408 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



man near me hauled about fifty colonies six- 

 ty miles in December, and put them in a 

 cellar without their having an opportunity 

 to tly till April. They wintered finely, and 

 did exceptionally good work the following 

 season, and have continued so to do every 

 year, though they have not had their winter 

 sleigh-ride — a treat relating to their ances- 

 tors. There may be, as is often the case, an 

 opinion that comes to us for which we are 

 not responsible, and which has come with- 

 out definite observation. 



This theory that it is detrimental to dis- 

 turb bees in winter has been potent many 

 years, which, of itself satisfactory, may not 

 have unquestioned experimental support. 

 Bees in their normal condition, when idle, 

 cluster and apparently hibernate. They 

 cluster just as closely after the brood is out 

 of the combs and the queen has stopped lay- 

 ing, as they do in midwinter in an atmos- 

 phere of the same temperature. They are 

 just as lifeless, and as easily vexed, as in 

 midwinter. 



My experience has led me to the conclu- 

 sion that bees in their natural condition in 

 warm weather fly frequently when not 

 brooding, even though the broodless period 

 may last several months. At such times it 

 is reasonable to presume that the whole col- 

 ony is active — at least for a short time; yet 

 we do not read of such flights being detri- 

 mental to them. 



Having visited my own cellar for years, 

 and swept the floor of my cellar as often as 

 once a week or two during every winter, is 

 evidence that I did not consider disturbing 

 them detrimental to their successful winter- 

 ing. 



This winter I have set apart five full colo- 

 nies of bees, all with young queens to feed,, 

 as often as once in two weeks on hot buck- 

 wheat honey. I fed them so as to have about 

 two pounds in each hive. The hives are my 

 regular half- winter size, and contain seven 

 frames holding combs 5X12 inches. I have 

 already fed them three times. I fed in a 

 shallow I -inch-deep round cake-tin, and gave 

 the five pounds of hot buckwheat honey — 

 about a pound apiece. The tin plates have 

 no floats, and are crowded snugly up against 

 the frames and bees below the clusters. They 

 wake up and feed and roar just as they do 

 in summer when fed. They clean up the 

 plates, and all is still as before. This feed- 

 ing does not seem to aisturb the other bees, 

 of which there are more than 100 other colo- 

 nies close to them. 



1 am trying this experiment to satisfy my- 

 self. It may be a success or it may be five 

 colonies out. 



I am trying some other experiments which 

 may be of value as facts for bee-keepers. 

 Every thing needs a few facts at each end of it. 



Farwell, Mich. 



[As we have already stated, this question 

 of disturbance in bee-cellars depends some- 

 what on conditions. Frequent disturbance 

 does not cause nearly as much trouble as 

 when the bees are disturbed only once in a 



while. It is hardly conceivable how any 

 bees could have more disturbance than our 

 indoor-wintered colonies directly under our 

 machine-shop, with heavy machinery in mo- 

 tion overhead; yet we venture to state that 

 there ai'e very few bee-cellars that give bet- 

 ter results in wintering than ours.— Ed.] 



WINTERING WITH ENTRANCES COV- 

 ERED WITH WIRE CLOTH. 



Some Experiments with Bees Confined in a 

 Cellar. 



BY H. T. JACKSON, M. D. 



Reference to shutting bees in their hives 

 while being wintered, in recent numbers of 

 Gleanings, leads me to give my experience 

 with wintering bees, which began in the fall 

 of 1904, when I placed four colonies, in Dove- 

 tailed hives, in an open shed. A cushion of 

 dry leaves in an empty super was placed on 

 each hive, and all were thoroughly packed 

 in leaves, with only the fronts exposed and 

 the entrances closed with wire cloth. A 

 weak colony, which I feared would not sur- 

 vive the winter out of doors, was put in the 

 cellar, with entrance also closed by wire 

 cloth. No suitable weather for a flight oc- 

 curred during the winter, so those out of 

 doors remained shut in until spring, being 

 no better off in this respect than those in the 

 cellar. A few bees escaped from one hive, 

 but perished a few inches from the entrance. 

 Doulstless a great many would have shared 

 a like fate but for the wire cloth over the en- 

 trance. 



They wintered only indifferently, there 

 being considerable dampness and mold in 

 the hives, while the one in the cellar came 

 out in good condition in the spring, and was 

 the best colony the following summer. 



Profiting by this experience I built a bee- 

 room in one corner of my cellar, which con- 

 tains a furnace, by covering a skeleton frame 

 with building-paper, making it as tight as 

 possible. This corner had once been occu- 

 pied by a cistern, and in the wall were two 

 three-inch tiles for intake and overflow of 

 cistern. The lower one was continued by a 

 wooden box down to the bottom of the room, 

 and the upper one was carried up similarly 

 several feet outside of the house, for ventila- 

 tion. 



In the latter part of November my 13 col- 

 onies were placed on ordinary bee-stands 

 around three sides of this room, each having 

 a light cushion of leaves in a super on top, 

 with the |-inch entrances, the width of the 

 hives, covered with wire cloth tacked to end- 

 bars and a top cross-bar. 



Last winter was a very mild one here, and 

 I had some trouble in keeping the room cool 

 enough. The door of the bee-room was close 

 to that of a vegetable-cellar. When both were 

 open they nearly came together, virtually 

 connecting the two. By this means I was 



