DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEES AND ECONEV 
VoiTlL ~~ DECEMBER 1, 1874. No. XII. 
HOW TO CONDUCT AN Al’I A 1£ V 
No. 12. 
‘-Ty'-ERY many of our subscribers in different 
yj localities write us they have never lost 
any bees in winter from any cause other than 
starvation, and these fortunate people some of 
them so far ignore the statements coming from 
their less fortunate brothers, as to declare they 
don’t believe bees ever do die, where they have 
food in abundance. Other writers have de- 
clared that small colonies are the trouble and 
that they don’t believe a colony with plenty of 
bees and sufficiency of food over dies whether 
in-doors or out. Now although these have 
never had any personal experience with this 
serious drawback in wintering, with hives 
having plenty of bees and ample stores, would 
it not behoove them to carefully read the re- 
ports of the sufferers, and “go slow” in deciding 
where the whole trouble lies. 
Were we to judge solely from our own local- 
ity, we should in many things be led to think 
differently from what we do when we take the 
reports from the country at large. Although 
isolated cases seem occasionally to point 
strongly in favor of out-door wintering, the 
testimony when summed up is very strongly 
in favor of housing in a frost proof repository ; 
bees having many times survived when thus 
cared for, in localities where almost all others 
were swept off. So many bee houses arc in use 
not really frost proof , that good cellars have 
rather given the best results. We really are 
not sure that a bee house can be so construct- 
ed above ground as to be as perfectly free from 
change of temperature as those in part, or en- 
tirely underground. When we dig down to a 
certain depth, entirely below the reach of the 
frost for instance, we find the ground almost 
of a uniform temperature the year round. 
This temperature is fortunately between 40 and 
l-i'\ in fact, just what we need to keep our bees 
in that semi-torpld state in which the consump- 
tion of honey is reduced to an amount so small 
ihat we often hear it stated that they consume 
none at all ; they also seem to awaken in spring 
h'oin this torpor (when the proper condition is 
maintained) almost in the same state so far as 
age is concerned as when they went in. This 
m fact used to be all that was required, and 
some contend that ’tis all that is required still, 
but we think this position will have to be 
given up. Since our wintering troubles, Quin- 
>y We believe, and some others have suggested 
inat all that is required, is to keep them a little 
warmer, say from 45 to 50“ , or even as high as 
•’'i'’ ; such a condition for instance as we have 
in a cellar directly underneath the family sil- 
ting room. We believe many experiments have 
decided that this don’t do either, and in faei 
nothing ever has amounted to a “row of pins" 
if we may be all owed the expression, except line 
weather that allowed the bees to fly. All agree 
without exception that as soon as we have set- 
tled warm weather, allowing the bees to fly 
and gather pollen, all mortality ceases, and 
even the weakest nuclei, can in June and July 
be built up to strong colonies. Hence the po- 
sition that, if bees are perfectly healthy in warm 
weather, cold must be the cause of the malady. 
Our bee house cost us over $200.00 and yet 
it isn’t frost proof unless it contains 40 or 50 
good colonies ; again, if we have several days 
of quite warm weather, -it is impossible to keep 
it cool enough to have the bees stay in their 
hives, unless we should carry in lumps of ice 
as has been recommended. Yet friend Blake- 
slee says he feels sure he could keep bees safely 
in his cellar any day in the year, the tempera- 
ture being nearly the same both winter and 
summer. Now comes the question; if cellars 
are better, why not use them? The principal 
objection we know of is that they are generally 
remote from the hives and are often inconveni- 
ent of access, besides they should be kept per- 
fectly dark and this necessitates dividing off an 
apartment by some kind of a partition — thick 
paper does very well — and this often encroach- 
es on the space needed for the family vegetables 
etc. Besides we want our wintering house to 
serve for a honey room in the summer. I n view 
of all these items we arc going to suggest a 
wintering house built partly underground, and 
covered entirely with 18 inches or two feet of 
dry earth. We have just built such a room as 
an addition to our small hot house, and the en- 
tire expense of it, labor and all, was not dne 
fourth that of our bee house. Where it is nec- 
essary to economize it can be made to answer 
very well for a honey house, and will be nice 
and cool for summer work. Get live pieces of 
4x4 pine or hemlock scantling, 16 feet long. 
Cut them in two exactly in the middle, on a 
bevel, so that their ends will lit together rafter 
fashion at the tops while the bottoms are just 
12 feet apart. In the accompanying diagram 
