150 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



WINTERING IN CELLARS 



The way we always wintered bees in the old days 

 was by placing them in a cellar which was used for 

 vegetables and was ill-ventilated and damp. We 

 well remember that in the spring the cellar windows 

 were covered with arrested prisoners; we do not 

 recollect that we lost many colonies, but if we did not, 

 it was owing to the ways of inscrutable Providence 

 rather than our own understanding of the needs of 

 the bees. Probably most of the bees in the Northern 

 climates are wintered in cellars; and because they are 

 wintered in all sorts of cellars with varying degrees 

 of dampness the mortality among them is likely to be 

 great. A cellar fit for wintering bees should be 

 cemented on the floor and sides, made mouse and rat 

 tight, and should be well drained, well ventilated and 

 so arranged that the temperature may be kept in 

 the neighbourhood of 45 F. In such a cellar the 

 hives lifted off the bottom boards should be placed 

 four or five inches apart on two scantlings laid on 

 the floor. In the next tier the middle of a hive 

 should bridge the opening between the lower hives 

 on which it rests. This arrangement gives plenty 

 of ventilation to the hive from below, and it is very 

 important that the air be introduced below rather 

 than above. The cellar should be kept dark, and if 

 the weather is warm and the bees seem uneasy it 

 should be ventilated at night by opening the windows, 

 which, by the way, should have wire screens to keep 

 out intruders. Some leave the bottom boards out 



