60 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



bees will live long, and we shall be 

 happy." 



At this juncture the gentleman from 

 the Nebula bade us good day and God- 

 speed, as we assui'ed him that none of 

 his remarks should be published for 

 the criticism of planets and stars of 

 the first magnitude. 



This paper was followed by discus- 

 sion. 



Ira Barbek. — A cellar to winter 

 bees in safely, should be warm enough 

 to keep vegetables in without freezing, 

 and free from currents of fresh air from 

 the outside, as nothing will arouse a 

 lot of bees so quickly as a current of 

 fresh air, either warm or cold. The 

 room should be ventilated from the top. 

 I find a three-inch pipe is sufficient to 

 carry off all impure air from a cellar 

 where 200 colonies are kept. I prefer 

 a warm damp cellar to a dry one, for a 

 long pull. Bees should be placed in the 

 cellar before much freezing weatlier. 



I prepare my bees for winter when 

 the honey is taken off in August, by 

 putting on a good cloth and top board 

 so that they may have ample time to 

 glue all fast. In placing them in the 

 cellar, I use caps taken from the 

 hives, to place the bottom tier on, 

 which brings them about one foot from 

 the cellar bottom, and pile them in col- 

 umns, four high, just as they come 

 from the yard, and as close together 

 as they can be placed. The bottom 

 hives should be raised up from the bot- 

 tom board h. inch. The tly holes of all 

 the hives are left open. All should 

 have a sufficient amount of honey to 

 carry them safely through the winter, 

 so that when all are in, the room can 

 be closed and left without being dis- 

 turbed until it is time to set them out. 

 ity bees arc twenty miles from home 

 and I do not see them from the time 

 they are put in the cellar, until I take 

 them out which is usually the latter 

 part of April, or when the bees can get 

 the first pollen. I think the reason 

 why so many meet with poor success 

 in wintering in the cellar, is owing to 

 their going into the cellar frequently to 

 examine their bees. It is a bad prac- 

 tice, and should not be done. My cel- 

 lar is under a dwelling, and is 17X19X7 

 feet ; a family lives in the room above in 

 which a fire is kept. The bottom of 

 cellar is composed of rock and clay, the 

 walls are solid mnsonry and 2 feet 

 thick. At times there are 6 inches of 

 water in the cellar. It does not injure 

 the bees in any way. No fresh air is 

 admitted into the cellar. The ventil- 



ating pipe enters the cellar through 

 the window, thence up the outside 2-i 

 feet high. 



I never tested the temperature of 

 this cellar but twice, once when I car- 

 ried the bees in, when the thermometer 

 showed 60° inside and about 40° out- 

 doors. The other time was when I 

 carried them out; the thermometer 

 then marked 90 degrees inside and 60 

 degrees outside. I do not know as a 

 high temperature is necessary : but I 

 do know that my bees winter perfectly 

 and have done so for nearly twenty 

 years. With this high temperature I 

 find the bees at times clustered on 

 the outside of hives as they do in July 

 but they seem to be in a sort of semi- 

 dormant state, and when carried out be- 

 come bright and lively and in a few 

 moments are all right. Some few col- 

 onies that got out of honey crawled up 

 into the next hive and joined that col- 

 ony. I find but a small portion of them 

 breeding when carried out in the spring. 

 My losses do not average more than one 

 per cent. I have 225 colonies in this 

 cellar. 



Mr. Baird. — I winter my bees the 

 same as Mr. Barber. I will vouch for 

 what he says. Mr. Barber makes api- 

 culture a specialty and his only busi- 

 ness, and I do not believe there is a 

 man in this state who has better suc- 

 cess. There were several other bee- 

 keepers in that locality who winter 

 their bees with equal success. I tried 

 the temperature in my cellar but once, 

 then it was at, 45 degrees. I think the 

 thermometer outside was about thirty 

 degrees below zero this day I tested it. 



Mr. Betsinger.— There is some- 

 thing peculiar about this matter of high 

 temnerature. I agree with Mr. Barber 

 in thi main, but 1 think there is some 

 m'sta'ce about the high temperature. 

 I thmii it lower than Mr. Barber thinks 

 for. The temperature should be even, 

 the air should be changed every iaw 

 hours and this should be accomplished 

 without admitting a fresh current of air, 

 or allowing the temperature to change 

 more than two degrees up or down. 

 Our bees should be disturbed as little 

 as possible; in my opinion it is this 

 disturbance that ci'cates the mischief. 



Mr. L. C. Boot.— My experience 

 favors in-door wintering. In our cel- 

 lars we prefer a mat over the top of 

 our hives instead of allowing them to 

 be sealed tight without a porous cover. 



We cannot keep our bees quiet with 

 a higher temperature than 48 degrees. 



