THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



227 



[For the Americau Bee Journal.] 



Wintering Bees In Cellars. 



J. Tl. Gardnor, Esq., on page 02 of the Bee 

 JotiiiNAT,, vol. P), in an article on wintering bees, 

 desires that I might give my way of packing 

 bees in my cellar. I do it cheerfully. Tiie cel- 

 lar in which I wintered the stocks of my home 

 apiary — 393 in nnmbcr — is 18 feet wide, 27 long, 

 and 7 deep. Over it is a small frame house of 

 the same size, for storing hives, boxes, and 

 other articles. Only one room is plastered. 

 The floor is of one-inch boards. In this there 

 are two holes cut fnr ventilation, each nine by 

 ten inches. The cellar is situated in the side 

 of a hill. The east side of the wall is partly in 

 the ground. An entrance, level with the bot- 

 tom of the cellar, on this side of the wall, is 

 provided with two doors, the inner one of 

 which has a hole, nine by ten inches, near the 

 bottom, for ventilation. 



I usually commence wintering-in my stocks 

 on the l&t of November. They are piled in in 

 a single and two double rows, as close together 

 as practicable, leaving a narrow passage way 

 between the rows, for an occasional visit of in- 

 spection. The Laugstroth hives I piled up five 

 high, beginning on the floor of the cellar, with- 

 out anything under them. The box hives I 

 piled four high, all inverted, with their bottom 

 boards on. They had no opening at the top, 

 nor the bottom. The summer entrance, now 

 at top, was the only ventilation they had. Al- 

 most all the bees in these hives clustered on 

 the bottom boards, near the entrance. During 

 very cold weather the temperature fell nearly 

 to the freezing point, in some instances. I re- 

 peatedly lifted the bottom boards, and found 

 thom dry where tlie bees were clustered, but 

 full of drops of water outside of that space. 

 Towards the end of January, sweetened water 

 ran out of the tops (now bottoms) of these 

 hives ; and as this was the first time I wintered 

 my bees in this way, I was afraid there was 

 something wrong. But, on wintering-out, I 

 found all of them, except throe, in the best or- 

 der. One of these three had become somewhat 

 mouldy. The other two had died from starva- 

 tion, with plentj' of honey in the combs. They 

 had clustered on the bottom board away from 

 their stores. All the rest of the stocks were 

 apparantly stronger than when put into the 

 cellar. 



The Langstroth hives I pile up without in- 

 verting them, and without taking ofT the honey 

 board. I simply insert quarter-inch blocks un- 

 der the honey boards at the back end of the 

 hive. The entrance I contract, so that only an 

 opening one inch wide is left. I lost only two 

 Blocks ; one by d)'sentery, and the other from 

 Bome cause unknown to me. The Langstroth 

 liiveshad less brood when wintered out, than 

 the box hives. I would further state that only 

 a few had become mouldy, and those had no 

 blocks under their honey boards. Three or six 

 one inch holes in the honey boards had not given 

 as cfTt'Ctual ventilation, as the blocks under the 

 honey boards in tlic other cases. 



Out of forty-nine swarms wintered under 



ground, three died, with plenty of honey. Al- 

 most every hive had more or less mould. I do 

 not like this Avaj' of wintering bees. 



The cellar for my northern apiary, which was 

 constructed in September last, proved to be too 

 damp. Rome stocks had become very mouldy, 

 and finallv died of dysentery. From this cause 

 I lost twelve hives out of one hundred and sixty- 

 three ; and five more from queenlessuess, since 

 wintering them out. It seemed singular to mc 

 that some stocks had become very mould}', 

 while others standing right by their side had 

 not a particle of mould, nor hardly any dead 

 bees. On an average the living stocks appear 

 in very good condition. Those of my neighbors 

 around here, who wintered their bees on their 

 summer stands, lost from one-fourth to one-half 

 of their stocks. Adam Grimm. 



Jefferson, "Wis., April, 1808. 



[For the American Beo Journal.] 



Wintering Bees in Minnesota. 



The bee-business lias suffered much in Minne- 

 sota during our cold winters. How shall we 

 winter our bees ? is the great question here. A 

 gentleman in St. Paul gave us a long article on 

 wintering bees, by burying them in clamps. 

 This plan proved almost a failure last winter. 

 Two men wdio have met with some success, 

 thought the}' had found out the best plan of win- 

 tering bees here ; which was in cellars in the 

 side of the blufT. Last winter t7iei/]ostl72 stocks 

 out of 300, which had been put in three cellars of 

 this description in the fall. One of my neighbors 

 lost 47 out of 50 stands placed in a granary, the 

 walls of which were filled with saw-dust. The 

 granary was raised a little from the ground. A 

 farmer in the next county placed his hives in the 

 basement of his stone barn, and lost 40 stands, 

 being all he had. Others have shared a similar 

 fate. 



I built a bee-house last fall, to winter bees in, 

 with a cellar under the hives, and a chamber 

 over them filled with straw. The walls are 

 packed with saw-dust ; and the flues are so ar- 

 ranged that warm air from the cellar, or cold air 

 from the outside, can be let in, and pass off 

 through the straw and roof. In this I placed 

 seventy stands of Italian bees. Thus far, it more 

 than meets my expectations. I made my calcu- 

 lations to keep the temperature as near 30^ 

 above zero as it could be. Placing the thermom- 

 eter on a pillar about the centre of the bee-house 

 inside, in December it stood 33^ above ; and in 

 January 28"^ above. On the outside it has been 

 as low as 40-^ below. On the 23d of February, 

 when I went in to give them water, the ther- 

 mometer stood at 29^ above. Tliis month (Feb- 

 ruary) it has been as low as 30^ below on the 

 outside. AVhen I gave them the wet sponge, 

 they all answered by coming up promptly to 

 quench their thirst. Thomas J. Smith. 



Red Wing, Minn. 



t^"In some exceptional cases, a few drones 

 will be retained over winter in populous biras 

 having a fertile queen. 



