DECEMBER 15, 1912 



795 



Conversations with Doolittle 



At Borodino, New York. 



LIGHT IN BEE-CELLAR, ETC. 

 " Can bees be wintered in a cellar which is light 

 as well as one which is totally dark?" 



" It is generally believed that bees win- 

 ter best in a perfectl}- dark cellar; and 

 where the cellar may be either light or dark, 

 choose the dark one. This advice is espe- 

 cially for the novice, or the one just start- 

 ing in wintering bees in the cellar. But 

 for the experienced apiarist I would say 

 that darkness is not a necessity. Bees 

 have been successfully wintered in the 

 farmer's cellar, where my out-apiary is sit- 

 uated, for over twenty years. In fact, per- 

 haps the bees winter just as well there on 

 an average as here at home in my special 

 bee-cellar where it is so dark that one can 

 not see a piece of perfectly white paper 

 waved within four inches of his eyes. The 

 farmer uses his cellar just the same as he 

 ever did except just the space which the 

 bees occupy. He carries stuff to and from 

 the cellar at any time during the winter. 

 Wlien he is loading his cabbage, potatoes, 

 or anj' other truck for market, the outside, 

 or what is called the " bulk head " door, is 

 left open for one, two, or three hours as 

 may be required, while the three windows 

 in the cellar walls are left uncovered in 

 winter the same as in summer, so that the 

 family may have light when getting the 

 various things needed for family use. No 

 attention is paid to the light or outside air 

 entering except that I set the hives so that 

 the entrances face the rear wall. 



" The bulkhead door spoken of, leading 

 into the cellar, is in the front wall, together 

 with one window; and there is a window in 

 the center of eiich side wall, but none in the 

 back wall. At first I thought that these 

 windoAvs must be darkened, and that the 

 outside door, if opened up for loading 

 things, must have a blanket hung np in 

 front so that it would keep things as dark 

 as possible, except when passing through 

 the doorway. But the farmer said if that 

 must be required, I would have to winter 

 the bees somewhere else, and so I conclud- 

 ed to try one winter with his using the cel- 

 lar as he always had done. And that trial 

 has lengthened out to over twenty years. 

 With the hives set close together, with the 

 entrances toward the wall, and as near the 

 rear wall as possible and not have the bot- 

 tom-boards touch it, the bees are in a sort 

 of semi-darkness; or, in other words, the 

 light does not directly strike them; but 

 from the number dying on the cellar bot- 

 tom I can see no difference in favor of my 



undisturbed, perfectly dark special reposi- 

 tory here at home. Another thing, I have 

 never found twenty bees dead about the 

 windows in either wall, which shows that 

 light from these windows does no harm." 



" What is the best way to keep the hands clean 

 when working with the bees at times when there is 

 a rush of honey coming in, when it drops from the 

 cells on account of the thinness of the nectar ?" 



" Wipe the honey off on your pantaloons, 

 of course. Strange that you did not know 

 of this trick. In the infancy of my bee- 

 keeping experience I went to see an old 

 beekeeper of a quarter-century standing in 

 his profession. The time of year was when 

 thin nectar was coming in; and every time 

 he got his hands daubed with this thin hon- 

 ey he would use his trousers for a towel. 

 By the looks, no one would hesitate to say 

 that those trousers would stand alone after 

 he had shed them at night. When I came 

 home I told Mrs. D. that I had found out 

 how to get rid of that disagi-eeable sticki- 

 ness I had complained to her about the day 

 before. But she objected to my using this 

 way. So the result was that three or four 

 crocks with water in them were placed at 

 convenient points about the apiary." 



" Lastly, are there queen-cells in all well-regulat- 

 ed colonies at all times of the year ? I am told to 

 look for queen-cells for indications of swarming ; 

 but I find them on the combs in the fall of the year 

 when I am preparing my bees for winter." 



" It is supposed by the writers in our bee 

 papers that the readers of these papers have 

 learned at least some of the rudimentary 

 l^rinciples of beekeeping by reading one or 

 more of our good bee books which enter 

 into the little details of the pursuit. What 

 3'ou see in the fall on the combs are queen- 

 cups, or embryo queen-cells. These resem- 

 ble an acorn-cradle or saucer. These are 

 found in every colony after the hives are 

 filled with comb, so far as my experience 

 goes. These cups are not more than one- 

 fourth to three-eighths of an inch deep, and 

 are no sign of swarming. When the bees 

 are preparing for swarming they draw out 

 the edges all around the cradle or add new 

 wax to these edges till you find thin Avails 

 half an inch or more deep, at which time 

 an egg is deposited in them by the queen. 

 This is an indication that such a colony 

 intends to swarm unless prevented by the 

 apiarist, or bad Aveather causing a dearth 

 of nectar. In eight or nine days after the 

 queen lays an egg in these thin-Avalled 

 queen-cells, the cells are sealed over; and, 

 unless a sAvarm issues sooner, you may ex- 

 pect the SAvarm to come out the day after 

 the first queen-cell is sealed." 



