22 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



C. C. MILLER'S EEPORT. 



TKiMPKKATURE OF CELLARS AND OF THE EARTH. 



«S Mr. Rcot (p. 813) inquires how I succeeded in 

 carting my bees around, and about the hon- 

 ey and money I made, I will try to answer in 

 full. First as to the success of carting 

 around, I consider it a matter of necessity, 

 and would not think of keeping all my bees in one 

 apiary; and as I winter; in cellar I am obliged to 

 haul home the bees every fall and take them away 

 in the spring. This I have done for six years, but I 

 never hauled them away at any other time, except 

 in the summer of 1880, when I took them three 

 miles to the edge of a large buckwheat field. I 

 think they did enough better than those left at 

 home to pay for the hauling. 



Now as to the result of the year. I'm not proud 

 of it. I don't glow with pride as I contemplate it. 

 Never a glow. Nov. 5 to 13, 1884, 1 put my bees in 

 the cellars, 300 colonies. March 38, 1885, I began 

 taking them out, and took out the last April 13, 

 making a confinement of 1£6 to 159 days. By the 

 time fruit-trees were in bloom I had 179 colonies left, 

 a loss of about 40 per cent. I increased these to 340 

 colonies, and took about 1700 lbs. of comb honey, 

 making 9'2 lbs. per colony, and 90 per cent increase. 

 I might theorize and philosophize as to why 40 per 

 cent should have been lost in wintering and spring- 

 ing, but I will try to limit myself mainly to what I 

 know. There were some plain cases of starving— 

 not a drop of honey left in the hive. The winter 

 was very cold— 37° below zero at one time, and the 

 cellars were allowed to become quite cold. In one 

 of them the mercury reached one degree below the 

 freezing-point. I will allow myself to theorize far 

 enough to say, that a smaller number in each cel- 

 lar would have done better— at any rate, they win- 

 tered better in former years when not so crowded. 

 1 can not tell just how many were alive last spring 

 when taken out, but I think the heaviest loss oc- 

 curred after taking out. Some dwindled, and some 

 swarmed out. Some of the latter seemed pretty 

 fair colonies, and the deserted hives showed plenty 

 of honey left, and also of brood — perhaps more 

 brood than the bees could cover. 



Mine is not a good honey region, white clover be- 

 ing about my only dependence for surplus. Last 

 summer the clover bloom was more abundant than 

 I ever knew it, but for some reason the honey was 

 not forthcoming. When the flow of^ honey was 

 over, many colonies had scarcely any honey, and 

 one actually starved to death— a thing I never ex- 

 perienced at that season of the year befoi-e. I 

 ought to have mentioned, that a great many col- 

 onies were verj' slow about building up in the 

 spring and summer. Soon after the failure of clo- 

 ver I began to feedisyrup of granulated sugar, and 

 in all 1 fed about 1700 lbs., to make them ready for 

 winter. 



TEMPERATURE OF CELLAR. 



I read your remarks, Bro. Root, on p. 8.30, with 

 some surprise. You say, replying to J. F. Redd, 

 " Your cellar will very likely run from 58° to 60° in 

 spite of any thing you can do," etc. Is it possible 

 there is so much difl^erence between your place and 

 this, in latitude 43°? I am not sure that I ever 

 knew the thermometer in my cellar to run up to 60° 

 when there were bees in it. I happen to have be- 

 fore me the record of the winter of 1876-7, in which 

 the thermometer ranged as high, or higher, than 



the average. Dec. 10 it was 33°, and was no higher 

 than 41° till Jan. 39, when it reached 43°, going no 

 higher than 4G° till April 1, when it stood at 4S°, the 

 highest point it reached during the bees' confine- 

 ment. So you see in this region there seems little 

 difficulty in keeping below 58° or 60°, and I do not 

 -now so much wonder that you prefer outdoor win- 

 tering in your locality. I think it is pretty well 

 agreed, that, for best results, a cellar should be 

 kept at about 45° ; and the testimony agrees so gen- 

 erally on this point that 1 suppose for the majority 

 of persons and places it is correct; but I have never 

 succeeded in keeping my cellar lo average more 

 than 40°, if that. Indeed, it has taken a good deal 

 of artificial heat to keep it up anywhere near that 

 point, lam not sure whether 5° warmer would be 

 any better; for in the v.'inter already mentioned, 

 137 colonies were put in, in the fall, and 137 taken 

 out in good condition in the spring; still, three were 

 lost in springing— whether from queenlessness or 

 otherwise, I can not now say. Probably the best 

 plan is for each one who winters in a cellar to note 

 carefully at what temperature his bees are quiet- 

 est, and be governed accordingly. Is not a cellar 

 with sub-ventilation warmer than one without? 

 The air as it enters my cellar through the sub-ven- 

 tilating-pipe has been no lower than 43° this winter, 

 although the cellar has been as low as 36°, and out- 

 doors 14° below zero. Later in the winter, the air 

 from the pipe has, other winters, gone as low as 36°. 



Since writing the above I have received Glean- 

 ings for Dec. 15, and read with very great interest 

 the talks about temperature by Bro. Doolittle, 

 Ernest, and yourself. Why should there not be a 

 great difference in temperature between the north 

 and south? After all, the practical questions come. 

 What is the best temperature to keep a cellar? 

 Should it gradually become warmer toward spring? 

 What are the best means to secure the desired 

 temperature? What is the best depth, all things con- 

 sidered, to run a ventilating-pipe? For, Bro. Root, 

 although you prefer outdoor wintering, for many 

 of us in other localities the cellar is the safer place, 

 and ansAvers to the above and kindred questions 

 will be read by us with the keenest interest. If you 

 will try your hand at it, and get others to do so, 

 you will merit, and no doubt get, many thanks. 



C. C. Miller, 179—340. 



Marengo, 111., Dec. 31, 1885. 



Friend M., we are very sorry to hear that 

 you have had so poor a season ; but before 

 deciding that your locality is not a good one, 

 I would consider the enormous yields you 

 have made two or three seasons in succes- 

 sion, even though you had so large a number 

 of bees in one locality. Would it not be 

 better to take a little of the advice Doolittle 

 gives in the present number, and get larger 

 yields from fewer colonies, or else have them 

 scattered more in different localitiesV The 

 dwindling and swarming out in the spring 

 seems to be a sort of mania, as we have 

 many times mentioned, when things get to 

 going wrong. We have had, in our locality, 

 bees starve to death in June and July. Aft- 

 er such experiences they seem to be always 

 slow in building up.— In regard to my reply 

 to friend Redd, I meant that during a warm 

 night in the middle of the winter (such as 

 we are having now this 24th day of December, 

 and there has been no freezing night or day 

 for three days, and one night was almost as 



