302 FORTV YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



ing strychnine thinly spread upon very thin slices 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, l^-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 



