214 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



WINTERING IN A SLIGHTLY DAMP 

 CELLAR. 



A Good Record; Disturbances Seem to Do 

 no Harm. 



BY WM. L. COOPER. 



Having read with much interest Mr. Alex- 

 ander's article on the necessity of quiet in an 

 ideal bee-cellar, I think that a short account 

 of the successful wintering of bees in a cel- 

 lar which is by no means ideal may be of in- 

 terest to some readers of Gleanings. My 

 bee-cellar, which has been in use for that 

 purpose for six years, is beneath a two-room 

 dwelling-house. I never thought it a partic- 

 ularly damp cellar; but as roots do not dry 

 out in it, it would not come under the defini- 

 tion of a dry cellar as lately given in Glean- 

 ings. Every day in the course of the winter, 

 and often several times in the day, I am 

 down in the cellar with a lantern, getting 

 roots for the cattle. At least once every day 

 the root-pulper is at work there — a thing not 

 conducive to quiet. I admit that I was very 

 nervous as to the effect of the pulper on the 

 bees, but the results have proved satisfactory. 



Last year seventy colonies went into win- 

 ter quarters here, and the same number 

 came out, apparently nearly as strong as 

 they went in. Of nine colonies weighed, the 

 lowest honey consumption was 5 lbs.; the 

 highest, 14 lbs.; the average, rather over 8. 

 The year before, 42 colonies were wintered 

 without loss. In the six years, 1 have lost 

 four colonies in this cellar, in every case 

 from want of stores The temperature va- 

 ries from 43 to 47. There are three outside 

 ventilators, and a pipe which passes through 

 the floor into the stovepipe of the room above. 

 One or more of the outside ventilators are 

 closed in intensely cold weather, say from 

 30 to 40 below zero, especially if there is a 

 high wind. These ventilators are wooden 

 pipes four inches by eight; the one into the 

 stovepipe is a four inch galvanized-iron pipe. 



The hives have their summer entran<-es, 

 and are raised from the bottom- board at the 

 back by two f -inch blocks, in bringing bees 

 up from the yard, a piece of lumber is put 

 in the entrance to prevent bees flying. On 

 two occasions I forgot to remove this from a 

 hive, but they seemed to winter about the 

 same, so I suppose so much ventilation is 

 not essential. 



Apparently it is universally agreed among 

 bee-keepers that brood-raising in the cellar 

 is detrimental. My general rule is to set 

 bees out on the first suitable day after April 

 15, and I generally look over every colony 

 as soon as possible. I should say that, out 

 of every ten colonies at this date, one will 

 have a good deal of sealed brood and a few 

 young bees; two will have a little sealed 

 brood; five will have more or less unsealed 

 brood, and two with eggs. I do not recol- 

 lect ever finding a queen-right colony with- 

 out eggs when taken from the cellar. It 

 seems to make no difference what date bees 

 are taken out after April i5, brood in some- 

 thing like the proportion mentioned will al- 



ways be found. I have been unable to see 

 that the vitality of the colony is seriously 

 affected by this cellar brood-raising. 



Just after getting bees out last spring we 

 got a warm day. I had looked over ten col- 

 onies when it clouded over, and for two 

 weeks after that it was not fit to open a hive. 

 I was very sorry that I had meddled with 

 those colonies at all. Yet when I next ex- 

 amined the apiary every one of the ten had 

 progressed in brood-raising, proportionately 

 to their strength, more than those which had 

 been left alone. Was this a coincidence, or 

 had the stirring-up actually stimulated them? 



A further report on the ALEXANDER 

 PLAN FOR WEAK COLONIES. 



Last year you published an article by me 

 describing my failure with the Alexander 

 method of building up weak colonies in the 

 spring. The bees did not fight, but the low- 

 er colony simply declined co assist the up- 

 per, and itself did not do well. This year I 

 tried again. In one case it was a brilliant 

 success, both colonies building up in a way 

 that seemed almost incredible. In four oth- 

 ers it failed again, and in three out of these 

 four 1 have placed the cause of failure — the 

 queen in the weak colony was "no good." 

 With Mr. Alexander's careful and methodi- 

 cal weeding-out of all poor queens this would 

 not occur; but I suspect it accounts for many 

 of the failures reported. Still, the fourth case 

 remains a mystery to me. The lower colony 

 was very strong, and there was no fighting; 

 but two weeks after placing the weak colony 

 on top there were just about as few bees in 

 it as when it was first put there. The lower 

 bees did not even help themselves to the un- 

 sealed honey, of which there was quite a lot. 

 I had intended to raise a frame of brood and 

 see if that would draw them up; but, finding 

 a queenless colony, I transferred the top 

 queen to it, and she did excellent work there. 



Cannington Manor, Sask., Can. 



[The cellar here described we should say 

 is not necessarily a bad place in which to 

 winter bees — quite the contrary. The damp- 

 ness present is rather in its favor than oth- 

 erwise. A place that is bone-dry is not as 

 good as one where there is a reasonable 

 amount of moisture. If a pudding is to be 

 judged by the eating of it. this cellar is a 

 good place in which to winter bees. — Ed.] 



THE AMERICAN HIVE SYSTEM IN EUROPE. 



One of the best bee- journals published in 

 Germany is the Deutsche lllustrierte Bienen- 

 zeitung, published in Leipzig by C. F. W. 

 Fest; yet in the number for January, Pastor 

 Strauli makes a strong plea for the American 

 hive system. Some of the best bee authori- 

 ties in Germany write for this journal — for 

 example, the two Kranchers and Weygandt, 

 so it can not be said that it is not representa- 

 *tive of the country. In the same issue is an 

 answer by Dr Kuckuck himself to criticisms 

 of his book on parthenogenesis by Dr. Buttel- 

 Reepen, of Oldenburg. w. k. m. 



