1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



309 



which the location is especially adapted, as the 

 ground slopes gently in one and sharply in throe 

 directions. 



BUILDING A BEE-CELI.AR. 



To build a substantial warm cellar, with 

 small outlay, was the desideratum. We suc- 

 ceeded very well, except that it required a good 

 deal of hard labor, as the ground is hardpan of 

 the 'ruest type. The slopes made it easy to dis- 

 pose of the dirt, hence we concluded to excavate 

 with team, plow, and scraper, including alley 

 to the cellar. We planned to throw the dirt out 

 of a channel 50 feet long, 1^-2 feet wide, and ',) 

 feet deep. By alternate process, and cutting 

 the banks perpendicularly with pick-axes, we 

 finally succeeded in getting the channel. Pine 

 posts, il}., feetlong, split from heavier stuff, had 

 shoulders cut to receive 2).^-inch plank 8 inches 

 wide. These posts occur every two feet, and 

 stand against both sides of the channel. To 

 these posts the pine plank are lightly spiked. 

 The cellar is 36 feet long. Cedar posts, cut l^^^ 

 feet long, are gained down a little at each end, 

 to provide a shoulder inside of the plank, and 

 rest upon the latter, thus forming the roof of 

 the cellar. The posts were laid close together, 

 and a few hemlock brush put on to prevent dirt 

 sifting through. At the north end, posts were 

 set and old boards nailed on to hold up the loose 

 dirt. At the south end an alley 14 feet long, S.^o 

 feet wide, ascending a little to the outer surface, 

 was prepared similar to the arrangement in the 

 cellar, except that boards were needed on the 

 outside of the posts to hold up the loose dirt. 

 At the end of this alley a wall was laid, wide 

 enough to retain the dirt, and high enough to 

 hold about two feet of dirt on the top of the al- 

 ley. With plow and scraper, enough dirt was put 

 on to cover the cedar- post top three or four feet 

 ■ under ground. Three doors, one at each end 

 and one near the middle of the alley, completed 

 the cellar. A ventilator at the south end of the 

 cellar reaches out through the top, and 28 feet 

 of 8-inch tilr! go out at the north end at the bot- 

 tom. The 3(5 feet of cellar slope 15 inches to- 

 ward the north end, so that water, if any, can 

 escape, while air can be admitted through the 

 tile. If nothing occurs to prevent, this tile ven- 

 tilator will be lengthened to about 150 feet, be- 

 low frost, before another winter, so that warm- 

 ed air can be admitted to the cellar at any time 

 in cold weather, while in warm weather the air 

 will be cooled before reaching the cellar. 



Bees were put into this cellar Nov. 13 and 21. 

 Since then tiie temperature has been uniformly 

 between 42 and 44° Fahr., although from Dec. 

 33 to Jan. 22 the weather was very cold, the tem- 

 perature for at least fourteen mornings having 

 been from 3° above to 13° below zero. During 

 this cold weather the ventilators have been 

 closed. The place is rather damp, and mold 

 has formed on the bees that drop down, and on 

 the posts at the sides of the cellar. The bees 

 are quiet, only one colony having thus far 

 shown signs of soiling the outside of the hive. 



After the fall rains, for a time a little water 

 trickled out of the west side near the bottom. 

 How the bees winter in this cellar, we hope to 

 be able to report next June. J. H. Nellis. 



A REPORT FROM ANOTHER ALFALFA RE- 

 GION. 



with it, and their bees are fast passing into the 

 hands of bee-keepers. Last year was the first 

 poor yield since I have been here, many of the 

 farmers getting no surplus. I got 65 lbs. per 

 colony, spring count, and I know of no one else 

 who did quite as well. 



This part of the valley is sown mostly to al- 

 falfa, with a few patches of red clover. Our 

 main honey crop is from alfalfa; but where it 

 stands mixed with red clover the bees work al- 

 most exclusively on the clover. The latter 

 yields two or three good crops, but the tubes on 

 the bloom are not nearly so deep as they are 

 east of the range. 



We cut all of our own supplies, except sec- 

 tions, make our own foundation, and are about 

 able to paddle our own canoe by A. I. Root fur- 

 nishing the paddles. This, I think, is quite an 

 improvement over my first start here when I 

 bought fruit-boxes to work into 3-lb. sections. 



We winter our bees on their summer stands, 

 mostly in double-walled hives, with floor large 

 enough for outside cover to rest on. I have 

 done considerable experimenting on hives and 

 frames on a small scale, but will not now ask 

 space for a description, further than to say I 

 have always used fixed distances, but not self- 

 spacers like the HoiTman frame. I have a few, 

 however, on the Holl'man principle; but when 

 I want to take out only one frame (which is all 

 that I wish to disturb, in a majority of cases), 

 and that frame usually in the middle of the 

 hive, I can have it out before I could loosen the 

 follower of the HotTman frame. I also fear 

 the bees in this valley use too much wax for the 

 Hoffman frame. Wm. Willis. 



Montrose, Col., Mar. 9. 



THE PAST WINTER IN COLORADO. 



AN EX BACHELOR OFFERS ADVICE TO RAMBLER. 



HOFFMAN FRAMES NOT SATISFACTORY. 



Six years ago last June I shipped from Kan- 

 sas seven colonies of bees. They yielded honf^y 

 abundantly, and it sold readily for 35 cts. retail 

 and 30 cts. wholesale. As a natural conse- 

 quence, nearly all the farmers caught the bee- 

 fever. Honey has gone down, and the bee-fever 



Of all the literature that comes to my home, 

 Gleanings is the first to be opened and read; 

 first to be welcomed; brightest and best of them 

 all. Indeed, words fail me in trying to tell of its 

 merits, and how it is welcomed in my home. 

 Sometimes it does not get here on time, and I 

 feel perfectly blue; and 1 say to ray wife it seems 

 that I have lost something. And, hold now! 

 speaking of my wife, perhaps not everybody 

 knows 1 have a wife. Well, I have " all desame 

 shust." Thus it is that the bee-keepers are find- 

 ing themselves queens. Call them what you 

 may, friends; but if all the bee-keepers enjoyed 

 married life as well as I do, who can blame them 

 for getting married? Thanksgiving day. 18U2, 

 marked a change in my bachelor's life, which 

 thus far down life's steep decline 1 have not for 

 once regretted: and my admonition to the bach- 

 elor friends out in California, that Rambler 

 talks so much about, is. to get married. But I 

 will not dwell long ujjon one subject. 



Dr. Miller, in Stray Straws for Feb. 15, re- 

 marks that the cold has been no gi-eater — in- 

 deed, not so great— in his locality as during 

 some other winters; but that its staying quali- 

 ties have been unusual; and, again, March 1st he 

 says the severe winter has the hopeful side that 

 the ground is continually covered with snow, 

 and that, therefore, the clover ought to be well 

 protected. In the same issue you remark edit- 

 orially that your bees have never gone so long 

 without a cleansing fiight as this winter, and 

 that your apiarist thinks their last flight was 

 during the latter part of November. 



Now, friends, it is too late or too early, I 

 should say, for fish-stories; but the evidence is' 

 too plain to be misconstru(ul, when there are 

 plenty of bee-keepers in this locality who can 

 testify to the same story, that our bees have 



