12 



TEE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



Jaauary 



(From American Bee Journal.) 



ABOUT THE CELLAR WINTERING 

 OF BEES, 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



The time has come to put the bees 

 into winter quarters, and if they are 

 to be placed in the cellar, that job 

 ought not to be deferred beyond De- 

 cember 10, unless the weather is un- 

 usually fair. As a matter of course 

 it is not advisable to move them to the 

 cellar in warm weather, for they are 

 much more restless, and more bees are 

 lost, than in cold weather. In ad- 

 dition to this, the warm days are bene- 

 ficial to them if they can have a flight* 

 When we put bees into our bee- 

 cellar, we usually select a cold day, in 

 the beginning of December, or the 

 last days of November. The caps or 

 covers of the hives are left on the 

 summer stand with the number of 

 each hive marked inside of the cap, so 

 that they may be returned to the same 

 spot in the spring. We know that 

 many apiarists consider this superflu- 

 ous. We do not, for we have had 

 very clear evidence that many of the 

 bees remember their location, even 

 after four months of confinement, and 

 that a change helps to bewilder them 

 when they are first removed. It may 

 not be amiss to state in what manner 

 we ascertained this. 



We have, in our home apiary, two 

 styles of hives, that is, hives contain- 

 ing frames of two different sizes. 

 About half of them are with our reg- 

 ular Quiuby frames, and the rest in 

 frames similar to the American hive 

 frames, measuring about 12x13 in- 

 ches. As it is inconvenient to have 

 the two different styles side by side, 

 we have separated the hives into two 



yards, one on each side of the road 

 leading up to the house. A few years 

 ago, it happened that, in catching two 

 or three swarms, some of the hives 

 were placed in the wrong yard, and 

 we neglected to move them away. 

 When they were put in winter quar- 

 ters, we concluded that we would 

 make the exchange in the spring, at 

 their removal from the cellar. This 

 was done. All the colonies that were 

 removed from the cellar that day be- 

 haved very nicely, except the two or 

 three that had been exchanged in lo- 

 cation. The uproar among these was 

 such that we concluded to move them 

 back, so as to regain the lost bees. 



We believe a great deal of the 

 trouble experienced by beginners with 

 bees that are removed from the cellar 

 —hive deserting, fighting, dwindling 

 —during the first few days, is caused 

 by their having placed them in a 

 changed location. So we strongly 

 urge those who can do it easily, to 

 leave the cap, or cover, with a maik 

 at the exact spot occupied by the hive. 

 This cap, or cover, is not needed in 

 the cellar, for the bees should be give n 

 a certain amount of upward ventila- 

 tion. 



We do not like to place any of the 

 hives next to the cellar floor. In all 

 our experience, whenever the combs 

 have suffered from mold, or the hive 

 has proven damp, it was in the low- 

 est tiers, in the cellar. If the hive? 

 are kept on joints or shelves, a foot or 

 more from the floor, the conditions* 

 will be much more satisfactory. Buti 

 they may be piled up in tiers of three, 

 four or even more. The entrance is 

 left wide open, but darkness is neces- 

 sary, and quiet is justaaindepensable 

 as the absence of light. We have a 



