28G 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



fifty to five hundred hives are to be carried. 

 My second plan is the easiest and best where 

 the entrance to the cellar is such that a 

 wheelbarrow can be run right into the cellar, 

 and the one I would use in any case if the 

 bees were from fifteen to thirty rods or more 

 from the cellar. I have a spring wheelbar- 

 row which I use about the apiary and prem- 

 ises, and since using it I would by no means 

 change it for one without springs, no matter 

 what I wanted to use it for. On this wheel- 

 barrow I place several thicknesses of old 

 carpet, letting the same run up over the 

 front board, to which it is tacked on the 

 back side, to keep it from slipping down. I 

 can now set the hives on the wheelbarrow so 

 still that not a bee knows that the hive has 

 been touched, and as the springs take off all 

 the jar of the wheel, and my hands allow no 

 jar to the handles, the bees are rolled into 

 the cellar with all ease, and so quietly that 

 they are not aroused enough so they break 

 the cluster, as they do in the way usually 

 employed in handling by most parties. As 

 the entrance to my bee cellar is level with 

 the fioor the bees are run right into the cellar 

 on the wheelbarrow, by putting down a 

 plank or two over the thresholds to the doors. 

 Being in the cellar all I have to do is to take 

 from the wheelbarrow and set in place. 



I formerly piled the hives top of one an- 

 other or set them on shelves, but as many of 

 the combs became moldy in this way I soon 

 abandoned it for the Boardman plan of set- 

 ting each hive from six to eight inches apart 

 and setting the next tier on these so that 

 they "broke joints" as it were. This 

 brought the center of the cluster of bees 

 right over the open space left between the 

 hives below, as I left the bottom boards of 

 all the hives on their stands. This is a good 

 plan and one which gives the bees plenty of 

 the light kind of ventilation, so they winter 

 well, the combs do not mold, etc., etc.; but 

 it has this unfavorable thing about it where 

 the cellar room is limited, it takes up lots of 

 room. To obviate this, I now spread over 

 the top of each hive some old newspapers, so 

 as to keep the droppings from the hive above 

 froin going directly on top of this lower 

 hive, for I find that these droppings will 

 injure the top of a hive very much, especially 

 where this top is covered with tin. On top 

 of these papers I i)lace two sticks of stove 

 wood, about one and one-half inches square, 

 so spaced that they will come near each end 

 of the hive, and on these sticks the next hive 



is set. The top of this hive is now arranged 

 as was the first, and so on till the top of the 

 cellar is reached, when another tier is put up 

 in the same way. Under the lower hive I ufc 

 a stand which is about four inches high, and 

 on this the sticks are put, so that the first 

 hive in each tier is about six inches above 

 the cellar bottom. In this way my bees 

 winter equally well with the Boardman plan 

 and not nearly as much room is taken; be- 

 sides, should I happen to jar one hive in some 

 way, only one tier is jarred, while with the 

 other the whole of one row sutlers. If the 

 temperature of the cellar can now be kept 

 at from forty-three to forty-five degrees Fah. 

 I have no fears regarding how they will come 

 out in the spring. 

 BoEODiNO, N. Y., Nov. 3, 18i)l. 



The Time for Patting in Bees is Unimpor- 

 tant.— Put Them in ftuietly, 



JAMES HEDDON. 



7 T ""^^fw cellar?" Well, as some- 

 ^^ '^ thing else is the principal 

 caufe of bee diarrhcea, which is tlio prime 

 cauee of loss of bees in winter, is does not 

 make much difference whetlier they are put 

 in early or late. 



My rule is to have them in as soon as I 

 GUESS they have had their last good, thor- 

 ough flight. Of course I have to guess at it, 

 and then if we have such open winters as 

 the past three or four, I am sorry I put them 

 in doors at all, even if they should sit out 

 doors unpacked all winter. But who can 

 f orsee ? 



I think it a good plan to pick up, carry, 

 and set down the hives so quietly as not to 

 disturb the bees. But, here I am, going to 

 be doubted again, as I was when I said I 

 moved into a bee house thirty-three colonies 

 and only two or three ever knew they had 

 been stirred. As my statement of the facts 

 was so generally doubted, perhaps I had 

 better tell how I did it. 



In the first place, said bee house had 

 shelves on both sides and the farther end, 

 on which to place the hives of bees. The 

 floor to the house and these shelves were 

 covered two inches deep with sawdust. My 

 man and myself would walk out into the 

 yard, pick up a hive, hold it out away from 

 our bodies and carefully carry it in and 

 shelve it. The next the same way, and 

 placed about two inches one side from the 



