ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 201 



combs are filled with brood, the cold drives the bees into a compact 

 cluster in the center of the hive, and all of the brood outside of this 

 perishes. All of this loss may be avoided by giving the bees some 

 sort of protection after taking them from the cellar. First see that 

 each colony has a queen and plenty of stores, and then protect it. 

 This spring protection need not be an elaborate aifair. A sheet of 

 tarred building paper folded dovs^n over the hive, and fastened at the 

 lower edges by tacking on strips of lath, will answer every purpose, 

 while it costs only three cents, and can be put in place in less than 

 five minutes. This makes a covering that is both wind and water- 

 proof, and will absorb every particle of the sun's heat, but, more im- 

 portant than all this, it will save the loss of brood and weak colonies 

 if there comes a "squaw winter" in the month of May. 



If spring protection is so important that it is advisable to give it 

 after taking the bees from the cellar, it may be asked, why not 

 practice out-door wintering, then winter-protection will answer for 

 spring, and the expense of a cellar, and of carrying the bees in and 

 out, will be avoided ? In the first place, the saving of stores in cellar- 

 wintering will pay for the expense twice over; and, in the next place, 

 and of far more importance, it is only by the cellar method that the 

 wintering of bees, in a cold climate, can ever be reduced to a perfect 

 system. By a selection of natural stores, or, better still, by using 

 sugar, we can secure uniformity of food, but it is only in the cellar, 

 or special repository, that uniformity of temperature, at a desirable 

 point, can be maintained. 



Carrying the bees from the cellar is not a very agreeable task, 

 aud most of bee-keepers make it much worse by attempting it upon 

 such a warm day as to set the bees fairly crazy the moment the out- 

 door air strikes them. It comes into the cellar and sets the bees to 

 flying, and often there is a general mix-up in the yard by the bees of 

 one colony joining with those of another in full flight, and following 

 them into their hive. To avoid these troubles, some bee-keepers 

 carry their bees out in the night, when the indications are that the 

 following day will be fair. If the bees have wintered perfectly and are 

 quiet, all of these annoyances and losses may be avoided by carry- 

 ing out the bees upon a day so cool that the bees zvillnot think of flying. 

 This idea that bees must fly the moment that they are taken from the 

 cellar is one of those old notions that is a notion, and that is all. If 

 bees have to wait even a week or two after being placed upon their 

 summer stands, before having a flight, no harm will come as the result, 

 ■providing they have not wintered poorly, and are so anxious for a 

 flight as to leave their hives when the weather is so cool that they 

 will never return. 



