PREPARING FOR WINTER. 12/ 



give the bees safe and easy access to every comb, 

 even in the coldest weather. Then, putting on the 

 lids of the hives, they were in readiness to take to 

 the cellar as soon as the cold weather of the last of 

 November should come. 



Attention was then given to the cellar. This had 

 always been dry, and safe from frost. The experi- 

 ence of the past winter proved that bees could be 

 wintered in it safely. Shelves were put up so that 

 rows of hives could be set so as to come one foot 

 under the floor above. By putting them so high 

 above the cellar bottom they were kept from what 

 ever damp unhealthy air there might be near the 

 bottom. The shelves were supported by standards 

 resting on the cellar bottom. It would have been 

 much easier to have sustained the shelves by hang- 

 ing them from the sleepers of the floor above, but 

 if sustained in this way every footstep on the floor 

 would have communicated a slight jar to the hives, 

 and so the bees would have been constantly dis- 

 turbed. By having the shelves sustained by sup- 

 ports resting on the cellar floor, this danger of jar- 

 ring, and consequent agitation of the bees, was 

 avoided. The shelves were so arranged that when 

 the hives should be put in, I could have instant ac- 

 cess to every one of them. 



The windows of the cellar were darkened by tack- 

 ing old carpet upon the sash, both inside and out. 



