AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



501 



previous to such failures or successes, 

 and that no skill of preparation or per- 

 fection of quarters will avail when cer- 

 tain fundamental conditions are lacking. 



I believe these general failures and 

 successes are due to the fact that in the 

 years of successful wintering, the pre- 

 vious year had been one of long con- 

 tinued honey-flow, and that in conse- 

 quence breeding was continued late, and 

 the colonies went into winter quarters 

 with an abundance of young bees, which 

 could live until flowers came, and work 

 and breeding could commence again ; 

 while in the years of bad wintering there 

 was a failure in the previous fall flow of 

 nectar, that breeding ceased in conse- 

 quence early, and the colonies com- 

 menced their long confinement with 

 mostly old bees that could not, in the 

 very nature of bee-life, live until 

 another spring, however abundant the 

 stores and perfect the quarters ; that 

 the few that did live over could not live 

 until new workers could be reared, and 

 that explained the cause of the spring 

 dwindling that is quite sure to follow 

 bad wintering. 



Now please do not understand me as 

 believing that good stores "and good win- 

 ter quarters are not important, for I 

 know that bees must have such quarters 

 to be safe, with ever so plenty of young 

 bees. What my present idea is, is that 

 with mostly old bees we can never be 

 safe in wintering, whatever our care ; 

 that to be safe, we must in years that 

 the honey-flow ends with basswood, feed 

 the bees a little, judiciously, and keep 

 up brood-rearing and young bees to be- 

 gin wintering with. 



The fall of 1893 was a failure here, 

 as to a honey-flow ; breeding ceased 

 early, and my bees went into winter un- 

 der all the adverse conditions I have 

 named, and I have never been free from 

 apprehension in regard to the result. I 

 now have my wintering cellar in nearer 

 perfect condition to meet all emergen- 

 cies than anything I ever saw. Last 

 fall I built a brick vault in it, 4 feet 

 square, and reaching to the ceiling. 

 This vault has a door opening into it 

 from the ante-room, so fires can be made 

 without opening the apartments in 

 which the bees are, or disturbing them 

 in the least. In the center of the vault 

 stands a small hard-coal stove, and I 

 can raise the temperature to 80° at any 

 time I wish in the bee-rooms. Without 

 fire, the mercury stands at 38°, and 

 once a week I make a fire and raise the 

 temperature to 60°, and contrary to ex- 

 pectations, the bees are not disturbed in 



the least, and they have remained more 

 quiet than any bees I ever wintered. 



There are many small holes in the 

 brick vault at the bottom, opening into 

 the bee-rooms, and when the fire is built 

 in the stove, there is a strong draft 

 through the holes in the bottom of the 

 vault from the bee-rooms, and the air is 

 pure enough for a living room for a 

 healthy person, and I sweep all bees 

 from the cemented floor often. I have 

 just swept them out to-day (Feb. 20th), 

 and there is more than I could wish. 



There have been no restless bees 

 crawling about the hives or cellar this 

 winter. The hives are without bottom- 

 boards, so all dead bees drop at once to 

 the floor. When I raise a hive-cover the 

 bees are lively, the hives dry, and the 

 combs without a speck of mold, showing 

 every condition of health and content- 

 ment to be present, and yet more bees 

 are dying than is pleasant to contem- 

 plate. They seem to fall down without 

 a struggle, as if they were old bees that 

 had died a natural death, and such I be- 

 lieve to be the fact. 



I am watching the outcome of this 

 winter with an interest I never felt be- * 

 fore, for I expect to prove two impor- 

 tant things by it— one is, that if the col- 

 onies die this winter, I will know that it 

 was from causes that existed before the 

 bees were put into the cellar; and the 

 other is, as to the possibility of success- 

 fully starting breeding in the cellar early 

 in March. I shall raise the temperature 

 to near 60°, and keep it there, and 

 when the hives are placed on the sum- 

 mer stands I will place one of my new 

 feeders on each hive, and cover the hive 

 with 8 inches of dry sawdust, and feed 

 enough so that brood-rearing need never 

 be checked, whatever the weather ; and 

 when the result of all this care is ascer- 

 tained, the bee-keeping friends shall 

 know what it is. 



Now I know that readers of this will 

 say, "This is nothing new; we have 

 been told many times before that young 

 bees were best for wintering." But, 

 friends, who has yet made any effort, by 

 carefully conducted experiments, to 

 really know what degree of truth there 

 was in this theory ? Josh Billings said, 

 " It is no use to know so much unless 

 what we know is so." I now propose 

 to know just the part the age of the 

 bees, and the conditions that surrounded 

 the colonies in the fall previous to hous- 

 ing, play in successful wintering, and 

 shall not relax my efforts until I can say 

 I know, rather then tell what I believe, 

 or what some one has said. 



