150 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1922 



the rows were only by the little mounds 

 of snow. A week of genuine winter weather 

 followed, but the bees suffered no harm, and 

 when the honey flow came on these were 

 our strongest colonies. Experience has 

 taught us that, if the bees can have a week 

 of good weather with several flights during 

 that time, they are in shape to withstand 

 any bad weather that may follow. 

 Advantages of Setting Bees Out at Night. 

 Many beekeepers remove their bees from 

 the cellar during the day, but we prefer to 

 take them out at night, with the prospect 

 of a cool and cloudy day to follow, so that 

 the bees will not try to fly until the next 

 warm day. Then they will start out gradu- 

 ally as the heat of the sun warms the hives 



A familiar picture — the underground bee-cellar of 

 the late G. M. Doolittle ; one of the first of its kind. 



from the outside and assures the bees that 

 it is safe to venture forth. In this way 

 there is no mad scramble to get out for the 

 first flight, the bees fly out gradually, mark- 

 ing their location as they go out, and there 

 is very little drifting. 



We do not try to remove our 300 colonies 

 all in one night, but take several evenings 

 to do the work. Sometimes a week will in- 

 tervene between the first and the last lot 

 taken out. Therefore there is less confusion 

 in the yard, the following day, than if all 

 were removed on the same night. 



In handling the work in this way it is 

 best to fill out all rows started each night in 

 order to start at the end of a new row the 

 next night; otherwise the bees in the hives 

 near the ends of the rows will have marked 

 their location, and when the row is con- 

 tinued the following night, these bees will 

 become confused upon flying the follow- 

 ing morning, to find that their home is in 

 the middle of the block instead of on the 

 corner. 



Each morning after moving a lot of bees 

 from the cellar, we proceed to clean out the 

 entrances, put in the alighting-boards, 

 and contract the entrances to about one 

 inch, which keeps out the cool night air and 

 lielps to prevent robbing. 



I have often been asked if there is no 

 danger of robbing when bees are taken out 

 in this way. All I can say is, that we have 

 never had any trouble from this. No doubt 

 if one is careless he would have trouble; 

 but, if proper precautions are taken, there 

 will be no robbing on this account. I think 

 that if some who practice cellar wintering 

 and taking their bees out during the day, 

 will try the niglit trick, they will be con- 

 vinced that it is far ahead of the daylight 

 plan. They will have no flying bees, no 

 gloves nor bee-veil to contend with, and the 

 work is done during the coolest part of the 

 day. 



If you can not pick a moonlight night for 

 the work, bring Henry around to the yard 

 and let him cast his eagle eyes over the 

 yard, wliich will answer just as well. 



Separating Colonies of Different Strength. 



In putting our bees into the cellar we 

 arrange them in three classes — heavy, me- 

 dium and light. The heavy ones are placed 

 on the two bottom rows, the medium ones 

 next and the light ones on the top. There 

 are two reasons for this: one is to save lift- 

 ing the heavy colonies so high, and the 

 other is, that the colonies near the ceiling 

 will not consume as much honey as the colo- 

 nies next to the floor. 



With us light colonies mean weak colo- 

 nies, that is to say, that they were found 

 weak in bees and light in stores at the last 

 inspection in the fall. Colonies that were 

 light but strong in bees were attended to 

 at that time; but those that were weak in 

 bees, and light, were considered to have 

 enough stores to carry them thru till they 

 could be attended to in the spring. If not, 

 they were given enough feed to carry them 

 thru the winter. 



In taking the bees out we proceed to 

 place our light colonies, which we know to 

 be tlie weaker ones, on the stands in the 

 front rows of tlie yard, as we have found 

 that the front rows of any beeyard gener- 

 ally contain the strongest colonies in the 

 fall, due to the fact that the bees from the 

 back of the yard coming in heavily loaded 

 will often droji down and enter the hives 



