A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
106 
MICE IN CELLARS. 
Mice are troublesome denizens of cellars in winter. Even 
if they should be all cleaned out of the cellar before the bees 
are brought in, I am always sure to bring in some in the 
hives. I have fed them bountifully with bread and butter 
daintily covered with the various rat-poisons; have given 
arsenic mixed with sugar and flour ; and have tried different 
traps, but still I find, every spring, holes gnawed by the mice 
in my nice, straight worker combs. 
CLEANING OUT DEAD BEES. 
Aside from attending to warming and ventilating my 
cellars, and unsuccessfully waging war against the mice, I 
think of no other attention given to the bees through the 
winter, except cleaning out the dead bees. For cleaning the 
dead bees 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, M-inch or smaller iron rod, with 
one end hammered square 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 frames and scrape 
out the dead bees. 
1 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 direction. 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, of tener 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. In some hives nothing but 
dead bees can be seen, in some a lot of dead bees at the 
entrance with a few live bees crawling around among them, 
