SEPTEMBER 1, 1912 



549 



Fig. 1. — Home of Geo. H. Kirkpatrick, Rapid City, Mich., "built by the bees. 



CELLAR WINTERING 



Size and Construction of Cellars 



BY G. H. KIRKPATRICK. 



Although I established my first out- 

 a}3iai"y over 25 years ago, I have always 

 wintered my bees in cellars, of which I 

 now have three. My experience is that 

 the size of the cellar to be used depends 

 ui)on the number of colonies to be win- 

 tered. Each colony must have not less 

 than 15 cubic feet. In this northern cli- 

 mate our soil is generally sandy and the 

 cellars dry. 



I place my bees in the cellars, usually, 

 about the first to the tenth of November. 

 It sometimes happens that we have a few 



Fig. 2. — Hand sled used in carrying bees into the cellars. 



inches of snow at this date; and then 

 when moving the bees from their summer 

 stands to the cellar I use a pair of light 

 hand sleighs, seven feet in length, Fig. 2. 

 We begin at the further end of the yard 

 from the cellar; get the sleighs in j^lace, 

 then gently press a little snow along the 

 entrance of the first hive to close it. The 

 cover is tiien removed; a cjuilt is made from 

 two layers of carpet, and placed over the 

 toiD of the hive. In this way five colonies 

 are prepared and set on the sleighs, and 

 drawn to the cellar and placed as shown 

 in Fig. 3. 



The windows are fitted with wire screen, 

 and are left open to admit a free circula- 

 tion of air until settled cold weather comes, 

 when they are jDaeked with straw which is 

 left until about March 

 15. After this the win- 

 dows are left open ex- 

 cept on warm days, 

 when they are darken- 

 ed. Should there be no 

 snow at the time of set- 

 ting the bees in the cel- 

 lar I use a wheelbar- 

 row instead of a sleigh. 

 I have one cellar in 

 heavy clay soil, and 



