736 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



dead drone. Bees ought to be able to get out 

 of a hive one at a time before danger of smoth- 

 ering. But the exit of the cone can easily be 

 made larger. 



My experience does not agree with that 

 given by Bro. Hutchinson on page 713. Swarms 

 uniting, and swarms returning to the wrong 

 hives, are sources of trouble with clipped 

 queens, without doubt. But I see no reason 

 why swarms without queens should unite more 

 readily than those with queens, and a large ex- 

 perience through many years makes me think 

 they do not. And when they do unite, I think 

 a majority of the bees get back to their own 

 hives. 



C. H. J. Gravenhokst, the editor of that 

 ably conducted German bee-journal, Illus- 

 trierte Bienenzeitimg, is no stranger to the 

 readers of Gleanings, having contributed to 

 its columns. From his writings, and the vigor- 

 ous manner in which he edits his paper, I 

 have always thought of him as a man in the 

 thirties or forties. What was my surprise to 

 learn lately that he had just reached his three- 

 score years and ten ! He must grow on good 

 soil. 



CELLAR WINTERING, ETC. 



A SEASONABLE ARTICLE I5V G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



A correspondent writes: "' I desire to try cel- 

 lar wintering with my bees the coining win- 

 ter, as I have not been very successful in 

 wintering out on summer stands. Will it do to 

 put the bees in a cellar where persons ai'e going 

 in after vegetables everyday? and how is it 

 best to arrange the bees and cellar? Please 

 reply through the columns of Gleanings.'" 



A cellar which will keep vegetables will an- 

 swer very well for the bees; and the going into 

 it every day need not disturb wintering bees if 

 the persons entering are cautioned about jar- 

 ring them, or needlessly disturbing the hives, es- 

 pecially if the bees are placed so that the light 

 from the lamp does not strike wlierc it will 

 shine into the hives. If the cellar is kept dark 

 during the winter, all that is necessary to do is 

 to hang a thick blanket in front of the hives to 

 dim the rays from the lamp; but if the cellar is 

 light, a place in one corner should be partition- 

 ed off so as to make the part which is to con- 

 tain the bees dark. Bees have been wintered 

 well in cellars where the light of day was 

 allowed to enter ; but as a rule, bees winter 

 best in a cellar into which no light from the 

 sun ever enters while they are in it. The hives 

 should also be up one or two feet from the cel- 

 lar bottom, the bench or platform on which 

 they stand resting on the ground, instead of be- 

 ing nailed to the sleepers above, otherwise the 

 jar caused by any movement on the floor above 

 would disturb the bees, and tend to make them 

 uneasy, thus causing their loss. Rats and mice 

 should also be excluded from the cellar where 

 bees are to be wintered ; for of the two I would 

 rather chance the jar of children playing over 

 bees than of rats and mice running about and 

 through the hives. Many bees are lost each 

 year from rats and mice in cellars during the 

 winter. The full entranci' to the hive should 

 be given where fast bottom-boards are used ; 

 and with movable botiom-boards the same 

 should be left on the summer stands, and the 

 hives raised two or more inches above the 

 bench or hives on which they rest. Where 

 honey-boards are used, I prefer to remove 

 them, substituting several thicknesses of old 

 carpet, or else a chaff or sawdust cushion two 

 or three inches thick, through which the 



moisture from the respiration of the bees may 

 escape, but still keep them dry and warm. 

 The bees should be set in about the middle of 

 November, and taken out about the time the 

 soft maples and elms are in bloom. Some rec- 

 ommend setting in later and taking out earlier; 

 but my experience has been that the sudden 

 changes, both in the late fall and early spring, 

 are very damaging to bees, whether wintered 

 in the cellar or out of doors, and it is best to 

 avoid them where we can as well as not, as is 

 the case in cellar wintering. 



A few still recommend taking the bees out 

 during a warm spell in winter, to give them a 

 fly, so they can void their feces; but if they are 

 quiet, I consider it much better to leave them 

 undisturbed. Bees can retain their feces five 

 months in the cellar much easier than they can 

 three and one-half months out of doors, pro- 

 viding the cellar is suitable to) winter bees in 

 at all. The right temperature of a cellar to 

 winter bees well is from 42 to 45°; but if fixed 

 as above given, they will do very well as low as 

 3.5 to 40°. If the cellar is one where the tem- 

 perature goes as low as the freezing-point, and 

 stays there any length of time, I should prefer 

 to leave the bees on their summer stands, unless 

 I had some suitable means of warming it 

 which was easily controllable: for a continued 

 temperature at about the freezing-point, or a 

 little below seems to be very injurious to bees. 



unitingI'bees. 



Another correspondent writes, saying: " I have 

 some weak colonies of bees which I fear will 

 not winter as they are. How would it do to 

 unite two of these weak colonies together for 

 winter ? " 



This is the proper thing to do, for two weak 

 colonies kept separate will consume nearly 

 twice the stores which both would united, and 

 very likely perish before spring; while, if put 

 together, they would winter as well as any 

 large colony. My way of uniting such colonies 

 is as follows: If one of thequeens is known to be 

 feeble or inferior, hunt her out and kill her, so 

 that the best queen may survive; otherwise, 

 pay no attention to the (lueens, for one of them 

 will soon be killed after uniting. Having the 

 queen matter disposed of. go to the colonies 

 you wish to unite, and blow smoke quite 

 freely in at the entrance, pounding on top of 

 the hive at the same time with the doubled-up 

 fist. When both have been treated in this way, 

 wait a moment or two for the bees to fill them- 

 selves with honey, when one is to be put on a 

 wheelbarrow and wheeled to where the other 

 stands, and both opened. Now select out the 

 combs from both hives which contain the most 

 honey, setting them in one hive. In thus set- 

 ting in. it is always best to alternate the 

 frames, whereby the bees are so mixed up that 

 they generally have no desire to fight, for each 

 bee touched by another is a stranger. After 

 the hive is filled, arrange the quilt or honey- 

 board, and put on the cover. Next put a wide 

 board in front of the hive, leading up to the 

 entrance, and proceed to shake the bees off 

 the remaining frames, taking first a frame 

 from one hive and then one from the other, 

 thus mixing the bees as before. After all are 

 in, set a board up against the front of the hive, 

 sloping over the entrance, so that the next 

 time the bees fly they will bump against it, 

 thus causing them to mark their location anew, 

 so that they will not return to their old place 

 and get lost. Also remove all relics of the old 

 hive, so there is no homelike^ look about their 

 old location to entice them back. Put the re- 

 maining combs away in some safe place for the 

 next season's use, and the work is done. 



Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



