172 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



ningmyfarm. My wagon and lumber were lost; $100 

 all swallowed up in a moment; more money, proba- 

 bly, than I ever received for honey. One of my low- 

 er limbs was injured when the bridg-e went down, 

 and I have not been able to do much since. On our 

 way home friend T. said, " W^hat do you think of 

 making hives now?" I told him that I wished that I 

 had never seei one. H. O. Morris. 



Tiskilwa, 111, March 2,1883. 



Friend M., you are not a candidate for 

 Blasted Hopes at all, for if there was ever 

 a man thfit ought to thank God for a mar- 

 velous deliverance, with not even a bone 

 broken, you are he. Suppose your team is 

 gone, and your lumber ; you are spared to 

 take care of your wife and children, and 

 have all the world before you. You have 

 also given a timely warning to all of our 

 readers, to beware of going over bridges in a 

 time like that, and taking such risks. 

 Troubles come in all occupations of life, and 

 your bees are no more to blame for it than 

 your poor faithful horses. Be not cast down, 

 but reach up and let y ur faith grasp hold of 

 the promises of Him whom even the winds 

 and waves obey. 



ODDS AND ENDS REGARDING CELLAR 

 WINTERING. 



DOOL TTLE'S EW EE-CELLAR. 



IF the'readers will turn to page 09, Vol. 5, they 

 will there find a description of how I built my 

 — ' bee-cellar, or " mud hut," as some called it, 

 during 1875, the lime when it was built. As all the 

 material used was wood, it became so decayed that 

 the past fall I rebuilt it, putting up good stone walls, 

 and lengthening it 6 feet. It was covered nearly the 

 same as In 1875, except that I put on an outer roof 

 to keep the three feet of dirt dry. The walls are 

 about a foot thick, and laid up in mortar. 



SUB-E RTH ■\'ENTILATION. 



For ventilation I dug a ditch 100 feet31ong7and 2V2 

 feet deep, into which I placed two tiers of 3-inch 

 drain-tile, one above the other, so that in case any 

 water came into the cellar, the lower tier would 

 answer for a drain. In the opposite end from this I 

 placed a 5-inch tube running through the roof, hav- 

 ing two elbows so as to entirely exclude the light. 

 During extremely cold, windy weather, the lower, or 

 sub - earth ventilator, has been closed partially or 

 entirely, but the upper one has been open all the 

 while. A high wind during extreme cold will cool 

 the cellar too much if both ventilators are allowed 

 to be open. In this cellar I placed half my bees 

 from the 3d to the 20th of Nov., and after they got 

 settled it has not varied two degrees; standing at 

 42 to 43° for over 3 months. Heretofore in the old 

 cellar many bees came out of the hives and died on 

 the cellar bottom; but the past winter there has 

 been but very few. Three days ago I swept up all I 

 could get, and a two-quart measure would have held 

 them all, that being all that had accumulated dur- 

 ing the whole winter. I often go into the cellar 

 without ft light, and stand several minutes and lis- 

 ten. A slight hum is all that is heard, with scarcely 

 a bee taking wing and flying to the bottom, while in 

 the old one the roar of the bees was much louder. 

 At least two bees a minute would fly to the cellar 

 bottom, and often several would be flying at once. 



I have swept as many as 2!^4 bushels of bees off the 

 bottom of the old cellar during the winter, from 60 

 colonies of bees. The caps of all the hives were 

 filled with straw before the bees were set in the cel- 

 lar, and the hives piled one above the other till 3 

 high, leaving an alley at the back end of the cellar. 

 I removed the caps of some the other Jay while 

 sweeping, and raised the quilt. The bees scarcely 

 stirred, but were all quiet and nice. By breathing 

 on them they would arouse and thrust out their 

 stings. The air inside seems to be quite moist, for 

 large drops of water stand on ae stones where not 

 covered with mortar. 



WATER FOR BEES I WINTER. 



In preparing the bees for putting in the cellar I 

 left some of them with the enamel cloth on, by way 

 of experiment; and upon reading W. Z. Hutchin- 

 son's account of how Mr. Robinson, of Pewamo, 

 Mich., shoveled snow into his cellar to keep the air 

 moist. I thought, why would not enameled cloth 

 keep the Inside of the hive in just the right condi- 

 tion as to moisture? 



ENAMEL CLOTH FOR A COVERING WHILE IN THE 

 CELLAR. 



I knew where three of the swarms having enameled 

 cloth over them were, and immediately went to the 

 cellar to examine them. Upon taking off the cap I 

 placed my hand on top; and by the warmth of the 

 cloth I ascertained that the bees covered at least 

 half the surface underneath the cloth, thus showing 

 that the theory of enamel cloth being cold and damp 

 for bees is not proven by fact. 1 carefully raised 

 one side, when I found the bees located justas I had 

 believed them to be by the warmth above the cloth. 

 All around the cluster, but about 1J4 inches from it. 

 were large drops of water hanging to the under side 

 of the cloth, but I have never seen a colony more 

 quiet nor in better condition after being in the cel- 

 lar 4 months than was this. The other two were 

 found to be in equally good condition; and if noth- 

 ing unfavorable occurs during the rest of their staj' 

 in the cellar, and after setting out, I shall try it 

 quite largely another winter. 



On page 122, J. E. Frith wishes to know how many 

 dead bees should be found on the cellar bottom. 

 Above I have given him the two extremes. One 

 thing I forgot to mention, which was, that in sweep- 

 ing out the whole cellar not a bee flew to the light 

 — something I never had happen before in an expe- 

 rience of 12 years of cellar wintering. 



Borodino, N. Y., Mar. 20, '83. G. M. Doolittle. 



Many thanks, friend D. I like the idea of 

 your bee-cellar so well that I feel now quite 

 a mind to try part of our bees in something 

 similar another year. No doubt the enamel- 

 ed sheets would do nicely in such a cellar, 

 but perhaps they might not always do so 

 well for outdoor wintering. It will be re- 

 membered that friend Boomhower has sug- 

 gested the same plan for providing the bees 

 with water in the winter. Would not your 

 sub-earth tubes be better, if longer than 100 

 feet, friend D. ? Would this not obviate the 

 necessity of closing the tubes, when there 

 are very cold high winds V The water in the 

 lower tube would keep the air in the cellar 

 damp enough, so that moisture in sufficient 

 quantity would always condense on the en- 

 ameled cloth, to give the bees all they would 

 ever need without getting restless and try- 

 ing to go out of the hives. We have had 



