CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 571 



safe side. A hive large enough to cover six combs clear out to the 

 ends, on a cool night, will require six combs filled to average five 

 pounds. The space must be closely filled up by chaff division 

 boards, the main point being a broad apartment closely filled with 

 bees and plenty or good sealed stores in the comb. With these two 

 conditions alone, a hive will generally winter successfully, even in a 

 hive of inch board. The chaff division boards should be used for 

 filling up the space in the hive, for the reason that the chaff or straw 

 on the outside of hives would no more protect the bees from the 

 cold than the bed-clothes on the roof of your house instead of around 

 your body. 



ARRANGING PROTECTION FROM THE COLD In the top story of 

 the hives, from which the surplus honey has been removed during 

 the season, put a chaff cushion, made of burlap or common bag- 

 ging, loosely stuffed with soft oat chaff. Over this, when fixing the 

 bees for the winter, put in a peck of loose chaff, so that there are 

 no crannies nor instertices to allow the frost to get in, or the bees 

 to make their way up under the cover during the warm days of the 

 winter. If some of the chaff rattles down among the bees it wi 1 

 do them no harm, but rather good. Care must be taken not to ha\e 

 the hives too heavily "blanketed; " six inches of chaff is better than 

 a foot ; and the cushions must be perfectly protected from damp- 

 ness. 



ADVANTAGES OF A CELLAR FOR WINTERING BEES In a favora- 

 ble season the ordinary bee-house may answer very well for winter- 

 ing the bees, but where we are subject to fluctuating winter weather, 

 with mild spells, the bees, when they experience unusual warmth, 

 want to get out, and become subject to disturbances which prevent 

 their turning out well in the spring. A good cellar can easily be 

 made, and indeed ought to be, perfectly frost-proof while it remains 

 at a cool temperature. It will generally be dark, and if not, can be 

 made so readily, and we want no windows in an apartment where 

 bees are kept; for the darker it is, the better. Hives should be 

 supported from the floor or ground, and not set upcn shelves, as in 

 this way one hive can be examined without disturbing the others. 

 Bees should never, if possible, be disturbed during the winter. 



PREPARING THE BEES FOR WINTER QUARTERS When the hives 

 have been packed with chaff, as described, they are better to be car- 

 ried into the cellar on the stand they are on. Then when carried 

 out in the spring they are proof against the cold winds and cold 

 nights which almost always ensue in the early part of the season. 

 If kept well warmed in this way, they will go right on brood-rear- 

 ing during the' winter, and are that much more valuable in the 

 spring. 



TIME OF PUTTING THE BEES INTO THE CELLAR If the bees are 

 packed up and put away before the first frost comes, so much the 

 better, and they should be put indoors on some dry day when the 

 hives are perfectly free from dampness. The hives should be con< 



