16 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



in cellars and special repositories to go 

 over those pages again carefully, during- the 

 long winter evenings that are now before 

 us. I had calculated to notice this matter 

 last spring; but as we were into the sum- 

 mer before some of the articles appeared, I 

 thought best to wait till this time, when the 

 matter would be appropriate again. lean 

 not help looking on any plan of wintering 

 which requires the looking after ventilators 

 all winter, the opening and closing of doors 

 nights and mornings, and the setting of the 

 bees out for a flight during winter, together 

 with a consumption of 20 lbs. of honey per 

 colony on an average (after all that work) 

 as faulty, when apparently bees winter 

 equally well, if not better, on the non-ven- 

 tilation plan, with absolutely no work during 

 winter, and with an average consumption 

 of only about 6 lbs. per colony. On pages 

 154 and '5, I was invited to try the large 

 16-inch-square ventilator; but I thought best 

 to wait about the matter till I saw the out- 

 come with those who were trying it, which 

 outcome is given on some of the pages re- 

 ferred to at the commencement of this ar- 

 ticle. Now, Mr. Editor, please allow me 

 to lay alongside of these reports my own 

 for the winter of 1901. 



The bees were gotten out of the cellar 

 (regarding what the cellar is, see pages 

 187 and '8, Gleanings for 1902, and ABC 

 book) on the 15th, 16th, and I7th of April, and 

 came out in excellent condition. The loss 

 was only one out of seventy, and that one 

 was queenless with but few bees when put 

 in the cellar. The consumption of stores 

 from the latter part of September, at which 

 time they were prepared regarding their 

 winter supplies, to the time of setting out, 

 averaged about 6 lbs. to the colony. This 

 number of pounds was not ascertained by 

 weighing wet hives in the spring, as Mr. 

 Bingham would have the readers of Glean- 

 ings suppose (page 294), for I do not es- 

 timate stores by weighing hives and their 

 contents, as he does. I "weigh" the hon- 

 ey in each frame in the fall, and then again 

 in the spring; consequently the weight of 

 the hive (and of the bees) has nothing to do 

 with the matter. 



In passing, allow me to say to Mr. Bing- 

 ham, in answer to his question on page 294, 

 I have never recommended putting bees in- 

 to winter quarters with as little as from 5 

 to 10 lbs. of honey; but on several occasions 

 where my own bees have been short of stores 

 in the fall I have put them in the cellar 

 with from only 12 to 15 lbs. of stores, and 

 never yet had a single colony starve while 

 in the cellar. The present fall and winter, 

 over half of the colonies have less than 16 

 lbs. of stores; but where so little is allowed 

 in the fall these colonies need looking after 

 as soon as brood-rearing commences in the 

 spring, or they may then starve; for with 

 rapid brood-rearing comes a rapid con- 

 sumption of honey. But, to return. 



An even temperature of 45 degrees was 

 maintained in the cellar practically all 

 winter, or during the time the bees were in 



winter quarters, which was from the latter 

 part of November till April 15th to l7th, or 

 approximately five months. The changes 

 of temperature outside had no perceptible 

 effect on that within, and the bees were 

 aware of nothing except one apparently end- 

 less dark night, with a temperature and 

 environment perfectly agreeable to them. 

 After the bees got settled down from being 

 placed in the cellar I went in and found 

 the temperature at about 45>3 degrees above 

 zero. When I next went in we had had a 

 month without the snow even softening in 

 the shade, while much of the time during 

 this month the mercury had stood at from 

 zero to eight below, yet I found the temper- 

 ature inside the cellar at exactlj^ 45 on en- 

 tering it. Then in the spring it had been 

 so warm from March 20th to the time the 

 bees were set out that all of those 10 to 15 

 foot snowbanks, spoken of on page 187, were 

 all gone, and the grass quite green; but in 

 going into the cellar to commence setting 

 the bees out, a look at the thermometer 

 found it standing at 45^, or the same it was 

 soon after the bees were set in the fall pre- 

 vious. Here allow me to digress again. 



Mr. Bingham says (page 387), "The tem- 

 perature of the earth laelow the frost-line is 

 between 32 and 34, yet Mr. Doolittle has no 

 trouble in keeping his bees at about 50. 

 How is that 10 to 20 degrees of heat obtain- 

 ed? I need not say by the consumption of 

 honey — every one knows that." Years 

 ago, when discussing this wintering prob- 

 lem, James Heddon told us that the temper- 

 ature of the earth a few feet below the frost- 

 line was not far from 42 the year around; 

 and from many experiments made I proved 

 that Mr. Heddon was correct. And as the 

 back end of my bee cellar or cave is ten feet 

 under ground, and over all two roofs, be- 

 tween which there is from three to four feet 

 of dry earth, the temperature therein rare- 

 ly goes lower than 42 when it is shut up, 

 whether there are any bees in it or not. 

 Hence Mr. Bingham's 10 to 20 degrees melt 

 away to only three that the bees have to 

 warm by the consumption of honey. And 

 the strange part of the matter is that both 

 Mr. Bingham and Editor Root think I would 

 be so much better off if I would put in a 

 great big ventilator to run the warm air, 

 which the earth gives, out into the cold, so 

 that I could have the pleasure of having 

 each colony consume an average of 14 pounds 

 more of stores each winter, to say nothing 

 of the extra work of attending to .ventilators, 

 opening doors, and setting the bees out for 

 winter- flights, besides having a part of them 

 come out weak in the spring, or fail entire- 

 ly, as Mr. Bingham admits a part of his 

 did, on page 475, and all for the sake of 

 getting rid of dampness or moisture! Let 

 me repeat again, gentlemen, that "damp- 

 ness does no harm to the bees so long as the 

 temperature is right." 



And many of the colonies, nearly half, 

 were made up of united nuclei used during 

 the summer for queen-rearing, all of which 

 came out in excellent shape, and built up 



