294 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



severest weather, the outside cellar door is more or less open, 

 and the air in the cellar is sweeter than in many — perhaps most 

 — living-rooms. That's good for the people living over the 

 cellar, and it must be good for the bees. Inside the hives the 

 combs are just as dry and nice as in summer. No dampness, 

 no mold, no musty smell. 



It seems nice to look into a hive and find so few dead bees 

 lying on the bottom-board, often none. When a bee wants to 

 die, it is warm enough so it can come outside, just as in summer. 



It would be better if it was so arranged that fresh air could 

 enter without the light. During the first part of the winter, the 

 bees do not seem to mind the light at all, and not very much till 

 toward spring, when the door must be closed in daytime. But 

 there is no need to be unduly frightened by a few bees coming 

 out ; for bees will get old and die off, no matter how dark the 

 cellar is kept ; and there may be some question whether a little 

 light is as bad as the fouler air when the cellar is closed. 



GOOD WINTEKING. 



Having had such a severe lesson, you m.ay be sure that in 

 succeeding years I took pains to see that before the bees went 

 into the cellar they had enough stores to stand a winter temper- 

 ature of 50 or 60 degrees. The result has been very gratifying. 

 I no loiiser have an.xiety about wintering, and do not expect 

 any colonies to die unless it be from queenlessness. 



Some one may say, " But why don't you make sure that no 

 queenless colony goes into the cellar? " Possibly that might be 

 better; but I doubt. The queenless colony is not worth very 

 much at that time of year, and anything that would be done 

 Avith it would hardly pay for the trouble of hunting through a 

 number of colonies, causing them no little disturbance. 



On the whole I am quite in favor of a furnace in cellar. To 

 be sure, it does away with one argument in favor of cellaring, 

 for there may be as heavy consumption of stores as on the 

 summer stands, but that is greatly overbalanced by having the 

 bees practically outdoors all winter in a very mild climate. For 

 with the abundance of fresh air allowed, are they not practically 

 outdoors? Besides that, I think the bees are stronger — I mean 

 each individual bee is stronger — when well wintered outdoors 



