THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



293 



ony must be specially prepared. The feeder 

 may be the Simplicity or some other which, 

 like it, recei es the syrap by poaring it from 

 above. Adjust the feeder to the hive, inclose 

 the bees at the top by a rim covered over 

 above with wire cloth and close the entrance 

 of the hive before bringing the colony into 

 the warm room. Thus the bees are all in- 

 closed and may be fed at pleasure by pour- 

 ing the warm syrup through the wire cloth 

 into the feeder. The syrup should be fed 

 warm and as rapidly as the bees will take it 

 and if they are uneasy on account of their 

 confinement they should be returned to their 

 proper stand as soon as possible on the con- 

 clusion of the feeding. 



After completing the task of supplying the 

 larders of the colonies against the long 

 period of their enforced retirement, no time 

 should bo lost in giving all needed protec- 

 tion against rain, snow, storm and frost. If 

 the bees are to be wintered out of doors 

 each one should follow the course in which 

 he has been successful, but it may not be 

 amiss for me to urge early and thorough 

 preparation. Water-soaked packing cannot 

 conduce to the comfort or safety of the bees. 

 All who have at command a fair cellar and 

 who have not met with satisfactory success 

 in wintering bees out of doors. I would ad- 

 vise to winter them in the cellar. In this 

 latitude I think this both the cheaper and 

 the safer course. This is the method I em- 

 ploy after tryiug both ways extensively and 

 I would not now winter a single colony out 

 doors except it may be in making experi- 

 ments. It may be helpful to some to know 

 my method of procedure, so I will state it 

 briefly. 



My cellar, though not a particularly dry 

 one, is a very good one. It is under the 

 north half of my shop and honey house and 

 the barn and barn cellar abut it onthewe^'t 

 and it is banked up with earth to the sill ex- 

 cept where its one door and one window for- 

 bid. As a consequence its temperature is 

 very even being not easily affected by the 

 cold of winter or by the warmth of early 

 spring. It contains a cistern which is gener- 

 ally well supplied with water. The chimney 

 of the honey house starts from the bottom 

 of the cellar and in connection with an un- 

 derground tile drain no doubt does some- 

 thing in the way of ventilation. The door 

 opens directly into the apiary which is 

 reached without ascending any steps. The 

 dimensions are 15x30 feet of which the cis- 



tern occupies about one-fourth. It gener- 

 ally contains in the winter upward of two 

 hundred colonies. 



When the time arrives for putting the bees 

 in, which is, of late years, from the 8th to 

 to the 1.5th of November, I look out for a 

 day when it is cloudy and the temperature 

 stands at about 4.5 , because under these con- 

 ditions the bees are much quieter than they 

 are when the day is clear or when the tem- 

 perature varies much either way from the 

 above, and, particularly, is a frosty day one 

 to be shunned for the handling of bees. 

 When everj thing is to my liking, hive after 

 hive can be carried into the cellar without 

 any bottom board with the loss of scarcely a 

 bee. In the cellar each column or pile con- 

 sisting of the hives of four or five colonies 

 stands completely detached from everything 

 else except its own support which consists of 

 two one inch strips laid across an empty 

 hive thus raising the lowest hive in every 

 case about eleven or twelve inches from the 

 cellar bottom. I first set the empty hive so 

 that it stands firm and level, and then put 

 the two pieces across it. I then bring in a 

 good strong colony without any bottom 

 board and place it firmly on the strips. 

 Then two more strips are placed across the 

 cover of this hive (unless the cover is made 

 so as to preclude the necessity for them as 

 most of mine are) and another colony is 

 placed in like manner on these and so on 

 until the ceiling forl>ids more. Each addi- 

 tional pile Is a repetition of this. I aim to get 

 the lighter colonies at the top and the 

 stronger at the bottom as this is the more 

 trying position. In the case of single story 

 Heddon hives the bottom boards are not re- 

 moved ; in all other cases they are. I do not 

 place any colonies very near either the door 

 or the window, and I so dispose the piles that 

 I can go among them at pleasure so as to 

 see most of their hives and be able to tell 

 how most of the individual colonies are win- 

 tering. When the bees are all in I shut the 

 door tightly and do not concern myself much 

 about them except to look occasionally to 

 see that the temperature does not go above, 

 or fall short of, the limits which I have 

 fixed as the best, (. e., 42= to 4.5=. If the bees 

 show much uneasiness during mild weather 

 I open the door for a night or two during 

 the darkness until they quiet down. 



As a rule, all honey should be shipped 

 before cold weather. 



Lapeeb, Mich. Sept. 26, 1893. 



