1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



187 



aiso stroDfjly favor setting- bees on the sum- 

 mer stands very early in the da}', or just 

 before it is warm enough for a flight. By 

 so doing, the bees come out more gradually 

 as the temperature rises. There is a slight 

 danger of a change in the weather; but 

 here, as in other places, the experienced, 

 careful, and observing person has some ad- 

 vantag-e. With good wintering there is no 

 need of changing or cleaning bottom-boards. 

 Thej' should be clean, dry, and sweet; but 

 if there are dead bees on the bottom-board 

 to any extent I would change these after 

 the bees are through flying. With the help 

 of another this can be done very quickly. 

 The sealed quilt should be left untouched, 

 and entrance-blocks should be adjusted to 

 suit the strength of the colony. When bees 

 are set out early, before pollen or honey 

 can be gathered, shade-boards should be 

 placed over the entrance, and taken down 

 onlj' when the bees can fly without chill- 

 ing. Shade-boards over the entrance will 

 also be found an advantage when bees are 

 likely to fly during unfavorable weather, 

 even when pollen or honey may be secured. 



To recapitulate briefly: Set bees out as 

 early in March as they can get a cleansing 

 flight, if they become diseased. If quiet 

 and healthy, leave them in the cellar until 

 the first pollen appears. The poorer they 

 winter, the fewer should be set out at one 

 time. Set out when the indications are that 

 it will be warm and fair,, but before it is. 

 Keep in, by means of shade, or even close 

 up those that have had a flight, and might 

 rob those having a first flight. 



In closing-, let me say I do not know if it 

 is desirable that bees be returned to the 

 stand from which the}' came. I doubt if it 

 is necessary. By following the points giv- 

 en above, we shall steer clear of that which 

 tends most to draw the bees away from 

 their own hive during the first flight; and 

 to be perfectly safe it is, perhaps, as well 

 to return each hive to the old stand. 



Brantford, Ont., Can. 



[It may be well to bear in mind that lo- 

 calities vary greatly as to the proper time 

 to set bees out. Dr. Miller once gave the 

 good rule that applies equally to all places, 

 to set out when the soft maples come into 

 bloom. This will usually be about the 

 time when safe warm weather comes on. 

 AVe shall, however, set our bees out late 

 rather than early. We are liable to have a 

 very warm spell in April, during which the 

 bees will get a large amount of brood start- 

 ed. This will be followed by cold weather 

 during which not only a large part of the 

 brood is lost, but many of the bees, in their 

 efforts to hover and preserve the brood. It 

 therefore seems to me (except in the case of 

 actually diseased colonies) that March 15 

 is about a month too early for most locali- 

 ties. Last year we did not set our cellar 

 bees out till after the ist of I\Iay, and those 

 colonies proved to be the best we had. Of 

 course, if one can't keep his bees quiet he 

 will have to set them out earlier. 



Mr. Holtermann is exactly right in ad- 

 vising the setting-out of a few colonies at a 

 time. Indeed, I indorse everything else he 

 says, except as to the time of setting the 

 bees out. — Ed.] 



.-.->-»♦>»»»•»• . ■ ■ 



VENTILATION OF BEECELLARS. 



A Reply to T. F. Bingham. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



[The following article was intended to follow imme- 

 diately after Mr. Bingham's, to which it is in reply, in 

 our ^'eb. 1.5th issue ; but it arrived just after our forms 

 had been made up. The reader is requested to turn to 

 page 1.54, and then he will understand this article a 

 little better.— Ed.] 



Mr. Editor: — At last our snow blockade 

 is oft", and we get our mail again, the first 

 time for nearly a week. You ought to see 

 our roads. Many are the drifts from six to 

 twelve feet deep, and we have shoveled and 

 shoveled till we are all glad to be in com- 

 munication with the outside world again. 

 One of the good things is that it is not so 

 extremely cold, four degrees below zero be- 

 irig the coldest. With the opening of the 

 roads came your letter, containing proof of 

 Mr. Bingham's article, with your footnotes 

 thereto, together with a stack of mail that 

 will take me days to wade through. I thank 

 }'Ou very much for sending this proof, and 

 giving me a chance to say a few words in 

 the same issue. 



The discussion now going on relative to 

 this ventilation matter reminds me of the 

 seventies and early eighties, when we were 

 at it "hot and heavy," only a little being 

 said at this time about the "sub-earth" 

 part, which was then thought to be the 

 most necessary part in the matter, the up- 

 per ventilator being opened and closed as 

 the temperature of the repository said was 

 necessary; and the opening and shutting of 

 ventilators, as spoken of then, and at the 

 present time, brings back very forcibly to 

 my mind just how I used to run out to the 

 cellar with every change of wind and tem- 

 perature, else the cellar would be nearly or 

 quite freezing one day and too warm soon 

 after. I followed this for several years, as 

 did scores, if not hundreds, of others, until 

 it began to dawn on my mind that perhaps 

 this matter of ventilation might possibly be 

 overdrawn, and I mistrust tha't some of 

 those who are now so sure that ventilation 

 is the main thing in cellar wintering may 

 weaken somewhat in the matter as tiine 

 passes into years. With this "dawning" 

 I began to leave the ventilators closed a 

 part of the time, especially the sub-earth 

 one, and found that the bees wintered bet- 

 ter than they had at any time before, not- 

 withstanding all the labor I had been to 

 in fussing with ventilators. 



The next winter, during a cold spell I 

 kept all closed for two weeks, and found on 

 going into the cellar that the bees were in 

 the nicest condition I had ever seen them up 

 to this time, so I left all closed for another 

 two weeks, when another examination show- 



