1008 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



DR. miller's furnace-heated CELLAR, 

 AND HOW THE BEES WINTERED IN IT. 



Dr. C. C. Miller: — I had hoped to hear 

 before this time how your bees wintered in 

 that cellar with the furnace in it, and the 

 temperature as high as 70, where some of 

 the hives stood near the hot air pipes. I 

 am now getting my bees ready for winter. 

 I have formerly wintered them on their sum- 

 mer stands, with a home-made winter-jack- 

 et over them with three inches of planer- 

 shavings around between the hive and the 

 jacket, and six inches of the same material 

 over them, with fairly good success. I have 

 a furnace-room where I could put a large 

 number of the colonies if the high tempera- 

 ture would not make it unfit. 



First, can I winter in the furnace-room if 

 I can keep the temperature at 60 or below, 

 provided other conditions are favorable? 



Second, will my going into the cellar to 

 attend to the fire in the furnace have a ten- 

 dency to disturb the bees, either on account 

 of the noise or the light? 



Third, will it be necessary to have the 

 bees fastened in with wire cloth to keep 

 them in the hive if the temperature is 60 or 

 nearly so? A. J. Kilgore. 



Bowling Green, O. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



The editor of Gleanings was responsible 

 for my having the furnace put in the cellar, 

 but he was not responsible for its being put 

 in so late that the bees could not be cellar- 

 ed until Dec. 8, after enduring a tempera- 

 ture of 8 below zero without au}^ subsequent 

 flight. 



I may remark, in passing, that that fur- 

 nace is cataloged, not among the common 

 but among the great blessings of this fami- 

 ly. Common courtesy might have demand- 

 ed that, when Mr. Root was here visiting', 

 he should have acquiesced in existing do- 

 mestic arrangements; but uncommon court- 

 esy impelled him to insist that we have a 

 furnace, and I here and now record my 

 debt of gratitude for that insisting; for with- 

 out it the furnace would not yet have ma- 

 terialized. 



AIKIN'S ten-pound CANDIED-HONEY PACKAGE. — SEE EDITORIALS. 



