524 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1918 



THE BEST CELLAR WINTERING 



Some of the Fundamentals as Illus- 

 trated by the Continued Successes of 

 '^ig Michigan Beekeepers 



By E. R. Root 



THE severe 

 winter of 

 1917 - '18 — 

 the hardest on 

 bees, perhaps, 

 in over 35 years 

 — has brought 

 its lessons. 

 Those beekeep- 

 ers that were 



thoroly prepared with plenty of good 

 stores suffered comparatively light losses, 

 while those that were not prepared lost 

 heavily. It will be the particular purpose 

 of this article to explain some of the funda- 

 mentals of good wintering indoors, because 

 plans for indoor wintering must be made as 

 early as possible in advance. In our next 

 issue we will give the various methods of 

 outdoor wintering — those that proved to be 

 successful during last winter. 



The present high price of honey, the 

 shortage of sugar, with the prospect that 

 the Food Administration at Washington 

 may cut all rations of sugar down still 

 further, will cause some to favor the in- 

 door plan of wintering. It is generally 

 admitted that a colony in a good cellar con 

 sumes about half the stores that the same 

 colony requires when wintered outdoors in 

 a good packing-case. Or, to put it more 

 concretely, a colony of bees in a good cellar 

 consumes anywhere from five to ten pounds 

 of stores during the period of confinement, 

 while the same colony outdoors, well hous- 

 ed, requires anywhere from 15 to 25 pounds 

 or even more. At this time we will not dis- 

 cuss the question whether the outdoors bees 

 will be more vigorous and ready for har- 

 vest, for the big i)roblem now is to bring 



the bees t h r u 

 the coming win- 

 ter with a mini- 

 mum of stores. 

 It would be a 

 mistake for us 

 to urge every 

 one to practice 

 indoor winter- 

 ing, as the aver- 

 age beginner, or the average good bee- 

 keeper south of the Great Lakes, will se- 

 cure better results by wintering outdoors; 

 but the fact that most of those who win- 

 tered in the cellar last winter had their 

 bees in better condition this spring sug- 

 gests the wisdom at this time of inquiring 

 how they succeeded. 



The Editor has been giving the matter 

 special consideration; and with that end in 

 view he has traveled some hundreds of 

 miles visiting some of the best beekeepers 

 of the United States — especially those who 

 wintered in cellars with little or no loss. 

 After consulting some of our best beemen, 

 and especially Government experts, we were 

 especially directed to one man, said to un- 

 derstand with special thoroness the subject 

 of indoor wintering. He has wintered bees 

 for the last 12 or 15 years in a cellar of 

 his own design, with a loss of less than one 

 per cent. That man is David Running of 

 Pilion, Mich., — ex-president of the Michi- 

 gan State Beekeepers' Association, and now 

 president of the National Beekeepers' As- 

 sociation. He agrees as to wintering in 

 almost everv detail with that veteran au- 

 thority, the' late G. M. Doolittle. The fact 

 that these two men came to precisely the 

 same conclusions 30 years apart,- the one 



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Eic 1. — This is a diagram of the Rrouiul plan of tho David Kiinuni.f;- liee-ccUar wini h h:is wmteiiil hot's 

 for the last 12 years -with a loss of loi-w than rne iier ctiit. Tlie cellar proper is built in a side hill. 1 He 

 ) ottom of the cellar is on a level with the ground in front. ITie waUs are. 6 inches tliick, ot concrete, with 

 (t cf)ncrete ceiling on top. Directlv abovo the cellar is a concretei workshop and extracting house. Be.- 

 tvvpni the ceiling of the cellar and the floor of this building above the<i-e is packing material (if one 

 foot of drv sawdust and one foot of air space; and then another set of .ioists covered with matched noorin^ 

 Between the ceiiling and cellar roof i.s 6 feet, and the cellar is capable of holding Ivc^tween 300 and 401 

 colonies It will le noticed that there are three doors to shut out the, outside cold. The hives are pi erl 

 ii5 shown in the diagram. The ventilator, or chimney, has a 9 x 13 flue which extends clear up thru the 

 building above. The outer cellar is soinetinie.s used for wintering bees in doub'e-walled hives. 



