774 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 9. 



nucleus because the rates are so high; if they were lower we 

 would advise him to get a full colony. 



Do Bees Hear? 



Dr. Miller — I dou't suppose that any one knows, but it is 

 believed that they do. 



\V. Z. Hutchinson — The "call" at the entrance in the 

 hiving of a swarm, and the way it Is answered, shows that 

 they hear? 



Dr. H. Besse — When the salute was fired on the Fourth of 

 July the bees came hurrying home just as they do before a 

 thuuder storm. 



Mr. E. Whitcomb — Bees make a great variety of sounds 

 that seem to be understood. Put several combs of bees in a 

 dark room, each comb in a different part of the room, and put 

 a queen on one of the combs, and soon all of the bees will be 

 on the comb with the queen. If they cannot hear how do they 

 communicate in this instance? 



Tcniperatiirc for Ripciiins Honey. 



Mr. Doolittle — I would ripen it at 70 '. 



Mr. Hoitermann — Comb honey may ripen quicker than 

 extracted because a greater surface is exposed to the air, that 

 Is, unless some means are used to change the surface of the 

 extracted. 



Mr. McKnight — The ripening of honey is simply removing 

 the excess of moisture, and it makes no difference whether it 

 is done inside the hive or out of it. 



Mr. Doolittle — I have several times told in the bee-papers 

 how bees ripen honey. I have watcht them at night by the 

 aid of a lamp. I have doue this for hours al a time. They 

 hang loosely, and each bee has its sac filled with honey, and 

 then puts forth the tongue covered with honey, and then draws 

 it back. By the light of the lamp this little droplet can be 

 seen to gisten. In this way the honey is exposed to the warm 

 air of the hive, and honey that would drop from the cells in 

 the evening is quite thick by morning. Let the honey-flow 

 cease and this ripening process — this "roaring" that we hear 

 in the evening when the flow is good — will cease in three or 

 four days. 



IContiDued next week.] 



About the Cellar Wintering of Bees. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



The time has come to put the bees into winter quarters, 

 and if they are to be placed in the cellar, that job ought not 

 to be deferred beyond December 10, unless the weather is un- 

 usually fair. As a matterof course it is not advisable to move 

 them to the cellar in warm weather, for they are much more 

 restless, and more bees are lost, than in cold weather. In ad- 

 dition to this, the warm days are beneflclal to them if they can 

 have a flight. 



When we put bees into our bee-cellar, we usually select a 

 cold day, in the beginning of December, or the last days of 

 November. The caps or covers of the hives are left on the 

 summer stand with the number of each hive markt inside of 

 the cap ; .-io that ihey may be returned to the same spot in the 

 spring. We know that many apiarists consider this superflu- 

 ous. We do not, for we have had very clear evidence that 

 many of the bees remember their location, even after four 

 months of coiilineraent, and that a change helps to bewilder 

 them when they are first removed. It may not be amiss to 

 state in what manner we ascertained this. 



We have, in our home apiary, two styles of hives, that is, 

 hives containing frames of two dllTerent sizes. About half of 

 them are with our regular Qiiinby frames, and the rest in 

 frames similar to the American hive frames, measuring about 

 12x 1 ;j inches. As it is iiicoiiveiilent to have the two differ- 

 ent styles side by side, we have separated the hives into two 

 yards, one on each side of the road leading up to the house. 

 A few years ago, It happened that, in catching two or three 

 swarms, some of the hives were placed In the wrong yard, and 

 wo neglected to move thom away. When they were put In 



winter quarters, we concluded that we would make the ex- 

 change in the spring, at their removal from the cellar. This 

 was done. All the colonies that were removed from the cellar 

 that day behaved very nicely, except the two or three that had 

 been changed in location. The uproar among these was such 

 that we concluded to move them back, so as to regain the lost 

 bees. 



We believe a great deal of the trouble experienced by be- 

 ginners with bees that are removed from the cellar — hive de- 

 serting, fighting, dwindling — during the first few days, is 

 caused by their having placed them in a changed location. So 

 we strongly urge those who can do it easily, to leave the cap, 

 or cover, with a mark at the exact spot occupied by the hive. 

 This cap, or cover, is not needed In the cellar, for the bees 

 should be given a certain amount of upward ventilation. 



We do not like to place any of the hives next to the cellar 

 floor. In all our experience, whenever the combs have suf- 

 fered from mold, or the hive has proven damp, it was in the 

 lowest tiers, in the cellar. If the hives are kept on joists or 

 shelves, a foot or more from the floor, the conditions will be 

 much more satisfactory. But they may be piled up in tiers 

 of three, four, or even more. The entrance is left wide open, 

 but darkness is necessary, and quiet is just as indispensable as 

 the absence of light. We have a special room partitioned off 

 in our home cellar for the bees, but we also keep apples and 

 potatoes in it. We do not use the cellar more than one winter 

 out of every five, for wintering the bees, for the reason that I 

 have stated in a former article. We are on the limit of safe 

 outdoor wintering, but when the bees are in good condition, 

 strong and populous, when the honey is of good quality and 

 plentiful, and the winter is fairly mild at its beginning, we 

 prefer the natural hibernation. 



An ordinary house-cellar is sufficient, if the portion re- 

 served to the bees is partitioned off in some manner to make it 

 dark, and if the temperature can be kept without much trou- 

 ble at the proper degree. From 40° to -45'-' is the best temper- 

 ature. We have heard it said, by men who claimed to know, 

 that a moist cellar could be kept at a much higher tempera- 

 ture, 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 SO'; but we afterward 

 found out that this man did not have a thermometer in his cel- 

 lar, 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 win- 

 ter 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, groupt together in a cellar that will 

 usually keep fruits or potatoes will be found to raise the tem- 

 perature very rapidly. If no outside current tempers it. We 

 must remember 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 indispensa- 

 ble to keep the cellar-windows partly open, with a shutter that 

 excludes the light. The quantity of air given is measured ac- 

 cording to the atmospheric conditions 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 at as any other time. It is certain that only by such 

 watchfulness can bee-culture be made a success. The bee-bus- 

 iness, as Mr. Heddon said, is altogether "a business of de- 

 tails." • Hancock Co., 111. 



Some California Notes and Observations. 



BY W. A. PKYAI,. 



The other evening I was presented with a sample of comb 

 honey that was gathered well up on the side of old Mt. Diablo 

 — a mountain some 80 miles east of Oakland. I must admit 

 that if all the honey gathered upon this mountain is like the 

 sample, then the " Devil's Mount" is not a bad place for pro- 

 ducing good honey. 



Mr. Novins, who formerly kept bees In one of the Western 

 States, but who has lived in Alameda and Contra Costa coun- 

 ties, Calif,, for the past few years. Is building up an apiary on 

 one of the slopes of Mt. Diablo. He linds that there are a 

 number of good locations for apiaries about the mountain, 

 and he is going to take advantage of some of them. I had 

 long niaiutalned that there are splendid sites for profitable bee- 

 ranches in Contra Costa county, and that the best of them 

 were on and about the Devil's Mountain. 



