1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



393 



shows me the necessity of having not less than 20 

 lbs. of stores to go into winter quarters with. 



A BOUNTIFUL HARVEST. 



I have thought a good deal this winter of the 

 prospect for 188(1 for a honey harvest. You know 

 the past two seasons have been none too good. 

 The last year, in fact, as an occupation alone, 

 meant starvation to many. Now, if the farmer 

 had such a failure of crops, we should have pray- 

 ed all over the land, asking Ood for a bountiful 

 harvest. Now, I know you and many of us have 

 faith in prayer; why, then, should we not "ask in 

 faith, nothing wavering" ? Of course, we know in 

 this, as in all temporal matters, we should say, 

 " God willing." R. F. Holtermann. 



Brantford, Canada. 



I believe I agree with you — or at least 

 pretty nearly so. When bees are moved to 

 an out-apiary— say for three or four weeks 

 — they will certainly remember their old 

 stand and make trouble if you don't put 

 them back on their old stand when you get 

 back; but after having been in the same 

 place for three or four months I am of the 

 opinion that there will not be enough going 

 back to make it worth our while to be very 

 precise about it. 



MY BEB-CELLAB AND WINTERING 

 REPORT. 



SAVING STOKES BY UNDERGROUND WINTERING. 



fBRHAPS it is getting a little late to talk about 

 wintering, but I think a record of my experi- 

 ence last winter may be of interest to some. 

 Previous to last winter I had always winter- 

 ed out of doors, except for a couple of small 

 experiments with cellar wintering under unfavor- 

 able circumstances. But although I had never had 

 auy serious losses, and had usually had the best of 

 success in outdoor wintering, I have long wanted 

 to try wintering in the cellar, provided I could 

 make a cellar I considered satisfactory. I did not 

 want to be obliged to fuss with hard-coal fires, oil- 

 stoves, sub-earth ventilators, etc., to keep the tem- 

 perature up or down. 1 thought a cellar ought to 

 take care of itself, and such a cellar I now have. 



My apiary is situated just on the edge of a bluff 

 about 70 feet high. At the bottom of this bluff is a 

 vein of coal, scarcely thick enough to be profitably 

 worked, yet mined to some extent. A year ago last 

 winter I set two men at work to run a "drift" di- 

 rectly under my apiary. When completed as far as 

 I cared to have it, it was a hole from three to four 

 feet square, running HO feet straight into the bluff, 

 then at right angles to form a chamber. This was 

 my wintering-cellar. Well drained, propped, and 

 secured, it cost me nothing. Sixty feet away from 

 the outside air in any direction, changes of temper- 

 ature outside could scarcely affect it, hardly a ray 

 of daylight could ever come, and no sound or 

 shock ever came from the outside world, except 

 the very faiut rumble of a train passing near by on 

 the bluff above. 



Between Nov. 24 and Dec. 4 I put into this cellar 

 31 colonies of beee. Until Jan. 10 the mouth of the 

 mine was left entirely open, the temperature in- 

 side ranging from 45 to 50°. I then put in a rough 

 board door, having numerous cracks through and 

 around it, but no other provision for ventilation. 



The temperature now rose to 52°, never going be- 

 low 51, and only once rising to 55, after long-con- 

 tinued warm weather, 70° outside, in the shade. I 

 had feared that the cellar would be rather damp; 

 but it did not prove so, and very few combs showed 

 any mold. The bees were quiet all through the 

 winter; and when removed, most of them Apr. 10, 

 they were clean, dry, and slim-bodied, only two 

 showing any signs of diarrhea. All were alive, 

 though two queenless colonies had to be united. 



I have just examined all thoroughly; and in 

 amount of brood and bees they compare very fa- 

 vorably with those wintered out of doors. The 

 saving of honey was very marked. I am sorry 

 that I did not weigh each and keep a record ; but to 

 the best of my belief and judgment there was an 

 average saving of six pounds of honey per colony. 



1 make this report, not simply because it is a suc- 

 cessful instance of cellar wintering, but to show 

 that bees will live, keep quiet, and thrive, in a cel- 

 lar much warmer than is usually considered prop- 

 er. !£ may, too, give a hint on cellar construction 

 to some. 



Of 85 colonies wintered out of doors, all were 

 alive, but two were queenless, and were according- 

 ly united, which 1 think closes the list of my win- 

 ter losses. J. A. Green. 



Dayton, 111., Apr. 27, 1889. 



Well, friend Green, you have a bee -cellar 

 that is all right, I should think, if anybody 

 has, unless, indeed, from 50 to 55 is too 

 warm. Why not leave the openings unob- 

 structed, so as to reduce it from 45 to 50 ? 

 You say tt cost you nothing. Surely run- 

 ning a drift 60 feet must have cost quite a 

 little sum of money. I am curious about 

 the matter, because I think I can get a 

 spring for irrigating by running a tunnel 

 horizontally into a side-hill ; and I wish that 

 somebody would tell me the cheapest way 

 to do it. I suppose a 4 to 6 inch tile would 

 answer just as well as a tunnel, if large 

 enough for a man to crawl in. But how am 

 I to run a tile, say 200 or 300 feet into the 

 hillside V Some of the readers of Glean- 

 ings who are used to coal-mining can per- 

 haps tell me how to do it cheapest. I very 

 much prefer tile to a wooden tunnel So 

 far as I know, wood seems to be the only 

 material used for running into a hill. 



THE ALABAMA "BLACK BELT." 



FRIEND CURTIS SUGGESTS EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR 

 LEISURE HOURS. 



fRIEND ROOT:— It is a long time since my 

 name has appeared in Gleanings; but our 

 work among the f reedmen, in which I have 

 been engaged for the last ten years, is too 

 taxing on time and strength to allow much 

 writing on outside subjects. I generally manage, 

 however, to glance through Gleanings, especially 

 "Our Homes;" and your California notes, and the 

 Question-box, have intensely interested and greatly 

 profited me. 



The answers to Question 104, about the employ- 

 ment of our leisure hours, have particularly re- 

 joiced me. Can any other secular profession show 

 so many earnest Christian workers? The fact so 



