1314 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



ami closiug theiu ab moruiiig to admit cool 

 air to lowei" the cellar tempei'ature. This is 

 a matter that requires good judgment. The 

 opening should he at some distance from the 

 bees if possible, so as to avoid bringing the 

 <!old air directly upon them. If the cellar is 

 at a high temperature a small opening will 

 cool it quite rapidly if the air is cold outside. 

 If the air is about as warm outside as in the 

 <*.ellar. and the object is to admit fresh air, 

 larger openings are advisable. Last winter 

 the temperature of my cellar rose to 70 de- 

 srees F.. and remained at about that point 

 for three days. The bees ))ecame very ac- 

 tive, so that their roaring (^ould be distinctly 

 heard in the living-rooms above. Doors and 

 windows to the cellar were freely oj^ened to 

 admit fi-esh air, as the outside and inside 

 temperature were about the same. This 

 free admission of tresh air afforded much 

 relief to all but a few over-active colonies 

 which were carried out for a Hight. Such 

 protracteil periods of warm conditions in 

 the cellar are very exhaustive to the bees. 

 and this experience has empasized in a prac- 

 tical way the importance of having the cel- 

 lar so constructed as not to -be intiuenced by 

 wp^'m conditions outdoors or from the pai't 

 of the cellar where the furnace 4s located. 



Undoubtedly luidwinter tiights are benefi- 

 cial to bees when they become uneasy and 

 remain so any considerable length of time; 

 and especially if they are soiling the hives; 

 I)ut far Ijetter is it to have the cellar so con- 

 structed that fresh air is present at all times, 

 and the temperature practically uniform at 

 about 42. ^A'ith the ideal conditions for cel- 

 lar wintering 1 believe that the bees are bet- 

 ter off not to be disturl:)eil imtil taken out to 

 stay. In this climate, weather conditions 

 during the winter are not always such as to 

 favor a winter Hight. We do" not always 

 have a -January thaw.'" and often Februa- 

 ry is equally cold. I favor setting the bees 

 out as soon as we have warm days after the 

 middle of March. Such conditions often do 

 not obtain until well into April. 



To tlie apiarist who has 100 colonies of 

 bees to winter, the chief advantage of cellar 

 wintering over that of wintering out of doors 

 is the saving of from 600 to yOO lbs. of honey, 

 or about $50.00 in value; and the saving in 

 wintering a greater or less number would be 

 in like proportion. Another advantage is 

 the greater uniformity of results; or the near- 

 er approach to perfect wintering; and closely 

 allied to this is the fact that weak or nucleus 

 colonies may be wintered in the cellar when 

 it would be impossible to winter them out- 

 <loors. Our heavy lake winds are very hard 

 on the bees in the" warm days of winte'r, and 

 I am of the opinion that these moderately 

 warm days with raw damp air are hard on 

 the bees in every locality. According to my 

 l)est observation, my bees have wintered, on 

 the average, about "l5 per cent better, as to 

 the number of colonies successfully wintered. 

 in the cellar than those wintered (mt of 

 <loors. so that, in addition to the saving of 

 food, there is the saving of the value of 15 

 ■colonies in every 100. It is plain from uiv 



experience, that it is highly profitable to 

 build a good cellar, or alter the house cellar 

 to meet the desired requirements, and win- 

 ter at least a part of the bees in sucli repos- 

 itories. Doulile-walled chaff-packed hives, 

 of course, are not intended for cellar win- 

 tering. 



Concluded in next issue. 



THE BL.VCK HILLS OF SOUTH DAKOTA. 



I greatly enjoyed a ride through the big 

 cornliclds of Iowa and Nel)raska. I enjoyed 

 it all the more after having heard Mr. Hol- 

 den's corn talk; antl just at pi'esent South 

 Dakota also is showing .some of the hand- 

 somest corntiekls that can be found in any 

 State. I am told by people who live there 

 that for the last five years they have been 

 having (]uite frequent rains. In my trip 

 through y^outh Dakota some years ago I told 

 you they had the most ))eautiful roads, with 

 little or no expense, of anyplace on the face 

 of the earth. The black soil pounds down 

 hard, almost like an asphalt pavement: and 

 when water falls on these roads it not only 

 runs off quickly, but I have seen rain water 

 standing in puddles in the road, looking as 

 clear as spring water, even after the buggy- 

 wheels had Ijeen in and out of the puddle. 

 This is because the surface gets hard, and 

 impervious to water. In addition to this 

 the prevailing high winds l)low the dust off 

 the roads about as well as you could sweep 

 them with a In'oom. Now, this hard crust, 

 so impervious to water, is not confined to 

 the roads. When the country was first set- 

 tled, the rain ran over this hard surface 

 crust down into the creeks and rivers, and 

 away off without moistening the soil. After 

 the crust was broken to get in the crops, the 

 rainfalls soaked into the ground; and tilling 

 the soil has gradually had the effect, so it is 

 claimed, of giving a moist atmosphere that 

 is productive of or essential to rainfalls in 

 the summer time; and many people think 

 the distressing drouths of former years are. 

 for the most part, things of the past. 1 do 

 not knf)W h(jw true this explanation is; but I 

 do know there are some most lieautiful-look- 

 ing farms all through South Dakota; and I 

 do know, too, that the farmers are getting to 

 be well-to-do. This is attested by the pretty 

 farm hoiues, nicely painted, with attractive 

 dooryards now to be seen more or less all 

 over that State. 



There do not seem to be many bees kept 

 in South Dakota as yet; but I think there is 

 a good show for that when the farmers get 

 over l)eiiig so i>usy with their regular farm 



