166 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



September 



Put the remaining combs away in some 

 safe place for the next season's use, and 

 the work is done. 



CELLAK WINTERING. 



Another correspondent writes, saying: 

 "I desire to try cellar wintering with 

 my bees the coming winter, as I have 

 not been very successful in wintering 

 out on the summer stands. Will it do 

 to put the bees in a cellar where per- 

 sons are going in after vegetables every 

 day? And how is it best to arrange the 

 bees in the cellar?" 



A cellar which will keep vegetables 

 will answer very well for the bees, and 

 the going into it every day need not dis- 

 turb the wintering bees, if the persons 

 entering are cautious about jarring 

 them, or needlessly disturbing the hives 

 in any way; especially if the bees are 

 placed so that the light from the lamp 

 cannot shine direct into the entrance to 

 the hives. If the cellar is kept dark 

 during the winter all that is necessary 

 to do is to turn the entrance of the 

 hives toward the cellar wall; but if the 

 cellar is light, a place in one corner 

 should be partitioned off so as to make 

 the part which is to contain the bees 

 dark. Bees have been wintered well in 

 cellars where the light of day was al- 

 lowed to enter; but, as a rule, bees 

 winter best in a cellar into which no 

 light of the sun ever enters while they 

 are in It. The hives should also be ten to 

 fifteen inches from the cellar floor, the 

 bench or platform on which they stand 

 resting on the ground instead of being 

 nailed to the sleepers above, otherwise 

 the jar caused by any movement on the 

 floor above would disturb the bees and 

 tend to make them uneasy, thus causing 

 more or less loss. Rats and mice should 

 also be excluded from the cellar where 

 bees are to be wintered; for of the two. 

 I would rather chance the jar from 

 children playing over bees than of rats 

 and mice running about and through the 

 hives. Many colonies of bees are lost 

 each year from rats and mice in cellars 

 during the winter. The full entrance 



to the hives should be given where fast 

 bottom boards are used, and with 

 movable bottom boards, the same should 

 be left on the summer stands and the 

 hives raised two or more inches above 

 the bench or hives on which they rest. 

 Where honey-boards are u?ed, I prefer 

 to remove them, substituting several 

 thicknesses of old carpet, or else a chaff 

 or sawdust cushion two or three inches 

 thick, through which the moisture from 

 the respiration of the bees may escape; 

 but still keep them dry and warm. 



The bees should be set in, about tlie 

 middle of November and taken out about 

 the time the elm and soft maple blos- 

 soms, or when the first pollen in tlu^ 

 spring is bi'ought in. Some recommend 

 setting in later and taking out earlier; 

 but my experience has been that the 

 sudden changes, both in the late fall and 

 early spring, are very damaging to bees, 

 whether wintered in the cellar or out of 

 doors, and it is best to avoid them where 

 we can as well as not, as is the case in 

 cellar wintering. 



The right temperature of a cellar to 

 winter bees best is from 43 to 45 degrees, 

 but if fixed as above given, they will do 

 very well as low as 35 to 40 degrees. If 

 the cellar is one where the temperature 

 goes as low as the freezing point and 

 stays there any length of time, I should 

 prefer to leave the bees on their summoi' 

 stands, for a continued temperature at 

 about the freezing point or a little be- 

 low, seems to be very injurious to bees. 



IJorodino, N.Y. 



ANOTHER " HILL'S DEVICE." 



ANY device which will facilitate the 

 reception of honey and the dis- 

 charge of empty combs to and 

 from the extracting room without admit- 

 ting an annoying number of bees, will 

 be of interest to the producer of extracted 

 honey. The length of tiAie that is ne- 

 cessary to carry or wheel the honey in- 

 side, and receive the combs, is ample to 

 admit, through the open doors enough 



