324 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



when the foundation is too cold, or it will be more or less 

 broken. 



I tried cutting foundation in a miter-box with a cor- 

 rugated bread-knife, as mentioned on page 145, and was 

 quite pleased to think it made faster work, although 

 hardly such exact work. Then I timed the work with the 

 watch, and was surprised to find that it took more time 

 than the old way. 



WINTERING IN CELLAR WITH FURNACE. 



As mentioned on page 303, beginning with the win- 

 ter of 1902-03, my struggle has been and is with a cellar 

 made too warm by a furnace. The first winter was not a 

 fair test, the putting in the furnace having made it so late 

 when the bees were cellared, and I figured on consider- 

 able loss. The loss went beyond my figuring. Not that 

 the deaths all occurred in the cellar. They were largely 

 after the bees were taken out in the spring ; none the less, 

 however, they were chargeable to bad wintering. By the 

 12th of May there were left only 124 colonies out of 199 

 put in cellar, and many of them were mere nuclei. 



The colony close under one of the heating pipes, 

 where the thermometer sometimes stood at 70 degrees, 

 wintered beautifully — till it died. It starved to death, and 

 that not so very late in winter, although I think it was well 

 supplied with stores. No doubt the heat kept it so active 

 that it used up its stores with unusual rapidity. A loss of 

 37 percent was not gratifying, but bee-keeper-like, I 

 looked forward hopefully to the next winter. 



Alas for my hopes ! Instead of Z7 percent, the loss 

 for the winter of 1903-04 was 47 percent, leaving 150 

 colonies alive out of 284. And the loss was mainly due 

 to lack of sufficient stores. Some of them died in the 

 cellar, and more would have died there if they had not 

 been taken out a little earlier than was well, so they could 

 be fed. But feeding very early in spring is not so well as 

 having an abundance of stores in the hive in the fall, and 



