1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1271 



with baby nuclei in this same cellar the past 

 winter, since they offer luore facts bearing 

 on the matter. The readers of Gleanings 

 will recall that, during the past year, an ar- 

 ticle was pul)lished wtiich depicted my meth- 

 od of wintering baby nuclei, i.ast' fall I 

 placed 9 (where the year before I set in 24) 

 of these nuclei in the wintering-case. I did 

 not raise the little hives from their bottom- 

 boards as was done before, anil I did not set 

 them out for any mid-winter flights as was 

 done before. Otherwise they wei'e treated 

 as were the 24 from which I set- out 21 live 

 ones mostly in perfect condition. Of these 

 nine only two were in even fair condition 

 this present spring, and hve were absolutely 

 dead. The little hives were damp and fear- 

 fully moldy, though this cellar is so dry. 

 The food was of poor heating quality, and 

 more was consumed than on the preceding 

 winter, nearly every litile hive being almost 

 if not entirely devoid of honey or syrup. 



A tenth baby nucleus was treated as fol- 

 lows: A burlap sack was laid on the concrete 

 cellar-bottom, and on this was placed a shal- 

 low dish with half a pound of chloride of cal- 

 cium above it on a wire cloth. Over this 

 dish was set a hive-body with a horizontal 

 partition of wire cloth upon which the nu- 

 cleus rested. Then another dish of chloride 

 was placed on the hive. Over all was laid 

 another sack, and above that a Mat board 

 with empty hive-bodies holding the same 

 down. It will thus be seen that this little 

 hive was shut away from the cellar air ex- 

 cept as it could tind its way through the pores 

 of the wood and the fibers of the cloth. The 

 dry air of the cellar was made still drier by 

 the presence of the dishes of chloride. 



Incidentally I might mention that, in the 

 empty hive- body, above this arrangement I 

 placed a somewhat larger nucleus with my 

 best breeding-queen. Cover was placed on 

 this hive- body, shutting in the nucleus with 

 only natural entrance of hive-bottom to fur- 

 nish air to the bees of nucleus which had en- 

 trance I by 5. This nucleus was set out for 

 one flight in January, and wintered without 

 the loss of ten bees so far as I know. 



I wished to test with the tenth nucleus 

 whether bees need air in winter beyond the 

 small amount necessary to burn or oxidize 

 the honey, aiming to take up excess of mois- 

 ture with the calcium chloride. The air 

 about this nucleus was so dry that bees were 

 easily powdered to dust, and during the 

 course of the winter the chloriiie all dissolv- 

 ed, and fully a pint of water was absorbed 

 thereby. In January the chloride was about 

 half dissolved, and the bees very quiet, and 

 apparently in tine shape. 



Well, I fully expected to take out those 

 bees in April in perfect condition; but I must 

 state the facts. When I found in March the 

 other nuclei in such awful (H)nditi'in, I had, 

 perforce, to open up the tenth. I found 90 

 per cent of the bees dead outside the hive. 

 About half a dozen bees in the hive showed 

 signs of life. The queen was sluggishly alive 

 by herself, and her I introduced to another 

 nucleus without, a queen. The food left in 



the combs was not at all gummy — was rather 

 watery in fact. None of the dead bees had 

 distended abdomens, and the hive was sweet, 

 and entirely free from mold. This tenth nu- 

 cleus ofl:'ered a striking contrast to those oth- 

 ers, whose hives were rankly filthy to both 

 sight aud smell. 



Here we have a problem. Did those bees 

 desert their hive for water? Scarcely possi- 

 ble, yet they had evidently become uneasy 

 some time in the winter, and left their hive 

 to perish. Their food showed no need of 

 water. I shall try this winter to discover the 

 cause of the failure. I made no provision 

 for disposal of carbon dioxide; and as this 

 sluggish gas gathered about the lower part 

 of the hive- body, in which part the entrance 

 of the nucleus was, it is quite possible -that 

 the bees suffered from that cause — too much 

 nitrogen, too little oxygen to burn the hon- 

 ey, etc. 



Two other baby nuclei were wintered per- 

 fectly, placed in hive-bodies, no attempt be- 

 ing made to ventilate beyond the cracks un- 

 der and above the bodies, which were not 

 stopped with burlap as in the ease of the 

 tenth. 



I realize, as I offer this article, that it set- 

 tles no question with definiteness, and that 

 the whole matter is yet to be solved. But I 

 would urge the fact that few bee-keepers 

 need worry about their cellars being too dry. 

 I would assert here, as I have elsewhere, that 

 a cellar is wet or dry according as the air in 

 it is wet or dry. A cellar may have running 

 water in it, and still be a very dry cellar. 

 Another cellar may not have a drop of water 

 in it, and yet be a damp cellar. Do not 

 judge a cellar by the condition of the cellai'- 

 bottom, but judge it by the action of its at- 

 mosphere. A wet-bulb and dry-bulb ther- 

 mometer may be worth the money of any 

 apiarist who winters his bees in the cellar. 

 In lieu of such thermometer a person can 

 judge a cellar largely by the effect of its at- 

 mosphere upon fruit and vegetables. It can 

 be laid down as a safe rule that a cellar in 

 which apples keep crisp, and in which tur- 

 nips and potatoes hold their weight, is a damp 

 cellar; also that a cellar in which apples 

 shrivel, potatoes and turnips lose weight, is 

 a dry cellar. The- rapidity with which the 

 desiccating of the vegetable takes place marks 

 the degree of dryness of the cellar air. 



I am not an expert in cellar wintering of 

 bees, having always practiced outside win- 

 tering. 1 have, however, tried a colony or 

 two at various times, and have done more or 

 less experimentation. I think it will be safe 

 to say that a bee-keeper whose cellar is good 

 to keep potatoes in will do well to give his 

 colonies large entrances, or even to remove 

 the hive-bottoms; that, on the other hand, a 

 bee-keeper whose cellar is poor for keeping 

 potatoes openly exposed to the air would do 

 well to allow the bees a small entrance. If 

 the cellar be extremely dry there can be no 

 harm in sprinkling the floor occasionally 

 with a garden-pot. Surely, a dry cellar is 

 more easily controlled with a garden-pot or 

 sprinkler than a wet cellar can oe controlled. 



