314 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



the bottom-board, and sometimes not a bee will be seen 

 below or between the bottom-bars. When the cluster 

 comes clear down, there may or there may not be bees on 

 the bottom-board. In any case, all the dead bees are 

 cleaned out that can be got without disturbing the living. 

 There is, as has been said, a difference as to the number 

 of dead bees in different colonies, and there seems also a 

 dift'erence in different winters. In some cases perhaps the 

 dead bees all reach the cellar bottom, in others staying in 

 the hive. 



SWEEPING UP DEAD BEES. 



It is very unpleasant to have the dead bees under 

 foot on the cellar bottom. Some fasten them in the hive. 

 Some sprinkle sawdust on the floor. In either case they 

 are left in the cellar to foul the air. It seems much better 

 to sweep out the cellar. During the first Dart of the win- 

 ter very few bees will be on the floor, and sweeping once 

 a month will be enough, or more than enough. Toward 

 spring the deaths will be very much more frequent, and 

 the sweeping must be more frequent. As giving a more 

 definite idea with regard to this, I find by referring to the 

 record that in the winter of 1901-2 the cellar was not 

 swept till Jan. 29 — seventy-five days after the bees were 

 taken in. Then it was swept again after respective inter- 

 vals of twenty-one, nineteen, and five days, the quantity 

 swept out each time being about the same. That gives 

 some idea of the greater mortality as spring approaches. 

 One winter, when the bees were confined 124 days, the 

 dead bees for each colony amounted to four-fifths of a 

 quart or three-fifths of a pound, which made about 2,130' 

 bees for each colony. I think the mortality is usually 

 greater than that. 



FURNACE IN CELLAR. 



In the year 1902 the coal famine following the great 

 anthracite strike caught me with four hard-coal stoves- 



