84 



ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



temperature in one cellar might vary 

 many degrees from that which would be 

 best in another. 



I have no doubt in my own mind that 

 with stores which are exceptional, every 

 normal colony would winter well in any 

 ordinary bee cellar, where the tempera- 

 ture ranges between 32° and 50°, Fah- 

 renheit, and that we err when we at- 

 tempt to make successful wintering 

 indoors turn on anything but food; 

 still, no doubt the temperature may 

 be made to assist the bees in contend- 

 ing with the distresses arising from 

 unfit food. Warmth makes the discom- 

 fort of their diarrhoetic disease less un- 

 bearable. In a low temperature bees 

 afflicted with diarrhoea soon periSh mis- 

 erably. So, for bees thus diseased, I 

 would provide a high temperature; say 

 about 50°, thereby enabling the dying to 

 leave the hive, ths diseased to. void their 

 excreta outside the cluster, and the well 

 to make a more courageous fight for life. 



I need hardly add anything upon this 

 part of the subject, and shall only say 

 farther that, in my own cellars, where 

 the air is neither very moist nor very dry, 

 and where there is no draughts, I consid- 

 er a temperature of 40° to 44° the best 

 for good colonies in hives from which 

 the bottom boards are entirely removed. 

 If the bottom boards be not removed, I 

 think 5° lower would be about equiva- 

 lent. 



In order to have the temperature as 

 desired, it becomes important to have 

 one's bees in a repository of which the 

 temperature is nearly independent of the 



outside changes. This is, I think, se- 

 cured far the most satisfactorily by hav- 

 ing the repository entirely, or at least 

 very largely, below the surface of the 

 earth." 



As the temperature is higher at the 

 upper part of a cellar, the weak colonies 

 should be placed in the topmost tier of 

 hives. 



It has been urged that as spring ap- 

 proaches and breeding begins, the tem- 

 perature of the cellar should be raised. 

 With a large number of colonies the in- 

 creased activity of the bees would, of 

 itself, have a tendency in this direction. 

 If there are only a few colonies, artificial 

 means of raising, the temperature are 

 sometimes resorted to. Some have used 

 oil stoves in the hatchway to the cellar, 

 others have warmed the air with wood or 

 coal stoves. Mr. H. R. Boardman, who 

 has had much successful experience in 

 wintering bees in cellars, prefers to have 

 a bee cellar with two apartments, in one 

 of which is a stove. When it is necessary 

 to resort to artificial heat he warms the 

 air in the ante room, and then admits it 

 to the bee room. In the use of artificial 

 heat he does not find it necessary to em- 

 ploy it, constantly, or every day, in fact, 

 he says that the best results are secured 

 by giving the bees the benefit of a sum- 

 mer temperature for a short time once a 

 week, and then letting them alone. 

 They will, after being warmed up, be- 

 come quiet in a short time, and remain so 

 for several days, and no serious results 

 need be apprehended from cold, if in a 

 frost-proof cellar. 



