SEI'TKirBKR, 1!)1S 



U 1> K A N I N (4 S IN 14 K K (' f L T U l' K 



foot between what is the top ceiling of the 

 oollar-to-be and the bottom. The inside dirt 

 is thrown outside of the wooden barricade. 

 This leaves an embankment of four or five 

 feet of earth. He uses no sustaining walls 

 in the lower half of the cellar. A ceiling is 

 then put on, and then a gable roof is made 

 to cover the embanknuMit as well as the col- 

 lar ])ro])or. On top of the coiling and under 

 the gable roof is put from three to four feet 

 of sawdust. 



In our next issue we shall give the latest 

 methods for packing bees outdoors. 



G. M. Doolittle on Cellar Wintering Nearly 

 30 Years Ago. 



After we had wn-itten the first draft of 

 Mr. Eunning 's methods, we began going 

 back in our mind to the time when we 

 first took hold of Gleanings in 1885. We 

 recalled that we visited Mr. Doolittle in 

 1890, and at that time we were much inter- 

 ested in his cellar wdiere he had wintered 

 his bees so many years successfully. The 

 result was that we asked him to w^rite it up. 

 The illustrations for his article appearing 

 in Gleanings at that time (and later print- 

 ed in the A B C of Bee Culture) are here 

 reproduced. By consulting these old wood- 

 cuts it will be seen that Mr. Doolittle was 



long ago an advocate of the very principles 

 that David liunning has found to be so suc- 

 cessful. One of these principles was a roof 

 ])rojecting over the side embankments. The 

 other was a cellar ceiling below the frost- 

 line. The series of doors in the hatchway 

 leading into the cellar proper are very 

 much the same. Mr. Doolittle believed in a 

 temperature of 45 degrees and a very mod- 

 erate amount of ventilation. The hole in 

 his ventilator was 6 x 8 inches. A sub-earth 

 ventilator was aliout the same size as that 

 used by Mr. Running. Pcrhap^ it would be 

 well to mention that Mr. Doolittle in his 

 later years thought less and less of ventila- 

 tion until he finally abandoned it. In this 

 we believe he made a mistake. However, 

 Mr. Kunning says that if the temperature 

 can be maintained uniformly around 45 

 very little ventilation is required. It might 

 be well to mention also that a fence was put 

 in the rear of Doolittle 's cellar so the driv- 

 ing snows w^ould completely cover the roof 

 • — ^not a bad idea; and it goes to show that 

 he was thoroly in accord with the idea of 

 having plenty of top protection. Mr. Doo- 

 little used to say that the variation of tem- 

 perature in his cellar did not exceed two de- 

 grees during the entire wdnter. 



IMPORTANCE of WINTER STORES 



^antity, ^ality, and Arrangement. 

 The Last Stores Gathered by the Bees 

 or Fed to Them Should be the Best 



By Belva M. Demuth 



IN many of 

 the Northern 



States the 

 month of Sep- 

 tember brings an 

 epoch in the life 

 of the colony, 

 for it ushers in 

 the broodless 

 period of fall 

 and winter. Thruout the spring and sum- 

 mer it has been necessary for the bees to 

 rear large numbers of young to replace the 

 wastage of bee life incident to the toil 

 and struggles of the active season. This re- 

 placement of worn-out bees is now tem- 

 porarily discontinued, and the colonies at- 

 tempt "to make their future existence secure 

 by another method — a slowing-down of the 

 expenditure of bee life. 



In order to dispense with brood -rearing 

 entirely until March the colonies must re- 

 auce tVemendousiy. their daily energy out- 

 put, for, if they 'should spend at the same 

 rate as they do in the active season, all of 

 the worker bees, present in our hives on 

 October first, w-ould die of old age before 

 Thanksgiving Day. We know, of course, 

 that the bees slow down their activity dur- 

 ing any lull in nectar-secretion, seemingly, 

 always on the lookout for an opportunity 

 to save their energy. Tinder certain condi- 

 tions, therefore, even during the summer 

 the individual workers may live much 

 longer than the six weeks which is general- 



1 y accepted t o 

 be the normal 

 span of life dur- 

 ing the active 

 season. The su- 

 preme effort to- 

 ward . enejgy- 

 saving and life- 

 p r'^o 1 n g a t i n , 

 however, begins 

 when brood-rearing ceases. It is then that 

 bee energy becomes the best of colony assets. 

 We have, therefore, at the beginning of 

 the broodless period, a stop-gap crew of 

 worker bees, whoso only business in life is 

 to live so slowly that their lives shall be 

 prolonged to several times that of the more 

 active preceding generations, and finally, 

 before the spark of life goes out, to nurse 

 into being a spring crew^ to take up again 

 the life of the colony. This slowing-down 

 of colony activity is well known among 

 beekeepers and has been aptly described by 

 Dzierzon as follows: 



"The vital activity of tlie bees varies a great 

 deal according to circumstances and the time of 

 year, and the ciuantity and quality of food neces- 

 sary are dependent thereon. The quantity of honey 

 which a bee is able to hold in its stomach may, 

 under certain circumstances, afford it ample food 

 for more than a week; and, under different cir- 

 cumstances, may be insufficient to prevent death 

 from starvation within 24 hours. If we compare 

 life to a process of combustion, then a lea's life 

 is at on(! time like a spark glimmering vncler the 

 ashes, and, at another, like a bright flame which 



