FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 313 



MICE IN BEE-CELLARS. 



Mice are troublesome denizens of cellars in winter. 

 Even if a cellar should be entirely free from them, they 

 are likely to be brought into the cellar with the bees when 

 the hives are brought in. Some winters I have closed 

 the entrances with heavy wire-cloth having three meshes 

 to the inch. This shuts out mice without hindering the 

 free passage of bees. Even if a mouse is shut up in a 

 hive, it will not be so bad as to let it have the free run of 

 the cellar. Other winters traps have been used and 

 various poisons, perhaps the most satisfactory poison be- 

 ing strychnine thinly spread upon very thin slices of 

 cheese, the cheese being then cut into tiny squares. 



CLEANING OUT DEAD BEES. 



Aside from attending to warming and ventilating my 

 cellar, and waging war against the mice, I think of no 

 other attention given to the bees through the winter, ex- 

 cept cleaning out the dead bees. For cleaning them out 

 of those hives which have them — for some reason of 

 which I am not yet sure, there are some hives which 

 contain scarcely a dead bee — I have a very simple tool. 

 It is a piece of round, 14 -inch or smaller iron rod, with 

 one end hammered flat for about two inches and bent at 

 right angles, making something like a hook. With this 

 hook I can reach into the hive under the frames and 

 scrape out the dead bees. 



I have a common kerosene hand-lamp with a sheet- 

 iron chimney having a little mica window on one side — 

 such as is used for heating water on lamps. This serves 

 as a dark-lantern, making little light except in one direc- 

 tion. Holding the lamp in my left hand, I look in to see 

 whether any live bees are in sight. Often I see the cluster 

 near the front of the hive, oftener at the center or back 

 part of the hive, the bees looking as if dead, so still are 

 they ; but in a few seconds some one will be seen to stir. 

 Sometimes the cluster will come clear down so as to touch 



