302 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



ing strychnine thinly spread upon very thin sHces of 

 cheese, the cheese being- then cut into tiny squares. 



CLEANING OUT DEAD BEES. 



Aside from attending to warming and ventilating my 

 cellar, and waging war against the mice, I think of no 

 other attention given to the bees through the winter, ex- 

 cept cleaning out the dead bees. For cleaning them out 

 of those hives which have them — for some reason of 

 which I am not yet sure, there are some hives which 

 contain scarcely a dead bee — I have a very simple tool. 

 It is a piece of round, 54-inch or smaller iron rod, with 

 one end hammered flat for about two inches and bent at 

 right angles, making something like a hook. With this 

 hook I can reach into the hive under the fralmes and 

 scrape out the dead bees. 



I have a common kerosene hand-lamp with a sheet- 

 iron chimney having a little mica window on one side — 

 such as is used for heating water on lamps. This serves 

 as a dark-lantern, making little light except in one direc- 

 tion. Holding the lamp in my left hand, I look in to see 

 whether any live bees are in sight. Often I see the cluster 

 near the front of the hive, oftener at the center or back 

 part of the hive, the bees looking as if dead, so still are 

 they ; but in a few seconds some one will be seen to stir. 

 Sometimes the cluster will come clear down so as to touch 

 the bottom-board, and sometimes not a bee will be seen 

 below or between the bottom-bars. When the cluster 

 comes clear down, there may or there may not be bees on 

 the bottom-board. In any case, all the dead bees are 

 cleaned out that can be got without disturbing the living. 

 There is, as has been said, a difference as to the number 

 of dead bees in different colonies, and there seems also a 

 difference in different winters. In some cases perhaps the 

 dead bees all reach the cellar bottom, in others staying in 



