678 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



huge stalactite-like masses of hoar frost 

 gathered over the ventilator, and suspended 

 from the ceiling of the honey-house. 



The cellar is situated on a sandy hillside 

 where good natural drainage obtains, and 

 where a graded entrance may be had to the 

 cellar floor, thus facili- 

 tating the work of car- 

 rying in. 



The colonies are ar- 

 ranged on racks of a 

 movable nature, as when 

 one has to pack away 

 upward of 150 colonies 

 in a cellar 16 x 20 feet, 

 and yet leave room to 

 walk between the rows, 

 no space can be wasted. 

 When one rack is full 

 the next is erected, and 

 so on till the four are 

 completed. In the spring 

 the order is reversed; 

 and as one is emptied it 

 is taken down, leaving 

 plenty of room to hustle 

 out the next row. 



Entrance to the cellar 

 dnring the dead of win- 

 ter is made through a 

 trapdoor in the ceiling, and on a cold and 

 stormy day it is a rather pleasant sensation 

 to pass down into this cosy subterranean 

 den and listen to the murmur of hundreds 

 of thousands of quiescent workers. Each 



with a candle it is quite possible to see the 

 individual clusters. A special visit is made 

 to the cellar about three times during the 

 winter to sweep up dead bees, and, inciden- 

 tally, satisfy our curiosity as to the state of 

 affairs; but otherwise they are practically 



hive is blocked up o&. its bottom-board, and 



The interior of Selwyn's cellar, showing the ventilator pipe in the floor, 

 and one of the racks for holding hives. A picture of a part of the apiary 

 and the exterior of the cellar is shown on our cover for this issue. 



left entirely alone throughout a period of 

 from five and a half to six months, and Avith 

 eminently satisfactory results, as the picture 

 of one typical colony taken on April 20 

 shows. 



Kirk's Feri-y, Quebec, Can. 



^^THE MAN WHO NEVER LOSES BEES IN WINTERING' 



How He Does It 



BY E. R. ROOT 



In our issue for May 1 we referred to 

 the fact that Mr. H. R. Boardman, of 

 Collins, Ohio, had for the last 35 years, 

 winter after winter, good, bad, and indif- 

 ferent, wintered his bees without loss. It 

 will be remembered that, three years ago, 

 our friend still kept up his record in spite 

 of the fact that it was the coldest winter 

 known in thirty years, and in spite of the 

 further fact that large numbers of our 

 best beekeepers lost heavily. Believing that 

 many would like to know something more 

 about this man and his methods we prom- 

 ised that we would tell later on how he 

 does it. 



Ill 1889. when the present editor had 

 been four years in charge of this journal, 



a good deal had been said about this man 

 who never lost his bees during winter. We 

 had a curiosity to visit him, and did so at 

 the close of the winter of 1888. At that 

 time we secured an extended interview 

 which Avas published in Gleanings for 

 April, 1889. 



The Avinter repository was a plain build- 

 ing 12 X 50 feet, one story, with double 

 Avails 14 inches thick, and, if we remember 

 correctly, the walls were packed. The 

 building was divided into two compart- 

 ments, each of Avhich Avas connected Avith 

 an entryway 10x10 in the center of the 

 building. This entryway Avas ])laced mid- 

 \v;iv betAveen the two compartments, and 

 cnlpred by one door in the center of the 



