FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 3ir 



deaths all occurred in the cellar. They were largely 

 after the bees were taken out in the spring; none the 

 less, however, they were chargeable to bad wintering. 

 I>y the l'2th of May there were left only 1"24 colonies out 

 of 199 put in cellar, and many of them were mere nuclei. 

 A loss of 37 per cent was not gratifying, but bee-keeper- 

 like, I looked forward hopefully to the next winter. 



Alas for my hopes ! Instead of 3T per cent, the loss 

 for the winter of 1903-04 was 47 per cent, leaving 150 

 colonies alive out of 284. And the loss was mainly due 

 to lack of sufficient stores. Some of them died in the 

 cellar, and more would have died there if they had not 

 been taken out a little earlier than was well, so they 

 could be fed. But feeding very early in spring is not so 

 well as having an abundance of stores in the hive in the 

 fall, and the mortality continued well along in spring. 

 The fact that after so many years of experience, and 

 after advising others always to have abundant stores for 

 winter, I should have lost colonies by the score through 

 starvation, was humiliating indeed. 



But conditions were new and I needed to learn that 

 in a cellar with the thermonieter generally ranging from 

 50 to 60, and sometimes going higher, bees consume 

 stores much more rapidly than at a lower temperature,, 

 and to the increasing number of those who are putting 

 furnaces in cellars, I would say, "Look out for starva- 

 tion." 



But along with the disadvantage mentioned, there 

 are not iackmg advantages. Perhaps I ought to say 

 advantage rather than advantages, for the one great ad- 

 vantage is that of an abundant supply of pure, fresh air. 

 Except in the very severest weather, the outside cellar 

 door is more or less open, and the air in the cellar is 

 sweeter than in many — perhaps most — living rooms. 

 That's good for the people living over the cellar, and it 

 must be good for the bees. Inside the hives the combs: 

 are just as dry and nice as in summer. Xo dampness^ 

 no mold, no musty smell. 



