1K2 



THE AMERICAN BEEKEEPER. 



injurious to the bees. Well, bees are 

 just like other people. They're better 

 without fire if they don't need it, but 

 it's a good ileal better to have fire 

 than to be chilled to death. I have 

 used an oil stove in the cellar, but I 

 shall never do so again. Of course 

 an oil stove would be all right if there 

 was a chimney to carry off the smoke 

 and foul gases. The heat from an oil 

 stove is all right, but they aiv gener- 

 ally supposed to be used without any 

 kind of a chimney , and that'.- what 

 makes the mischief. 



The stoves 1 use are small cylinder 

 stoves, and with anthracite coal a low, 

 steady fire can be kept up all winter. 

 It is quite easy to regulate the mat- 

 ter by means of cleaning out the ashes 

 more or less closely, as al.-o by limit- 

 ing the amount of coal put in each 

 time. Attention to the fire each 

 morning and evening is all that is 

 necessary. 



But your cellar may be of that sort 

 that only occasionally becomes too 

 cold, and it is not worth while to keep 

 a stove in it In that case you may 

 carry down heated stones or jugs of 

 hot water. Be sure your water jugs 

 are tightly corked, for steam escaping 

 from them is very undesirable. Where- 

 ever the climate is cold enough, every 

 family ought to have a rubber water 

 bag,, or one or more soapstones. These 

 will do good service in helping to 

 warm the cellar. Of course banking 

 the cellar is one of the cheapest ways 

 of keeping it warm. 



If you have only a very few bees 

 in the cellar, it is not so important to 

 have the cellar just right. A few 

 bees will winter all right in a cellar 

 where they might die if there were 

 ten times as many. Perhaps it may 

 be because the air is more pure. 



I know there are some that say bees 

 do not require ventilation, but you 

 may set it d<>wn that anything that 

 breathes requires air, and bees breathe 

 all winter long. And on that account 

 I am very .-lire that warming up a 

 cellar sometimes does good, even when 

 the bees are plenty warm. I once 

 helped my bees when they were warm 

 enough by putting fire in the cellar. 

 I'll tell you how it was. It was to- 

 ward spring, and one of those contin- 

 ued warm spells came when the tem- 

 perature oui doors went up to 50° and 

 the cellar was the same. The bees 

 became very uneasy. I started a fire 

 in the stove and run the cellar up to 

 70° or more. Just at first it didn't 

 seem to do any good — made them 

 noisier, if anything. By the next 

 morning, however, when the ther- 

 mometer had gone down again to 

 about 50°, the bees were nice and 

 quiet. I think the explanation was 

 that heating of the air had set up a 

 current, the air was changed, and 

 with more pure air the bees were all 

 right. 



I have often noticed the same effect 

 in a little different way. In a warm 

 spell in the spring, when the bees be- 

 came uneasy in the cellar, I would at 

 night open wide all doors and win- 

 dows. How the bees would roar. 

 At first it fairly frightened me to find 

 them so noisy and crawling all over 

 the hives, but by the next morning 

 they would be quiet and nice, so that 

 the sun might shine into the cellar 

 without disturbing them. 



With plenty of good food, plenty 

 of bees, plenty of good air, and not 

 too far Irom the right temperature, 

 there should not be an over amount 

 of anxiety about bees in winter quar- 

 ters. 



Marenyo, 111. 



