312 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



many varying circumstances that, to 

 my mind, the only satisfactory evi- 

 dence is that obtainable by compara- 

 tive experiments in the same apiary, 

 similar to those made by Mr. Hill. 



As we approach the equator less 

 protection is needed by bees, until a 

 point is Bnally reached where chali 

 hives and cellars never come. Before 

 this point is reached, however, there 

 is another point where some protec- 

 tion is needed in winters ; where chafi 

 hives and the various kinds of pack- 

 ing are probably a sufficient shield 

 against the cold ; and by means of 

 which bees can be wintered to better 

 advantage, and it is likely, with no 

 greater consumption ot stores, than 

 m a cellar ; but it must not be forgot- 

 ten that Messrs. Boot and Hill live 

 nearer this point than do Mr. Clarke 

 and myself. 



I met Mr. Root last March at the 

 home of Prof. Cook, and as the wheels 

 rattled over the frozen earth, and the 

 frosty air nipped our ears and noses 

 when on our way to the station, Mr. 

 Root exclaimed : " Well, I declare, 

 if this is the kind of weather you have 

 up here, at this time of the year, I 

 don't know but I, too, should favor 

 cellar-wintering if I lived here. Why, 

 the frost has been out of the ground 

 at our place for two weeks." I will 

 admit that the weather was unusually 

 severe just then, but it was two weeks 

 later before the frost was out of the 

 ground at this place. 



At the Michigan State Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Convention held at Lansing in 

 1884, the question of "Saving honey 

 by cellar-wintering " was thoroughly 

 discussed ; and the weight of the 

 testimony indicated that wintering 

 bees in a cellar effected a saving of 

 from 5 to 10 pounds of honey per col- 

 ony. Mr. Root suggested that a 

 good chaff hive would give almost as 

 good results as a cellar, but was told 

 by quite a number that he was mis- 

 taken. 



Judging from my own experience, 

 which, 1 will admit, is not so decisive 

 as it might be, consisting as it does 

 only of general observations, and of 

 several times being obliged to take 

 honey from cellar-wintered colonies, 

 and give it to those wintered out-of- 

 doors, I should place the saving by 

 cellar-wintering at about 4 pounds 

 per colony. 



Mr. A.G.Hill has given us some 

 excellent tables showing the amount 

 of stores consumed during the winter, 

 when the bees were protected ; but, 

 according to the table in his paper for 

 April, 1886, he has been wintering 

 bees in the cellar only since the winter 

 of 1883-84. Comparing the three 

 years of cellar-wintering that are in- 

 cluded in tliis table, with three cor- 

 responding years in the table show- 

 ing the results of out-door wintering, 

 I find that the saving by cellar-win- 

 tering averages 2 pounds and almost 

 one ounce per colony. 



The next step is to decide in regard 

 to the expense of cellar-wintering. 1 

 had a cellar under one-half of my 

 house. Last fall I dug out the other 

 half at a cost of $5, which enlarge- 

 ment furnished room for 100 colonies. 

 The soil was hard clay, and as the 



walls were given a slant of about 60°, 

 no stone wall was needed. As the 

 hatchway to the other part of the 

 cellar also furnished an entrance to 

 the new part, it is perhaps fair to 

 assume that the bee-cellar cost 510. 

 The interest upon this amount is 70 

 cents, or 7 mills per colony. To carry 

 the bees in and out the cellar, count- 

 ing a man's time one shilling an hour, 

 cost 2 cents per colony, and the apiary 

 was 15 rods distant ; hence, to winter 

 my bees in a cellar costs 2 cents and 7 

 mills per colony. 



Knowing that Mr. R. L. Taylor, of 

 Lapeer, Mich., had built a new honey 

 house having a cellar under it for 

 wintering bees, I wrote him asking in 

 regard to cost, etc. Here is what he 

 says : 



" Mv new bee-cellar, which will 

 accommodate 250 colonies, should not 

 be figured, I think, to have cost me to 

 exceed $50. Of course circumstances 

 would make the cost vary greatly. I 

 can easily put the bees into the cellar 

 and take them out again for 2 cents 

 per colony. Your plan of spring 

 packing is all right, but can it be 

 made popular '■"' 



The interest upon the cost of Mr. 

 Taylor's cellar would be 1 cent and 4 

 mills per colony ; making the cost of 

 cellar wintering to him 3 cents and 4 

 mills per colony. 



Perhaps some one will say : Well, 

 this is cheap enough, but how will it 

 be if a cellar is built independent of 

 any building, and expressly for win- 

 tering bees ¥ In reply 1 will say that 

 each bee-keeper must have a house, 

 also a shop or honey-house, and the 

 bee-cellar may be under one of these ; 

 but special, independent repositories 

 need not be so very much more ex- 

 pensive. Mr. J. H. Robertson, of 

 Pewamo, Mich., has an out-door cellar 

 for wintering bees. It is double- 

 boarded, and the space between the 

 boards filled with sawdust. If I re- 

 member aright it cost about $40, and 

 will hold at least 3.50 colonies. The 

 interest would be 8 mills per colony, 

 carrying in and out, 2 cents, making 

 the cost of cellar wintering to him, 2 

 cents and 8 mills per colony. 



I know that bees can be carried into 

 and out of a cellar for 2 cents per col- 

 ony, and to the best of my knowledge 

 a wintering repository can be fur- 

 nished, in most instances, at a cost 

 not greatly exceeding one cent per 

 colony. 



Fellow-be-keepers, I may yet be 

 compelled to put the saving by cellar 

 wintering at a lower figure than I 

 have, but I was neither " wild nor 

 careless " when I placed it where I 

 have ; as, before making the asser- 

 tion, I went over the ground fully as 

 carefully as I have in this article, and 

 felt that I spoke within bounds. 



I presume few of the readers of my 

 little book would imagine that I de- 

 voted a whole month exclusively to 

 its writing. Each point was gone 

 over with great care, and so hard did 

 I work to have everything exactly 

 correct, that I could scarcely sleep 

 nights from waking to " think." 



Since I have proved the importance 

 of spring protection, I, too, have 

 thought considerable about house- 



apiaries, but that they should have 

 been so almost universally abandoned 

 is pretty nearly a knock-down argu- 

 ment against them. Perhaps Messrs. 

 Vandervort and Foster have found 

 some new " wrinkle." 



There are two or three other points 

 in Mr. Clarke's review that I should 

 be pleased to notice, but this article 

 is already too long, and I must wait 

 until another time. 



Rogersville,(5 Mich. 



For fbe American Bee Journal. 



Bee-KeeiiiiiE a HealtMnl Occnpation. 



MRS. L. C. AXTELL. 



All the way through my last letter 

 in the Bee Journal, I am made to 

 say " my " when it should have read 

 " our," as Mr. Axtell is the bee-man 

 here, or rather, he and I are in part- 

 nership, as I think all husbands and 

 wives should be if possible in all 

 business,especially in the bee-business 

 if they wish to succeed.* 



But Mr. A. does not care to write 

 any of his experience in bee-culture, 

 and 1 rather like to write, and take a 

 great deal of pleasure in reading com- 

 munications from others. We have 

 now 202 colonies of bees— not so 

 many as formerly. It takes much of 

 his time to make racks, hives, sec- 

 tions, shipping-crates, etc., besides 

 overseeing work on the farm. I take 

 it upon myself to do all the bee-work 

 I can, partly for the out-door exercise, 

 as it has been a great benefit to my 

 general health. Before we kept bees 

 there was 10 years and more that I 

 suffered everything with indigestion. 

 I had but little pleasure in my food, 

 from the suffering that followed. I 

 tried many remedies, but nothing 

 helped me until I became interested 

 in the mysteries of the bee-hire. I 

 read everything I could get hold of 

 far and near, trying to commit as 

 much of it to memory as I could, and 

 watching every chance to read what I 

 could find to mv husband, or mark for 

 him to read. From that day when I 

 began to forget myself and live for 

 the bees, I began to have better 

 health, and food digested better, until 

 now for years I have been troubled 

 but little with indigestion, and life 

 has taken on a new beauty. I find I 

 can be as successful, too, in the care 

 of our home apiary as my husband 

 can of our timber apiary. 



But this spring, feeling rather bet- 

 ter than usual, I have, with the help 

 of an inexperienced girl, worked all 

 of our 202 colonies, through clipping 

 all the queens' wings except a very 

 few that I could not find on the first 

 trial ; and preparing the bees for sec- 

 tions. The girl and I have taken 

 pleasure with our 3-year-old black 

 horse in a buggy, and having an early 

 dinner, drive down to our timber 

 apiarv, 4 miles away, work through 12 

 to 18" hives, turning the frames 

 around, as we winter them placed 

 lengthwise of the hives (Quiuby), and 

 set up one inch from the bottom- 

 board in large chaff hives ; hunt out 

 queens and clip wings, give more 



