BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
So I like to have one or two reserve combs on hand for each colony in the spring. These reserve combs may be obtained by taking them in the fall from colonies that are over-heavy, giving in place of them empty combs to be again filled, or upper stories may be given filled with combs.
## nuclei in fall.
When the time for rearing queens is over, the nuclei will be in various conditions. Some will be weak, some strong, some queenless. Here will be a nucleus hive containing three strong nuclei with a good laying queen in each nucleus. Nothing is to be done in such a case but to leave the three nuclei as they are, to be carried into the cellar without any further preparation, unless it be to give some honey if it be needed. In the case of the middle nucleus, that will mean exchanging their comb for one as much as two-thirds or three-quarters full of honey. In the nuclei at the sides of the hive, the heaviest frames of honey will be toward the center of the hive. This will encourage the bees to cluster in that direction, thus concentrating the warmth of the three nuclei.
## uniting nuclei.
But the hives with three strong nuclei and three queens will be exceptional. Some will have only two queens, some one. If a nucleus hive has in it only one queen, it may be that a full hive is set in place of the nucleus hive, the contents of the three apartments of the nucleus hive put into this full hive, and, if necessary, enough nuclei added from elsewhere to make a fair colony. If none of the nuclei in any one nucleus hive be sufficiently strong where there is only one queen in the hive, then the nucleus with the queen is likely to be put in some nucleus have that has contained only two queens. In some cases one of the division-boards is taken away, making one of the compartments large enough to receive five frames, besides the other with the three frames. Thus the nucleus in the larger compartment may be built up to a tolerably fair colony.
Thus you will see that there is little or no destroying of queens, the effort being to have each queen supported by a good force of bees, considering the size of her compartment. No attention is paid to the matter of trying to make bees stay where they are put. If they don't like to stay they don't need to ; they'll count somewhere. But as they are mostly queenless bees that are moved, they are not bad about returning.
Not only have I wintered nuclei two and three in a live, but a few years ago I had considerable experience
Figure 103: 24-Section Case.
in wintering full colonies in double lives. If I had not changed from ten-frame to eight-frame hives I should have continued the practice, but an eight-frame hive makes too cramped quarters for two full colonies, even in winter. Still, I approximate it with five frames on one side and three on the other, and of course the hive could be divided to take four frames on each side.
There is nothing new or original about two colonies in one hive, among others Dzerzon's twin hives having been highly esteemed by him and others for many years. These, however, are used the same all the year around, and my use of them is only during the time of year when bees can be crowded into a less space than a full hive.
From the time the bees are fed in the summer or fall, till perhaps the middle of May, most of my colonies would have room enough in one-half of a ten-frame hive. I am not sure that any of them ever need more room through the fall and winter, and in the spring they need no more till more than four frames are needed for brood. With some, this may come quite early, but I think I should be well satisfied if I could get all my colonies to contain four combs well filled with brood by the middle of May. Some of them may have at that time brood in nine or ten frames, but more of them could have all their brood crowded into three or four combs.
## advantage of double lives
Now, if during the time I have mentioned, we can have two colonies in one hive, we shall, I think, find it advantageous in more than one direction. It is a common thing for bee-keepers to unite two weak colonies in the fall. Suppose a bee-keeper has two colonies in the fall, each occupying two combs. He unites them so they will winter better. If they would not unarrel and would stay wherever they were put, he co-ld place the two frames of the one live beside the two frames in the other hive, and the thing would be done. Now, suppose that a thin division-bord were placed between the two sets of combs, would he not see the same result? Not quite, I think, but nearly so. They would hardly be so warm as without the division-board, but nearly so; and both queens would be saved. In the spring it is desirable to keep the bees warm. If two colonies are in one hive, with a thin division-board between them, they will be much warmer than if in separate hives. The same thing is true in winter. I have had weak nuclei with two combs come through in good condition during a winter in which I lost heavily; these nuclei having no extra care or protection other than being in a double hive. You would understand the reason of all this easily if in winter you would look into one of these double hives in the cellar. On each side the bees are clustered up against the division-board, and it looks exactly as if the bees had all been in one single cluster, and then the division-board pushed down, through the center of the cluster.
Now suppose we have 100 colonies that are all fed up for winter and they are then put into double hives.
Please understand that there is little or no extra expense for these double lives. They are just the regular lives, only we take special pains to see that the division-board is perfectly "Lee-tight". If the lives are to be hauled home, as I haul mine each fall, there are only 50 instead of 100 to haul; just half the bulk, and a much less weight than the 100 would be. Just half the lives are to be handled in taking in and out of winter quarters;
_Fig. 105.--Weighing Colonies._
just half the room is occupied in winter quarters; and I think, although I do not know, that the bees will winter better than if only one colony in a live. If they are to be taken, in the spring, to a distant apiary, there is the advantage of hauling only 50 lives instead of 100. If, in the spring, any colony be found querelles it is in fine position to be united with its fellow colony.
Cimaging from single to double lives.
Possibly you may be ready to agree with me so far as to say, "Certainly, the thing looks desirable, but is it feasible? Will not the trouble counterbalance all advantage?" I know it is usually a matter of some trouble to change a colony from one location to another in the same apiary. I think, however, that I have reduced the trouble to a minimum. I will give you my plan and you can judge for yourself.
As I have already told you, my hives stand in pairs, and I kept them so, years before I thought of double hives. Some time before the change is made to double hives, the entrances of the hives are closed at one side, so that the bees become accustomed to using the same side of the entrance that they will use when thrown into the double hive, that is, the right hand colony will use the right hand side of its entrance, and the left hand colony will use the left hand side of its entrance. Each colony will have four of its combs so solid with honey that it will be well provisioned.
Renembering that the two colonies of a pair are on the same stand, we now remove both hives from the stand and set the double hive on the middle of the stand. Then the four combs from the right hand hive will be put with their bees in the right hand side of the double colony, and the rest of the bees brushed from the other combs. The left hand side is treated the same way. Some bees will still be left in the depopulated hives: so these hives can be set at each side, the entrance of the empty hive at the proper entrance of the double hive, and left there long enough for the bees to crawl in and join their companions.
The matter is now accomplished and it has been no long or difficult job. The bees use the new entrance _almost_ as readily as the old. To them their hive seems moved less than its width to one side, and there is no possible danger of their entering the wrong place. I have tried it, and watched the result, therefore I speak of not what the bees _ought_ to do, but what they _do_ do.
Can we as easily get them back into two lives in the spring when they become crowded in this double live? Just exactly as easily. We simply reverse the operation. Take the double live from its place and replace it with the two lives, then remove the contents of the double live and put them in the proper single lives, and the bees will go every time to the right place. I speak again from personal observation as to what the bees actually do.
In the fall, the bees must be brought home from the out-apiary so as to be wintered in the cellar.
There are always a few things upon which bees can work till quite late; so it is desirable to be as late as possible bringing them home. They must, however, l.ebrought home early enough so they will be sure of a good flight after being brought home and before being put in the cellar. Some say they may be safely put into the cellar without the flight, but one winter part of mine were put in without a flight, and that part wintered distinctly worse than the others. At the latest, I want them home before Nov. 1. When brought home they are placed conveniently near the cellar door (Fig. 106).
It is a thing impossible to know beforehand just what is the best time to take bees into the cellar. At best it can be only a guess. Living in a region where winters are severe, there are some years in which there will be no chance for bees to have a flight after the middle of November till the next spring, and I think there was one year without a flight-day after the first of November. One feels had to put his bees into cellar the first week in November, and then two or three weeks later have a beautiful day for a flight. But he feels a good deal worse after a good flight-day the first week in November to wait for a later flight, then have it turn very cold, and after waiting through two or three weeks of such weather to give up hope of any later flight and put in his bees after two or three weeks' endurance of severe freezing. So it is better to err on the side of getting bees in too early.
Theoretically, the right time to cellar bees is the next day after they have had their last flight for the season, and one must do the best one can to judge after any flight-day whether it is the last or not. More than one reason can be given for taking in next day after a flight. The hives are dry ; there are no accumulations of frost or ice inside ; and the bees are unusually quiet. All the better if the next morning is cool, as it is likely to be. Sometimes, however, one cannot have everything as one wants it, and I have been caught taking in bees in a snow-storm. Better take them in during the storm than after it is all over and constantly growing colder. But it seems to do no harm for them to be taken in covered with snow.
## Preparing the cellar.
For twenty-four hours before taking in--perhaps for several days--doors and windows of the cellar are
_Fig. 107.--Driping-Pan Wax-Extractor._
kep:t wide open, so as to air it out thoroughly, and perhaps the walls are whitewashed and the floor limel, although this is generally done after taking out in the spring. Strips of boards are placed on the ground so that the bottom hive has its bottom-board an inch or two above the ground at the front end, and an inch more at the back end.
carrying in hives.
Hives are carried in just as they are, because before the time for hauling bees home all false bottoms were removed, and the bottom-boards fastened to the hives where necessary. With the large ventilating space at the entrance, and with abundance of stores, there is no need to loosen the gluing of a cover from before the time a colony is hauled home till after the time for hauling back in spring.
## 11. Piling hives in cellar
The hives are pile! five high, each pile independent of the others, so jarring one hive can jar only four others. First a row of piles is put at the farther side of the cellar, the hives close side by side, entrances facing the wall, with a space of about two feet between them and the wall. Then another row is placed back to back close up against this row. Then comes a space of about two feet, and another row facing the space, so that entrances face each side of the space. Then comes another row, back to back, and so on. That makes the hives in double rows, back to back, with a two-foot space in which to get at the entrances.
As far as convenient, the heavier hives are put at the bottom, and lighter at top. It is easier work to do so, and the lighter ones have perhaps the advantage by being higher up, where it is a little warmer.
## 1. Carrying in bees when roused up.
Often the bees get so warmed up by the middle of the forenoon, that they fly out when their hive is lifted to be carried into the cellar. In this case the hive is put back on its summer stand, and another colony, less wide-awake, is taken. But if the rousing up becomes general, operations must cease until the after-part of the day or the next morning. If for any reason, as the lateness of the season, or the fear of an approaching storm, it is thought best to carry in a hive whether the bees are willing or not, the entrance must be stopped. For this purpose--as there is no danger of suffocation from stopping for a short time--I know of nothing better than a large rag or cloth which will easily cover the entire entrance. The rag must be dripping wet. In this condition it can be very quickly laid at the entrance, and being cold and wet the bees seem to be driven back by it, and when the rag is removed in the cellar, few if any bees come out.
_Fig. 18--Screving Down I'ar-Press._
If dry, the bees would sting the rag, and upon its removal in the cellar a crowd of angry bees would follow it.
warning the cellar.
There is a furnace in the cellar where my bees are kept, which has been there since the winter of 1903-3.
But let us go back to the time before that, when the chief difficulty was to keep the cellar warm enough. Some think it a bad thing to have fire in cellar. I would rather have the right temperature without the fire. So I would in my sitting-room. But when the temperature in the sitting-room without a fire gets down in the neighborhood of zero, I would rather have the fire. Same way in the cellar. In this latitude. 43 degrees north. I have known the mercury to reach 37 degrees below zero, and some winters there is very little of the time when my cellar is warm enough for the bees. A thermometer hangs centrally in the cellar, and I try to keep it at about 45 degrees. Sometimes it goes to 36 degrees, but not often, and not for long. Oftener it reaches 50 degrees, but that is neither often nor long.
## 7.3. **Stove in cellar.**
Whenever the thermometer appears to have any fixed determination to stay below 45 degrees, a fire is started. I would not think of using an oil-stove, or anything of the kind that would allow the gases to escape in the cellar. A chimney goes from the ground up through the house, and a hard-coal stove is used. For many years I used a common small cylinder stove, having an inside diameter of about 8 inches between the fire-brick. Then I used a low-down open or Frank-lin stove, and I think I like it as well or better. With either stove there is the open fire, and one might fear that the bees would fly into it, but they do not appear to do so. Neither does any harm come to the hives that stand within two feet of the stove, for the stove is right in the same room as the bees. A few minutes' attention each morning and evening will keep the fire going continuously, in case it is needed continuously. There have been winters when fire was kept going nearly all the winter through, and other winters when little was needed. The winter of 1901-2 was one of the mild ones. A fire started Dec. 21 was kept for three days. Another, Jan. 27, lasted one day. A third started Feb. 3 lasted seventeen days. I think the outer temperature was at no time more than 15 degrees below zero.
## heat for diarrhea
I do not know for certain, but I _think_ I have had good results at a time when diarrhea began to trouble the bees in the cellar, by making a hot fire and running up the temperature above \(60\) degrees. The bees would become very noisy, but after the cellar cooled down to the normal 45 degrees they were quieter than before, and I suspect the bees felt better.
## ventilation of cellar
I believe heartily in the doctrine of pure air and plenty of it for man, beast and bee. So I consider ventilation a very important affair. With a two-inch space under the bottom-bars and a 12x3 entrance, there is no trouble about the ventilation of the _hive_; but no matter how well ventilated a hive may be, if the cellar in which it is placed contains nothing but foul air, how can the air in the hive be sweet?
## fire for ventilation.
I am not sure but I should want a fire in a cellar for the sake of ventilation even if not needed for heat.
For the purpose of ventilation alone, the warmer the weather the more the fire in the cellar is needed. Of course there must be some limit to this, for when the temperature of the cellar goes above 60 degrees, the bees show signs of uneasiness.
## warm spells in wintering.
The most difficult time to keep the bees quiet in the cellar, is when a warm spell comes in the fall soon after taking them in, or early in the spring. At such times I open up the cellar at dark. If very warin, all doors and windows are opened wide and by morning generally all are quiet. I leave all open as long as possible in the morning; sometimes till noon; when the bees begin to fly out all must be darkened. Very likely it would be better if there were a way to admit air in abundance without admitting light.
## cooling and airing cellar.
Years ago, when the temperature became too high in the cellar in spring, and I wanted to keep the bees in the cellar still longer, I tried cooling down with cakes of ice. But it was not satisfactory. The trouble was not so much with the _temperature_ as the _quality_ of the air. Then I learned that opening the cellar was more effectual.
## opening cellar at night.
The first time I tried that trick I got a pretty bad scare. It was in the spring, and there came a warm spell, lasting perhaps two or three days. It kept getting warmer in the cellar, and the bees kept getting noisier. At the same time I kept getting more uneasy, not knowing just what the end might be. After the trouble got pretty bad, I thought I would venture to open the cellar wide in the evening, hoping that it might become cooler through the night. I think it was 50 or 60 degrees outside, and not far from that in the cellar. The bees were quite noisy when the cellar was opened, and I listened closely for the quieting down. It didn't come. On the contrary, the noise increased to a roar that could be heard some distance from the cellar, and the bees were running all over the hives, some of them hanging out in great clusters as if getting ready to swarm. I felt afraid they would all leave their hives and make a wreck. I assure you I was badly brightened; but I didn't know of anything to do, so I didn't do anything. As nearly as I now remember, I did not go to bed till I could recognize a little subsiding, and in the morning the bees were back in their lives as quiet as mice. More than once since then I have gone through the same performance without being troubled by it only the cellar is not allowed to get so bad before it is opened.
## letting light in cellar.
Here is a memorandum written March 14, 1902 : "During the past eight days the weather has been unusually warm for the season, varying from 30 to 65 degrees. The doors have been wide open day and night except on the two warmest days, and the (east) window part of the time. Three days ago it was 65 degrees in the afternoon. Within twenty-four hours the ground was covered with snow, and yesterday morning the mercury stood at 29 degrees. At 1 a. m. today, it was 35 degrees without and 44 degrees in the cellar, doors and window having been open all night. At 9 a. m. it was 46 degrees outside and 45 degrees in the cellar. The sun shone directly into some of the entrances near the window without disturbing the bees. At 10:30 a. m. it was 52 degrees outside and 44 degrees in the cellar; the bees still quiet. At 11 a. m. it was 53 degrees without and its degrees in cellar. In five minutes by the watch I counted fifteen bees which flew to the window. I then closed the window, leaving the doors wide open. At 12 o'clock it was still 53 degrees without and 49 degrees in the cellar. In five minutes I counted five bees flying to the door. The light does not shine directly into the room where the bees are, they being in an inside room. I can see to read easily at the hives nearest the door. At 3:30 it was 55 degrees outside and 50 degrees in cellar. In five minutes I counted three bees flying to the door. It was then getting cloudy, the sun having been shining most of the day. I opened the window for five minutes and twelve bees flew to it. At 6 p. m, the window was opened again, leaving all wide open till it should again become bright enough on the next or some following day to make the bees fly out, or cold enough to bring the mercury down too far in the cellar."
I have not given this as an example of the perfection of wintering. It is far from that. But it shows that after 119 days of confinement the bees will stand a good deal of light and warmth without showing much insubor-dination, providing they have an abundance of good air. It must be higher than 45 degrees to induce them out when in good condition.
## sub-earth ventilator.
Some years ago I put in a sub-earth ventilator of 4-inch tile, 100 feet long and 4 feet deep. It was of common porous drain-tile, and becoming a little skeptical of the quality of the air admitted I allowed it to become filled up. I am not sure that I did wisely. I am strongly of the opinion that an air-tight pipe large enough and deep enough would be a great aid to successful cellaring.
Figure 10: Emptying Out Slungum.
Mice are troublesome denizcns of cellars in winter. Even if a cellar should be entirely free from them, they are likely to be brought into the cellar with the bees when the hives are brought in. Some winters I have closed the entrances with heavy wire-cloth having three meshes to the inch. This shuts out mice without hindering the free passage of bees. Even if a mouse is shut up in a hive, it will not be so bad as to let it have the free run of the cellar. Other winters traps have been used and various poisons, perhaps the most satisfactory poison being strychnine thinly spread upon very thin slices of cheese, the cheese being then cut into tiny squares.
## cleaning out dead bees.
Aside from attending to warming and ventilating my cellar, and 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 them 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, \(\mathbb{Z}_{4}\)-inch or smaller iron rod, with one end hammered flat 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.