102 
A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
toward spring a frame of honey is given each. As a general 
rule, however, I do not like tinkering at feeding in the cellar, 
and if a dozen hives had among them one that needed feed- 
ing, necessitating the opening and looking into the whole 
dozen, I thing I would rather run the risk of starving that 
one colony than to stir up the other eleven. 
WARMING THE CELLAR. 
'*As yet, bee-keepers are not agreed as to the requisites for 
successful wintering, and I make no claim to a perfect 
knowledge of this-part of the business. I believe, however, 
that severe cold is bad, and in this latitude, 42° north, I have 
known the mercury to reach 37° below zero. I now try to 
keep my cellars at not less than 45°, the thermometer being 
kept in the central part of the cellar. Sometimes the tem- 
perature gets down as low as 36° above, but not often and 
not for a long time. Oftener it stands at 50°. The heat is 
kept up by common small-cylinder stoves, having an inside 
diameter of about 8 inches between the fire-brick. There 
are two in the house-cellar and one in the shop-cellar. I burn 
hard coal in th.em, and by filling them up at morning and 
at night, this keeps a steady heat day and night, and there is 
not light enough to make any trouble. The expense is about 
$6 per stove for the winter. No matter how warm the 
weather, with very rare exceptions I keep the fires going at 
least lightly. The stove doors are always open. 
In the spring, when there comes early a bright day with 
the mercury at 60° in the shade, and the temperature about 
the same in the cellar, it seems hardly necessary to keep a 
fire going ; but I find by actual experience that I can keep 
the bees quieter with the fire. At least I feel pretty sure of 
it from what observations I have made. Probably that is 
due to the better ventilation caused by the fire. 
