320 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aril. 



While it looked real easy I could not be con- 

 tent until "I tried it too. 



" To prevent the bees flying out when 

 about to remove them to their winter quar- 

 ters, I am particular," he said " not to jar 

 the hive unnecessarily, and then I prefer to 

 have the weather just cool enough at the 

 time so that the bees cluster a little closer 

 than usual. 



" You see," he continued, "I letter each 

 row in the apiary, and number each individ- 

 ual stand. Now, when I get ready to carry 

 the bees out I take the first hive I come to, 

 which, in this case, proves to be F 18. Of 

 course, I know where the F row is ; and 18 

 I know to be somewhere about the middle 

 of the row : and with the hive in this fash- 

 ion " (holding it in the manner I have be- 

 fore explained) "I take a bee-line to the bot- 

 tom-board having the same marking as the 

 hive." 



" But," I said, " do you think it makes 

 any great difference as to where the colo- 

 nies are put?" 



"Not much, but it does some; and if I 

 can deposit each colony where it was last 

 fall, just as easily as not, I very much pre- 

 fer to do so rather than to set them out hap- 

 hazard. There is then no confusion among 

 the bees when they take their first flight ; 

 for some old bees will be sure to know 

 where their old stand used to be." 



" 1 want to know what sort of a cover you 

 put over the frames in winter." 



" All the bees have is the regular hive- 

 cover, and this they usually glue down 

 tight ; that is, I put the bees into the repos- 

 itory just as I find them on their summer 

 stands, alter I have satisfied myself as to 

 their strength and amount of stores." 



Now. perhaps some of our readers will be- 

 gin to wonder whether those bees, during 

 all this time when the repository was light- 

 ed as light as any ordinary room, did not be- 

 come more or less disturbed, and fly out. I 

 expected to see them fly out a great deal 

 more than they did ; but only here and there 

 a bee would start out from its hive, and 

 strike for outdoors. Then 1 said to Mr. 

 Boardman, " You would not like to leave 

 this compartment lighted up like this all 

 day would you?" 



" No, sir ; but for a short time it does no 

 particular harm. The few bees that fly out 

 are old ones, rather feeble, and are not of 

 much use to the colony. My colonies have 

 been rearing brood quite heavily, and there 

 is a large force of younger bees to take their 

 place." 



Glancing down to the floor (concrete ce- 

 ment) I noticed there were a good many 

 dead bees. In some places, perhaps they 

 were an inch or so deep. 



" Now, it seems to me you have got a good 

 many more dead bees as the result of your 

 indoor wintering than we have from our 

 chaff hives, on their summer stands." 



"Yes; but," said he, " I think you will 

 find that the bees fly out from the chaff 

 hives in the same way. These, never re- 

 turning, are lost sight of, and of course do 

 not figure very largely in the eyes of the 

 bee-keeper, on the death-list." 



Wh}le I admitted this, it did seem to me 



there were more, perhaps, than we usually 

 lose in that way on summer stands. I say 

 " seem," because I am not sure about this. 



The dinner-hour approaching, Mr. Board- 

 man closed up the windows, darkened them, 

 and closed all openings except the door to 

 the entry way A, shown in the diagram 

 above. As we stood before the building I 

 said to Mr. Boardman, " It is not yet quite 

 clear in my mind whether you open that 

 door to give ventilation or to lower the tem- 

 perature, or to do both." 



" Bottom ventilation to the hive is all that 

 I regard as important. I open the door sim- 

 ply to lower the temperature of the reposi- 

 tory." 



'"But," I said, "don't you have a sub- 

 earth ventilator of some kind to the build- 

 ing?" 



"Ido not see what need I have of one. 

 As I only want to lower the temperature, I 

 can do it by a door or window a little better, 

 perhaps, than to let the air become warmed 

 under ground a little before entering the 

 compartment." 



As we were entering the house, I told Mr. 

 Boardman that I should like to take the 

 noon train. 



" Oh, no !" said my host. " You had bet- 

 ter take the evening train." 



Having enjoyed my visit so far, it did not 

 take very much persuasion on his part and 

 that of his good wife to induce me to re- 

 main over a little longer. Besides, as he 

 had promised that he would take me out to 

 his out-apiaries I did not feel like resisting 

 very hard. Accordingly, after dinner we 

 went out to the barn, where Mr. Boardman 

 had three horses, one of them being a fami- 

 ly horse, and the other two devoted exclu- 

 sively to the bees, in going to and from the 

 out-apiaries. Very soon we were on our 

 way, on a brisk trot, to one of his east apia- 

 ries. After going about a mile and a half 

 we came to a piece of land belonging to Mr. 

 Boardman. An old schoolhouse on this 

 plot of ground had been converted into a 

 winter repository. Like the one at home, it 

 was an up-ground structure. The walls 

 were 14 inches thick, and frost-proof. This 

 building had only one compartment, which 

 communicated with an entryway, and the 

 latter to the outside. My friend then 

 brought something like a dozen colonies, 

 selected at random, out to the light, for my 

 inspection. They were all in most excellent 

 condition, and the weak ones seemed to be 

 doing about as well as the strong ones. As 

 before, I noticed dead bees on the floor, but 

 not to the extent that they seemed to be in 

 the winter repository at home. After clos- 

 ing the building we started lor an out-api- 

 ary some two or three miles further east. 

 Of course, we talked all the way. I asked 

 him if he preferred up-ground repositories 

 rather than a good cellar. 



" I prefer them simply as a matter of con- 

 venience," he said, " in carrying bees in and 

 out. I do not know that the bees will win- 

 ter any better in one than in the other. We 

 are now going to one of my bee-cellars un- 

 der a farmhouse, where I think you will find 

 the bees wintering as well as in either of 

 the other repositories." 



