THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



103 



and the cnmbs may then be revolved. The 

 mere art of emptying a comb and returning the 

 same, and allowing it to occupy the same posi- 

 tion it did bffore emptying, does the queen no 

 good service for the purpose of depositing eggs, 

 for the reason that the comb emptied where the 

 frames are not combined one above the other, 

 only furnishes room for storing honey. We 

 must have means by which we can keep the 

 colonies strong, by furnishing empty cells below 

 the brood. J. W. Seat. 



MoNKOE, Iowa. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



"Wintering Bees. 



Mr. Editor :— I this morning got down my 

 ink and paper, thinking to write a short article 

 for the Journal, on wintering bees. I also 

 took down a ttundle of Bee Journals, and I 

 declare I got so much interested in looking over 

 them, that I almost forgot to write. It does 

 seem to me that the Bee Journal is becoming 

 more and more interesting all the time. But 

 this is not coming to the point. What I Avant 

 to write about is, how I have wintered my bees. 

 I have tried various ways, but my best success 

 was by placing them in my cellar. We fre- 

 quently hear some of our friends complain 

 through the Journal, that their bees did not do 

 well in the cellar ; but I must say that mine 

 have always exceeded my exi)ecfations. 



Last winter I put a partition in my cellar, 

 which made a place about til'teen feet square on 

 the ground and about six feet deep. In this I 

 placed some seventy stocks, most of which win- 

 tered finely, though they became very uneasy 

 in the latter part of February, on account of a 

 warm sultry spell of weather. I opened the 

 windows and door at night, which at first 

 only seemed to make them more uneasy ; but 

 after the door was kept open for some lime, 

 they became more quiet. After two or three 

 days of warm weather, it got cold again till 

 some time in March, when it became so w^arm 

 once more that I was obliged to take them out 

 in a drizzling rain. The bees flew rapidly 

 though it was raining, and I think a considera- 

 ble number were lost. Nevertheless I think I 

 never saw stronger stocks than most of mine 

 were last spring, commencing to swarm by the 

 middle of May. I would remark here that I 

 discovered, on placing my bees on their stands, 

 that they remembered their old locations, for 

 whenever we misplaced a hive the bees imme- 

 diately flew to their former locations. 



As to the manner of placing the hives in the 

 cellar. I use the Langstroth hive, and mostly 

 take off all the surplus boxes, leaving part of 

 the holes in the honey board uncovered ; but 

 last winter most of them remained on the hives. 

 I may say here that I think a set of empty 

 boxes, not sealed up tight would give all the 

 ventilation necessary. As a general thing, I 

 consider it more important to have the cellar 

 well veniilated, than giving too much to the 

 Live. I carried quite a bed of straw in the cel- 



lar, to absorb the moisture, in addition to having 

 my cellar well ventilated. Well, says some 

 one, how do you manage to ventilate your cel- 

 lar? I ventilate mine by a seven inch stove- 

 pipe running from the cellar up to the flue at 

 the roof of the house ; and, by the way, I think 

 it wrong, in this age of improvement, that a 

 good house should be built without ventilating 

 the cellar propei-ly ; as I deem it very import- 

 ant both to the health of the family and that of 

 the bees. It matters not how you ventilate ; 

 that is, whether it is by a stone, brick, or 

 wooden flue. A ventilator might be made of 

 inch lumber that would answer very well, 

 though you could in that case not use any fire. 

 In my cellar I built up a small furnace with 

 brick and set my stovepipe on it. Thus I can 

 put fire in, if I wish, and expel some of the 

 dam.pness out of the cellar. 



As for placing my hives so as to be able to 

 see such stock of bees as Mr. Gallup suggests, 

 at any time in the winter, I have not room 

 enough for that. I piled the hives on top of 

 each other till I had my small apartment as full 

 as I could stow it, leaving only one passage way 

 to the door. With my cellar ventilated and my 

 bees placed in it in this manner, they are com- 

 fortable. By removing the caps of the hives I 

 might stow in more stocks ; but I fear they 

 would not be so healthy. If the necessary ven- 

 tilation is given to both cellar and bees, I think 

 you can safely pack your cellar as full as it will 

 iiold. I pref'.n- to set them up a little way from 

 the ground ; though if the cellar is very dry 

 and you litter it well with straw you may set 

 them on that without risk of damage. I also 

 have an outside cellar door, which is servicea- 

 ble when carrying your hives in or out. The 

 doorway of this is also packed full of straw. 

 Now, when my cellar is thus packed full there 

 is no chance to see in what condition the bees 

 are, except perhaps some of those in the outer 

 tiers. I have had my bees in the cellar four 

 mouths at a stretch, and they did well. 



Let me now also suggest an idea about win- 

 tering bees on their summer stands ; and that is 

 simply by placing the hives in a box large 

 enough to enclose the whole hive and leave 

 space all around. A common dry goods would 

 answer ; and I am satisfied it would pay ex- 

 penses. I have two stocks or swarms that I 

 placed in such boxes this summer, and think it 

 will be just the place for them in winter. But, 

 inquires some one, how do the bees get into 

 your hive, if you enclose it in a box ? You 

 must of course make an entrance corresponding 

 with the entrance of the hive, Then we can 

 pack straw or any warm material around the 

 hive, and make the bees as comfortable as maj'' 

 be desirable. I tried these two swarms as an 

 experiment, and I think it has worked well ; 

 the one being a prime swarm, and the other a 

 second swarm — and weak at that, yet it has 

 properly filled its hive and is very heavy. The 

 prime sw^arm has also done well, filling the hive 

 and most of the surplus boxes, and building a 

 small comb outside, though we have had the 

 poorest kind of season here for bees, it being 

 wet most of the time. S. Mat. 



Eddtville, Iowa, September 14, 1869. 



