March 29. 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



277 



•stand, setting the old hive close beside it. A week later move the old 

 hive to a new location some distance away. 



3. It will be an excellent plan. 



4. Unless you are very much afraid some of them are now starv- 

 ing, don't open a hive until a day when the bees are Hying. If you 

 think a colony is starving, go at it right away — may as well kill some 

 of the bees by disturbance as to have all starve. Better see that each 

 colony has 10 pounds of honey, or more, to carry them through till 

 they are gathering. If they haven't that much, feed to make up the 

 deficiency. Give them combs of sealed honey. Probably you haven't 

 any. Then feed candy. Perhaps still better, take C. P. Uadant's 

 plan : Smear candied honey over the top-bars back of the cluster, 

 pushing some of it close to the cluster and making sure that the bees 

 get started on it. 



5. You can do it at any time, but it will be as well not to be too 

 early. (Queens reared too early are not so good, and prices are higher 

 «arly. 



6. You can make a pretty safe guess by looking for queen-cells. 

 A swarm is likely to issue as soon as the first cell is sealed. 



7. You can't tell by the cappings. The lightest honey may have 

 dark cappings if long enough in the care of the bees, and the darkest 

 honey may have light cappings. Hold the comb up to the light of 

 the window and look through it, and you can tell pretty well the color 

 of the honey contained. Of course, you must make some allowance 

 for the comb. If it is badly discolored it will make white honey look 

 darker than it is. 



8. They probably do little harm beyond annoying the bees, and 

 the bees are competent to take care of them. They go to the hives 

 and make their nests there chiefly for the warmth afforded. Some 

 say borax sprinkled over the places they stay will drive them away. If 

 you allow no lurking places over the hives where a bee can not go as 

 well as an ant, the bees will keep them away. 



You are a good questioner, and your questions show intelligence, 

 only some of them show that you have no text-book of instruction 

 «bout bees, or else that you have not studied it very carefully. This 

 department is intended to supplement the text-book, not to replace it, 

 and it is hardly fair to occupy room with matters fully given in the 

 books. If you will get a text-book, and study it carefully, I'm sure 

 you will thank me for advising you to do so, for it will be money in 

 your pocket. 



*-•-•- 



Sweet Clover Seed 



I would like to get some 6weet clover seed. Can you tell me 

 where to find it? Kentucky. 



Answer. — I don't know where you can get sweet clover seed, but 

 about this time of year you ought to find it advertised in this and 

 other bee-papers. It is reported unusually scarce this spring, and that 

 seems a little strange, seeing the great quantity of seed each stalk 

 produces. One reason, probably, is that while there is a great quan- 

 tity of 6weet clover throughout the country, it is so scattered that the 

 seed would have to be gathered by hand. Still, there are a good many 

 patches thick enough to be mowed. 



Contention 

 Proceebtngs 



^ 



J 



Report'oHhe Wisconsin State Convention 



BY HARRY LATHROP. 

 [Continued from page 218.] 

 The writer read the following paper on 

 A aOOD BEE-CELLAR 



In this Northern climate there are two ways of wintering 

 bees successfully. One is by having self-protecting hives (and 

 they would be all right if it were not for the expense) ; but 

 it is not my purpose to treat of them but of the other, and, I 

 believe most reliable method of wintering, a good cellar. 



It has been customary with a good many to use any sort 

 of cellar, be it ever so damp, ill-smelling and unfit, as a 

 wintering-place for the bees. I think this has been a great 

 mistake, and that bee-keepers at large have lost heavily in 

 bees, and consequently in money, by not going to the expense 

 of providing the very best accommodations that could be 

 produced. 



A great deal of effort has been made to improve the ' s 

 and to get them into good working shape after the ! n 



commenced; but a quart of bees in a hive that contain, a 

 much larger bunch of dead ones, and mouldy, damp com' - is 

 a poor start. And yet the colony wintered, did it? On! I 



of it. Better winter quarters would have brought n? 



through in line shape. There would have been a strong •e 



of bees — dry, sleek, healthy, able before they died off, to leave 

 a rousing colony of younger workers. I have lost enough 

 from poor-wintering quarters to appreciate the gravity of this 

 question. It is one of life and death, and means much to the 

 man who is to make his living, or any part of it, from honey- 

 production in Wisconsin. 



What we want in a cellar is purity of air, measurable 

 dryness, and an even temperature which will remain at 40 to 

 45 degrees above, never going below 40 nor above 50. The 

 labor and expense required to secure such a cellar depends 

 greatly upon the character of the soil and location in which 

 it is to be built. Some locations are very much better adapted 

 than others. In a bank of pure dry sand, such as may often 

 be found along the river valleys of this State, it is an easy 

 matter to make a good cellar. The room may simply be 

 boarded up inside; the loose sand will make an excellent floor, 

 and. with a couple of doors and a wooden tube for a ventilator, 

 one has a cellar that is all right. 



But if it is desirable to locate a cellar where the ground 

 is a damp, heavy clay or muck, and where there is no rising 

 ground to aid drainage, the task of providing a suitable win- 

 tering-place is not so easy. But if the ultimate object is kept 

 constantly in view, that is, the requirements of a good cellar, I 

 think all obstacles can be overcome, but it will take more 

 work and better material. 



I have a cellar which I built in a side hill the past season. 

 The hill is composed of loose layers of limestone, and we got 

 more than enough good building stone out of the pit to make 

 all the walls. The floor of this cellar is the natural rock, and 

 the drainage is perfect without any special arrangement. The 

 cellar proper is entirely under the ground, but the ante-room 

 by which entrance is had through double doors, is only 

 partially under ground. The path into the cellar is on a level 

 with the floor, so as to avoid going up and down steps with 

 the hives. This is a desirable feature, but not a necessary 

 one. For packing overhead I used dry leaves on the floor, and 

 over all a good shingle roof. The upper part of the ante- 

 room is packed with leaves also, as I wish it to be a good 

 protection to the main cellar. 



Were I to locate a cellar in level, damp ground, I think 

 I would only sink it down about half way below the general 

 level of the ground, then bank up around the walls to make 

 a mound. It would require only a few steps to get down to 

 the cellar bottom, and would be much easier to drain. I 

 would lay tile under the bottom and along the sides of the 

 walls and arrange to carry off all water from the eaves. 

 Such a cellar, if properly constructed, would be dry and warm, 

 even if located in a damp place. 



Two feet of dry earth makes a good absorbent covering 

 for a cellar, the earth to be protected by a good roof; but it 

 has a tendency to rot out the ceiling, and in a certain number 

 of years will break down and the upper part of the cellar 

 will have to be rebuilt. I have therefore conceived the idea 

 of using lighter material. Dry sawdust, leaves, or clover- 

 hulls, would be all right, I think; but I have not had sufficient 

 experience to be able to judge of the comparative merits of 

 different materials. I think, though, that an absorbent pack- 

 ing is better than an ordinary room overhead having tight 

 floors, which would not facilitate the moisture escaping. 



My only ventilator is a small wooden chimney leading 

 from near the cellar floor up through the roof; although, in 

 the last cellar I built. I have an arrangement for letting warm 

 air in at the top of the inner door and drawing out the cooler 

 air at the bottom. This is intended to be used in case the 

 cellar should get too cold during some very severe and con- 

 tinued cold weather, at which time I could place a small stove 

 in the ante-room and change ami warm the air in the cellar. 

 I do not expect to do this in any ordinary winter, and perhaps 

 not at all. 



I am somewhat opposed to the practise of letting in air 

 directly from the outside, and think that air enough will come 

 in through the stone walls. If the bees are wintering per- 

 fectly, they are quiet and do not consume much air. Don't 

 think, though, that they cannot be smothered. I once placed 

 50 colonies in a small, double-walled room without sufficient 

 ventilation; the weather changed, the temperature of the 

 room went up to 60 degrees, and before I knew it over half 

 the bees were out of the hives, some dead on the floor, and 

 bushels clustered in the upper corners of the room. (That 

 was nearly 20 years ago.) I took the colonies out of that 

 place and managed to get 25 through in a weak condition. I 

 made $400 from the 25 nuclei that splendid honey-year. 

 What would I have made from 50 properly wintered colonies? 

 If those bees had been in a cellar, somewhat larger than the 

 pile of hives containing the bees, a temperature of 60 degrees 



