green. Tins might 

 also awaken discussion. 



SPACE UNDER BOTTOM-B AKS. 



I think there has been a growing feeling in favor 

 of having extra space under the bottom-bars during 

 winter No one, to my knowledge, ever expressed a 

 belief that it could do any harm, the only objection 

 being the extra trouble. lam heartily with those 

 who^thiak the advantage more than pays for the 

 trouble. Probably there can be nothing better for 

 the bees ihan the plan of having no bottom-board 

 or floor, and having the hives piled apart so as to 

 have a great space under. I mean just so far as the 

 air is concerned, although on other accounts I pre- 

 fer the reversible tloor-board, which is only a modi 

 flcation of the rim used by others. The reversible 

 floor-board has the rim attached to ifc permanemly, 

 and is especially convenient for those who change 

 their bees from one place to another; lor when 

 taken out of winter quarters it can be ready at a 

 moment's notice to be hauled to the out-apiary. 

 Then its no small advantage to have hives mouse- 

 proof during winter, as they can easily be by put- 

 ting coarse wire cloth at the entrance of the revers- 

 ible floor-board. With no floor-board the mice have 

 full entrance to the hives; and although you tnink 

 you have a mouse-proof cellar, too often you find in 

 the spring that the mice have been playing havoc 

 with your bees and combs. Mr. Pettit's plan of 

 having an opening at the back as well as front gives 

 air with less room if care be taken to have no clog- 

 ging. Mr. Crane secures much the same advantage 

 by having an extra entrance half way from top to 

 bottom. 



SEALED COVERS. 



Some time ago sealed covers .seemed deserted by 

 their warmest advocates, leaving tnat apparently 

 as one of the settled questions. But at least one 

 man stoutly stands his ground amid the general 

 •stampede, and says sealed covers are all right. Is 

 it worth while to allow the question a place in the 

 realm of " further discussion," just to convince one 

 stubborn man 't Hardly, when it's a matter of mere 

 •opinion. But when J. A. Green continues to use 

 sealed covers, and uses them ,si/t(C,s,>:/(t(?y, and year 

 after year, that single fact, just because it is a fact, 

 leaves the question still unsettled. 1 f he succeeds 

 where others fail, what makes the difference? I 

 think it is perhaps the general opinion nowadays, 

 that in the cellar, sealed covers are all right. What 

 makes the difference between success and failure 

 outdoors 'it Is it possible that it mny be in the pack- 

 ing over the covers ? Mr. Green has 6 or 8 inches of 

 packing over, that packing having a rain-proof 

 cover. Have others who have failed used the same 

 packing? 



WINTER PACKING. 



For outdoor wintering, packing was never more 

 popular than at the present time, and yet I'm not 

 -certain that there are not those outside of this 

 symposium wlio prefer single-wall hives unpacked 

 for the sake of having the advantage of the sun on 

 the single walls in winter. Possibly the matter of 

 latitude may have something to do with this. The 

 editor is right in remarking that "all are agreed 

 that outdoor colonies should be packed in double- 

 walled hives," i/ in that class of liives he includes 

 single-walled hives with a winter packing around 

 them. 'Top packing seems to be considered of more 

 importance than ac the sides; and where any differ- 

 ence is made there is more packing on top. Pleas- 

 ant to know that there's such general agreement in 

 preferring planer-shavings for packing-material. 



TIME TO CELLAR BEES. 



nThe date for carrying oees into the cellar is set by 

 •one at Nov. 1; by another at Nov. l.o, and by two 

 others at Nov. 20. I feel pretty sure that, if they, 

 had taken room to explain more fully, neither one 

 ■of them would have said he adhered strictly to the] 



given date. I suspect they are very much like my- 

 self, if I were obliged to name positively at the 

 present time the date at which my bees should be 

 carried in next winter, perhaps i should say Nov. 1. 

 But in actual practice the almanac has little to do 

 with it. One year they will be better off' to stay out 

 tilt December, while 1 have known a year in which 

 every day that the bees stayed out after October 

 was a damage to them. It's a matter of guess at 

 best. Aim to cellar them immediately after the 

 last fly they'll have before December, remembering 

 that one day too late may be worse than five days 

 too early. That is, it won't do as much harm to 

 have them confined unnecessarily in the cellar five 

 days, as it will to be taken in one day after a flight 

 if that one day is pretty cold. As Mr. Boardman 

 suggests, it makes a big difference when they're 

 taken in as to the matter of quietness. After they 

 have had a fly, the first time the thermometer 

 touches 45° you'll find them pretty quiet. 



DARKNESS IN CELLARS. 



The editor says the underground room for bees 

 should be darkened; but Mr. Boardman gives his 

 bees the full light of day after they are in the cel- 

 lar, until the weather becomes quite cold. No one, 

 probably, would want his cellar to be light all the 

 winter long; but some think it advantageous to 

 have the cellar light part of the time. 1 think this 

 view is gaining ground. The late Jesse Oatman told 

 me tliat a leading bee-journal not far from the 

 State of Ohio once refused to publish an article 

 saying that at times light could be safely let into a 

 cellar, such a view being thought too dangerous 

 heresy to get into print. [It was not refused tor 

 heresy, certainly; but if it did not get into Glean- 

 ings it was probably overlooked in some way, owing 

 to the large lot ot unused manuscripts.— Ed.] I 

 believe the admission of light is a benefit, whenever 

 it can be admitted without stirring up the bees. 

 Like Mr. Boardman, 1 allow my cellar to stand open 

 until the thermometer inside runs below 40°. 

 Toward spring, when a warm spell comes, making 

 the bees uneasy, doors and windows are opened 

 wide in the evening. That raises a general row in 

 the cellar; the bees run all over the hives, and roar 

 enough to frighten a novice. By morning, how- 

 ever, all are quiet, and I've seen the direct rays of 

 the sun shining right into the entrance of a hive 

 without seeming to disturb them in the least. 

 Sometimes they'll remain quiet all day with the 

 cellar light, and sometimes they'll begin to fly out 

 soon after sunrise. As soon as they show uneasi- 

 ness I close out the light. 



u TEMPERATURE AND MOISTURE. ^ ^ 



Entire agreement as to temperature has not yet, 

 been reached. Possibly there might be unanimity 

 as to temperature if all cellars had the same degree 

 of moisture. For a considerable time 45° has been 

 a kind of standard figure, and the symposium still 

 holds somewhere near that for the average cellar. 

 Elwood gets it down pretty fine by saying 38 to 4'2° 

 for a very dry cellar, 4.') to 50° for a very damp one, 

 and 43 to 45° for one Of average moisture. But 

 Pettit wants a damp cellar kept down to 40°, giving 

 as one reason that the bees will thus be kept drier; 

 for as air is heated it will take up more moisture. 

 I'm afraid all will not admit the correctness of that 

 philosophy, and I suspect others would want a 

 moist cellar to be kept warmer. Boardman wants 

 the cellar about ten degrees warmer at the last end 

 than through the principal part of the winter, and I 

 suppose most agree in thinking it well to have a 

 higher temperature toward spring— at least, after 

 brood-rearing begins. 



VENTII^ATION. 



r None of the writers ignore ventilation, and per- 

 haps no one nowadays would insist that bees will 

 pass the winter hermetically sealed. So there's 

 progress in that direction. Enthusiasm for sub- 

 ventilation has faded. For one, I should be just as 

 enthusiastic as ever if it were not for the fear that 

 Mr. Pettit may be right in thinking that a gain in 

 temperature is accompanied by a gain in moisture; 

 and, worse than that, I'm a little afraid noxious 

 gases may betaken up in passing through the earth. 

 If provision be made to carry out the air of the 

 cellar, I'm not much afraid about its getting in. 

 And perhaps it's as well to have it come in at a 

 thousand little cracks and through a million pores 

 j|as to have it come in all at one spot labeled '* En- 



1 As to ventilation of hives themselves, there has 



