18 FIFTY YEARS A^IONG THE BEES 



bees had gnawed away to get at the honey in the sealed 

 combs. 



In the spring I sawed away that portion of the barrel 

 not occnpied by the bees, and when the time for snrplus 

 arrived I bored holes in the top of the hive and put a 

 good-sized box over. There were holes in the bottom 

 of the box to correspond with the holes in the hive. I 

 made three box-hives, after the Quinby pattern, with spe- 

 cial arrangement for surplus boxes, and they were well 

 nade. 



''taking up'' bees. 



When the bees swarmed I hived them in one of the 

 new hives, and later on "took up" the bees in the barrel. 

 Altogether I got 93 pounds of honey from the barrel, and 

 am a little surprised to find it set down at 12 >^ cents a 

 pound. Perhaps butter was low just then, for in those 

 davs it was a common thing for honey to follow the price 

 of butter. 



I left one of the hives with a farmer, and he hived 

 a prime swarm in it, for which I paid him five dollars. 

 In the remaining hive I had a weak sw^arm hived, paying 

 a dollar for the swarm. I bought a colony of bees besides 

 these, paying $7.00 for hive and bees. 



WINTERING UPSIDE DOWN. 



The bees were wintered in the cellar, and according 

 to Quinby's instructions the hives were turned upside 

 down. That gave ample ventilation, for when the hives 

 were reversed the entire upper surface w^as open, all being 

 closed below. I doubt that any better means of ventila- 

 tion could be devised for wintering bees in the cellar. 

 There is abundant opportunity for the free entrance of 

 air into the hive, without anything to force a current 

 through it. Equally good is the ventilation when all is 

 closed at the top and the whole bottom is open, as when 

 the hives without any bottom-boards are piled up in such 



