FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 303 



the hive. Last winter, 1901-02, the number on the bot- 

 tom-boards was so small that it did not seem worth while 

 to clean them out at all — perhaps the first time of such an 

 occurrence. 



SWEEPING UP DEAD BEES. 



It is very unpleasant to have the dead bees under 

 foot on the cellar bottom. Some fasten them in the hive. 

 Some sprinkle sawdust on the floor. In either case they 

 are left in the cellar to foul the air. It seems much better 

 to sweep out the cellar. During the first part of the win- 

 ter very few bees will be on the floor, and sweeping once 

 a month will be enough, or more than enough. Toward 

 spring the deaths will be very much more frequent, and 

 the sweeping must be more frequent. Last winter the 

 cellar was not swept till Jan. 29 — seventy-five days after 

 the bees were taken in. Then it was swept again after 

 respective intervals of twenty-one, nineteen, and five days, 

 the quantity swept out each time being about the same. 

 That gives some idea of the greater mortality as spring 

 approaches. Referring to the record, I find that one 

 winter, when the bees were confined 124 days, the dead 

 bees for each colony amounted to four-fifths of a quart or 

 three-fifths of a pound, which made about 2,130 bees for 

 each colony. I think the mortality is usually greater than 

 that. 



TOO-WARM CELLAR. 



Heretofore one of the chief elements in the problem 

 of wintering has been to keep the bees warm enough. Be- 

 ginning with the winter of 1902-3 a new and different 

 problem confronts me — that of keeping the bees cool 

 enough. The coal famine following the great anthracite 

 strike caught me with four hard-coal stoves and no coal 

 to put in them — indeed, no prospect of getting any, and 

 winter close at hand. 



