THE BEE-KEEPERvS' REVIEW. 



27 



blaze much. But paper is hardly avail- 

 able about nostrils and lips, a locality to 

 which bees generalh* incline to direct 

 very pointed attentions. As an oxygen- 

 excluder there, the best is to daub around 

 the thickest honey that can be got hold 

 of, and to patiently tolerate the daub for 

 a long time. If by chance the eyes get 

 swelled shut the best way to reduce the 

 swelling is to make four pretty moist mud 

 pies (but not sticky) weighing, say, half 

 a pound each. Lie down upon the back 

 and place one on each eye. As soon as 

 they get warm, lay them off to cool, and 

 put on the cool ones — and continue to 

 alternate them ad libit uui. 



Richards, Ohio, Jan. 5, 189S. 



eXXRMOTED, 



CELLAR WINTERIXC. OF BEES. 



Something alioiit llie TL'ini)eraturc, and liow 

 it may be Modifieil. 



Mr. C. P. Dadant has an article in the 

 American Bee Journal on the cellar win- 

 tering of bees, and from it I extract the 

 two closing paragraphs. They read as 

 follows: — 



An ordinary house-cellar is sufficient, 

 if the portion reserved to the bees is par- 

 titioned off in some manner to make it 

 dark, and if the temperature can be kept 

 without much trouble at the proper de- 

 gree. From 40° to 45° is the best tem- 

 perature. We have heard it said, b\^ men 

 who claimed to know, that a moist cel- 

 lar could be kept at a much higher tem- 

 perature, and that the bees would winter 

 well in it. We have even heard a bee- 

 keeper assert that bees would remain 

 quiet in a cellar with a temperature of 60° 

 or 80° ; but we afterward found out that 

 this man did not have a thermometer in 

 his cellar, and was " just guessing "" at the 

 degree. This is wrong. What is worth 

 doing at all is worth doing well, and the 

 cost of a thermometer is not so great that 

 a practical man should winter his bees 

 on a guess. 



In ordinary winters, we find it less 

 difficult to keep the temperature above 

 the limit mentioned than below it. Fifty 



or 100 colonies of bees, grouped togeth- 

 er in a cellar that will usually keep 

 fruits or potatoes, .will be found to raise 

 the temperature ven,- rapidl3% if no out- 

 side current tempers it. We must re- 

 member that the bees are warm-bodied 

 insects, and keep their cluster at blood 

 heat. This, of course, must necessarily 

 act upon the air of a closed apartment, 

 materially increasing the degree of heat. 

 So we find it quite indispensable to keep 

 the cellar-windows partlv open, with a 

 shutter that excludes the light. The 

 quantity of air given is measured accord- 

 ing to the atmospheric condition and the 

 warmth of the cellar. Many of our good 

 bee-keepers pay daily attention to their 

 bees, and find it as necessary to do so 

 when they are housed up as at any other 

 time. It is certain that onl}- by such 

 watchfulness can bee-culture be made a 

 success. The bee-business, as Mr. Hed- 

 don said, is altogether a " business of de- 

 tails." 



DRONES. 



Are The\ of any nse Exce|»t for Fertilizinn 

 Queens? 



.\ while ago there appeared in the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal, in the Question-Box 

 Department, some queries about drones. 

 The idea was intimated by the query that 

 bee-keepers were making a mistake in 

 keeping the drone comb out of their 

 hives; in other words, that there is some 

 unknown or unseen advantage in having 

 a lot of drones in a hive, " just as Nature 

 does it. " " I believe that others, even so 

 good a man as brother Hasty, have hint- 

 ed that we'd better let the drones alone. 

 Here are the N-iews of C. P. Dadant, as 

 given the American Bee Journal: 



The writer of the query thinks that 

 Nature has provided the drones for a cer- 

 tain purpose. Yes, indeed, it has, and 

 the great number of drones in a hive, in 

 natural circumstances, is another evidence 

 of the correctness of the theory of natu- 

 ral selection, or of the " survival of the fit- 

 test, " as it has aptly been called by the 

 leading men of science, and by Darwin 

 in particular. In a state of nature the 

 bees do not exist in very great numbers in 

 any one place; and when hives are sever- 

 al miles apart it becomes necessary that 

 a great number of drones be hatched in 



