BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
When bees settle down into that quiescent state that accompanies successful wintering, their need of air is very slight, indeed. When their winter nap is ended, and spring arouses them to activity, and to brood rearing, more air is needed. It is then, if ever, that special ventilation is a benefit, but, as this can be secured, in the ordinary cellar, by the opening of doors and windows at night, if it ever becomes really necessary, it scarcely seems necessary to go to the expense of supplying sub-earth pipes. I should not do it, nor advise it. When bees are to be wintered in large numbers, in a special repository, I would have some arrangement whereby the heat could be allowed to pass off, if it should become advisable, yet not allow the entrance of light.
exhalations of the bees. If the exhalations are not taken up readily, the "sewage of the system is dammed up." But little moisture is required to saturate cold air; that is, it will absorb but little moisture, the point where it will receive no more being soon reached. As the temperature rises, the absorbing capacity of the air increases. When air of a high temperature, at that of our bodies, or nearly that, is saturated, or nearly so, with moisture, the exhalations from the lungs and skin are taken up but slowly; we are oppressed, and say the weather is "muggy." This explains why we feel better on bright, clear days. Heating air increases its power of absorption, hence we enjoy a fire on a damp day. If the air of a cell is dry, it will be readily seen that the temperature may be allowed to go much lower. In other words, a cold, dry atmosphere or a damp, warm one, may be about equal, so far as effects are concerned. This is a point that bee-keepers have not sufficiently considered.
We have many reports of the successful wintering of bees at such a degree of temperature, but nothing is ever said as to the degree of _saturation_. Bee-keepers ought to use a wet-bulb thermometer in their cellars; then let the degree of saturation be given with that of the temperature, and we would have something approaching accuracy. I say "approaching accuracy," because the strength of the colonies, and the manner in which they are protected, have a bearing. A populous, well-protected colony can warm up the inside of the hive, expelling the moisture, and increasing the absorbing capacity of the air. Building a fire in a room on a damp day is the same thing in principle.
As mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the way to decide in regard to the amount of moisture in the air, is by the use of a wet-bulb thermometer. The arrangement is very simple, and any of my readers could make one. Attach two ordinary thermometers, side by side, to a piece of board. Just below them, fasten a tin cup for holding water. Make a light covering of candle wicking for one of the bulbs at the bottom of the thermometer, allowing the wicking to extend down into the water in the cup. The water will ascend the wicking and keep the bulb constantly wet. There will be, of course, evaporation from the wick surrounding the bulb. Evaporation causes a loss of heat; hence, the drier the air the greater the evaporation, the greater the loss of heat, and the lower will go the mercury in the wet-bulb thermometer. The greater the difference in the readings of the wet and the dry bulb thermometers, the drier the air. In the open air there is sometimes a difference of 26 degrees; but this is unusual. When it is raining, the air is then saturated. There is then no evaporation, and both thermometers show the same degree of temperature. In the cellar in which I used the wet-bulb thermometer the difference in the readings of the two thermometers was usually about three or four degrees, with the wet-bulb instrument standing at about 36 degrees; but this difference could be increased two or three degrees by warming the air with an oil stove. If the mercury in the wet-bulb thermometer stands at 36 or 40 degrees, and that in the dry-bulb as much as four degrees higher, I think there need be no worry about moisture; but if the difference is only two degrees or less, either the temperature ought to be raised, or the air dried in some manner.
Ventilation of cellars has been objected to on the ground that it brought moisture into the cellar. This may be true, but not in freezing weather. Frozen air, if the expression is allowable, has a very low point of saturation. That is, it will hold very little moisture; and when it is brought into the higher temperature of the cellar, and becomes warmed, its capacity for absorption is greatly increased--it is ready to receive water instead of giving it out. When the outside air comes into the cellar, and deposits moisture upon objects therein, it is evident that the in-coming air is warm and moisture-laden--warmer than the cellar and its contents.
Mould in bee-repositories is usually looked upon as something undesirable, and I will admit that its appearance is far from pleasant, but we must not forget that, in a certain sense, it is a plant--the child of warmth and moisture--and that the conditions necessary for its development may not be injurious to the bees--_may_ be more beneficial than a condition under which mould does not develop, viz., one of moisture and _cold_. A very damp cellar ought to be warm enough for the development of mould. But the cellar need not be damp. It can be made both warm and dry. These matters of temperature and moisture are under our control. Either by fires, or by going into the earth, preferably the latter, we can secure the proper temperature; and by the use of lime to absorb the moisture, a dry atmosphere can be secured. Certainly, it is not much trouble to keep unslacked lime in the cellar. A bushel of lime absorbs 28 pounds of water in the process of slacking.
While it is evident that moisture in ordinary cellars is not injurious, provided the temperature is high enough, it is a great comfort to know that there is nothing to fear from a dry atmosphere; that we can indulge our fancy, if you choose to call it that, for dry, sweet-smelling, mouldless cellars, and know that the results will be harmless.
Some bee-keepers have asserted that cellars dug in clay or hard pan are more difficult to keep dry than when dug in a sandy soil. Mr. J. H. Martin, when living in New York, said that a cellar in hard pan, or even in clay, could be much improved by digging down two or three feet, filling in with stones, then with gravel, and finishing up with a covering of cement.
A Glimpse of a Montana Apiary.
The Influence of Temperature in Wintering Bees.
ROF. ATWATER says that the production of heat in the human body is so great that, if there were no way for it to escape, there would sufficient accumulate, in an average, well-fed nan, to heat his body to the boiling point in 30 hours. This heat is gradually passing off by radiation. To prevent too rapid radiation, we cover our bodies with clothing. For the same reason, we surround our bees in winter with chaff or some other non-conductor of heat; but there is no way in which the radiation of heat can be so completely controlled as by surrounding the heat producing body with an _atmosphere_ of the proper temperature. There is no method by which the most desirable temperature for wintering bees can be so completely secured as by placing the bees in a cellar or special repository.
The ordinary house-cellar, where the temperature remains above freezing, is usually a good place in which to winter bees. Men who are engaged extensively in bee-keeping where cellars are needed for the wintering of bees, usually find it to their advantage, perhaps a necessity, to build a special repository. The more completely the cellar is below the surface of the earth, the more perfectly can the temperature be controlled. It should be remembered that, not only is there the winter's cold with which to contend, but the warmer days of late winter may arouse the bees and make them uneasy before it is time to remove them from the cellar; unless the cellar is deep in the ground beyond the influence of outside temperatures. The walls of a cellar are usually laid up with brick or stone, but there are other methods of making a cellar. Mr. T. F. Bingham, of
## Chapter 4 Advanced Bee Culture
## Chapter 11 Advanced Bee Culture.
powers of the bees.**Labor, activity, anxiety, are wearing to mortal flesh.**To live long, one must live slowly.**We wish our bees to have the same degree of physical vigor in April which they possess in November. I would emphasize the adverb in the phrase 'cluster closely,' in using it as an earmark of the condition desired. The quietness sought should be a quietness to the eye, and not to the ear alone. The right cluster is knit together, and the individual bees thereof only aroused to full consciousness by positive disturbance. Bees in a loose cluster, or spread through the hive, often make little sound when wearing themselves out by premature brood rearing or by over feeding. How does temperature affect the desired condition?**Most bee-keepers know that temperature below a certain point causes activity among the bees on account of the necessity they feel of keeping up the warmth of the cluster by exercise, in order to prevent themselves sinking into such a degree of chilliness that they shall no longer have the power to resuscitate themselves; and all know that as the period of rest lengthens, the bees become more and more susceptible to a high temperature, and are very likely to be pushed by it into unseasonable activity. Again, the temperature may be so low and so long continued that, notwithstanding their efforts, they perish either of cold or starvation.**Of course, the temperature that determines the welfare of a colony is that within its own hive, so it becomes very important in fixing the temperature to consider the strength of the colonies, and size, warmth and ventilation of the hives. A temperature that would enable a weak colony to winter safely would almost surely greatly injure a strong colony in a hive of like size and condition, unless its stores were of good quality, and _vice versa_. Weak colonies should be protected by contraction and a closer hive--the stronger given more ventilation. A moist atmosphere conveys away animal heat much more rapidly than a dry one, so that the best temperature in one cellular any many degrees from that which would be best in another.**I have no doubt in my mind that, with stores which are exceptional, every normal colony would winter well in any ordinary beecellar, where the temperature ranges from 32 to 50 degrees, Fahrenheit, and that we err when we attempt to make successful wintering turn upon anything aside from food; still, no doubt the temperature may be made to assist the bees in contending with the distress arising from the unfit food. Warmth makes the discomfort of their diarrhoea disease less unbearable. In a low temperature, bees afflicted with diarrhoea soon perish miserably. So, for bees thus discussed, I would provide a high temperature; say about 50 degrees, thereby enabling the dying to leave the hive, the diseased to void their excreta outside the cluster, and the well to make a more courageous fight for life.
I need scarcely add anything more upon this part of the subject, and shall only say farther that, in my own cellars, where the air is neither very moist nor very dry, and where there are no draughts, I consider a temperature of 40 to 44 degrees the best for good colonies in hives from which the bottom boards are entirely removed. If the bottom boards are not removed, I think that five degrees lower would be about equivalent.
In order to have the temperature as desired, it becomes important to have one's bees in a repository of which the temperature is nearly independent of outside changes. This is, I think, secured far more satisfactorily by having the repository entirely, or, at least, very largely, below the surface of the earth."
As the temperature is higher at the upper part of a cellar, the weak colonies should be placed in the topmost tier of hives.
It has been urged that, as spring approaches, and breeding begins,the temperature of the cellar should be raised. With a large number of colonies the increased activity would, of itself, have a tendency in this direction. If there are only a few colonies, artificial means of raising the temperature are sometimes employed. Some have used oil stoves in the hatchway of the cellar; others have warmed the air with wood or coal stoves. If an oil stove is used, there ought to be a metal hood over it, and a pipe connecting with a stove pipe in the room above, or else with the open air. Of course an oil stove can be used without such an arrangement, but it overloads the air with the gases of combustion. I mention these make-shifts with something akin to reluctance, as I feel that the proper way to do is to have a cellar so constructed that there will be no necessity for their use.
**Mr. H. R. Boardman, who has had much successful experience in wintering bees in cellars, prefers to have a bee cellar with two apartments, in one of which is a stove. If he ever finds it necessary to resort to artificial heat, he warms the air in the ante room, and then admits it to the room. In the use of artificial heat he does not find it necessary to employ it constantly, or every day; in fact, he says that the best results are secured by giving the bees the benefit of a summer temperature for a short time once a week, and then letting them alone. They will, after being warmed up, become quiet in a short time, and remain so for several days, and no serious results may be apprehended from cold, if in a frost-proof cellar.**There is still another method of securing the proper temperature for wintering bees, aside from that of packing them in chaff, or putting them in the cellar, and that is that of burying them in "clamps," as they are called, the same as potatoes and apples are buried in pits. Along trench is first dug a little wider and deeper than a hive. In the bottom is placed a layer of straw, then two pieces of scantling upon which to set the hives. Rails, fence posts, or any kind of supports, are then laid over the hives, and covered with straw upon which the earth is thrown to a sufficient depth to exclude the frost. Sometimes ventilation is given these clamps, but it does not seem to make any material difference whether they are ventilated or not. It does make a difference, however, in regard to the soil and situation. In a sandy or gravelly knoll, where the water will never stand, the successful wintering of the bees is almost assured. In heavy clay, the loss of the bees is equally certain. Is say this from numerous experiments. Bees in a clamp, in the right kind of soil, in a good condition, winter equally as well as in a cellar, sometimes it seems as though they winter better, and the only possible objections to this method are the labor and untidiness.
## Chapter 4 Advanced Bee culture.
### 4.1.1 Case of bees in winter.
F THEY were properly prepared for winter the preceding autumn, given plenty of good stores, properly protected out of doors, or placed in a cellar or other repository having the proper temperature, and precautions taken against depredation by mice, bees require almost no care in winter.
No bee-keeper worthy the name will allow his bees to go into winter quarters short of stores. They ought, at least, to have enough to last them until the first warm days of spring, when they may be handled upon their summer stands, and fed if necessary.
However, if by any hook or crook, bees _harc_ gone into winter quarters short of stores, and there are fears that some of them may be starving, it is better that they be examined and fed if needed, even though the task may be unpleasant. There need be no hesitancy in thus disturbing the bees for fear that it may do them some injury, for, as a rule, it will not.
Probably the best method of feeding a colony of bees in winter, is to give them a frame of honey. If no honey is available, and some of the colonies _must_ be fed, the best substitute is candy made from granulated sugar. Put in sufficient water to dissolve the sugar, then boil the syrup until it will harden in cooling: To learn when to remove the candy from the stove, take out a spoonful every few minutes, and allow it to cool. As soon as it begins to show signs of hardening, draw the vessel containing it to the back of the stove, where the heat is less. Watch it carefully and try it frequently. As soon as it is sufficiently hard, remove it from the stove, and pour it into shallow dishes to cool. Be careful not to get it too hard. If it is hard enough to retain its form when placed over a colony of bees,that is sufficient. A thin cake of such candy laid directly upon the frames over a colony of bees, and then the whole top of the hive covered with a piece of enameled cloth, and two or three thicknesses of old carpet over that, will enable the bees to "hold the fort" as long as the candy lasts. If, for any reason, it is impossible, or undesirable, to place the candy inthis manner upon the tops of the frames, the candy may be "run" directly into empty brood frames, and the frames hung in the hives adjoining the bees. To fill a frame with candy, lay it upon a smooth board with a piece of paper under the frame, and pour in the candy, after first waiting for it to cool until it is as cool as it can be, and yet be made to "run." To keep the frame down close to the paper, so that the soft candy will not run out while cooling, tack the frame down with some nails just long enough to hold the frame down nicely, but not long enough to make it difficult of removal. If a frame full of candy is more than a colony needs, a less amount may be given by tacking a crossbar in the frame, part way up from the bottom, and filling the upper space only with candy.
Mice sometimes do some little damage, both to colonies wintered indoors, and those in the open air. This damage is confined principally to that of gnawing the combs. If bee-keepers would only remember that bees can pass through a space that is less than % of an inch, and that a mouse needs a space nearly twice this, it would seem that there need be no trouble in keeping mice out of doors. Simply contract the entrance until it is only % of an inch the narrowest way, and nomice can enter. This should be done quite early in the fall, as cool, frosty nights often drive the mice into the warm retreat to be found inside a bee hive. When bees are wintered in the cellar, many bee-keepers practice raising the hive about two inches from the bottom board; others remove the bottom board entirely. This allows plenty of ventilation with scarcely any escape of heat. All dead bees and rubbish drop down away from the cluster of bees, where they dry up instead of becoming mouldy and rotten from contact with the warmth and moisture of the cluster. If a colony _does_ die, the combs are left dry and clean, instead of being stuck together with a mass of damp, moldy, rotting bees. All who have tried raising hives in this manner are enthusiastic in its praise; but it will be seen that this plan gives the mice, if there are any in the cellar, free access to the hives. The remedy is to trap the mice, or poison them. For the latter purpose I have found nothing better than equal parts of flour, white sugar and arsenic, mixed, and placed in shallow dishes in different parts of the cellar.
Unless the cellar is well under ground, where it is well beyond the influence of the outside temperature, it is well to keep watch and not allow the temperature to run too low in _protracted_ cold spells. A lamp stove, burned all night in a cellar, will raise the temperature several degrees. During the fore part of winter, a low temperature is not so dangerous as it is towards spring, when brood rearing may have commenced. From 35 to 45 degrees will answer very well until towards spring, when it ought not to be allowed to go below 30 degrees, and may with safety go as high as 48 or 50 degrees. So long as the bees remain quiet, I should not disturb them with artificial heat. If the cellar becomes _too serum_ in the spring, before it is time to remove the bees, it may be cooled down by carrying in ice or snow, or the windows and doors may be opened at night and closed in the morning.
Years ago, many bee-keepers practiced taking their bees from the cellar, if there came a warm day in the winter, and allowing them to fly, returning them again to the cellar, but this practice has been pretty nearly abandoned. If the bees are in a quiet normal condition, it often rouses them, and sets them to breeding in mid-winter, which is far from desirable. Rapid breeding late in winter, or very early in the spring, is decidedly objectionable; nothing so quickly wears out bees as the rearing of brood; and the more unfavorable the conditions, the greater the wear. It is better that the bees should remain quiet until warm weather furnishes the most favorable conditions for brood rearing, when the same expenditure of vitality will produce two bees instead of one. Therefore, don't allow a warm day or two in the winter to tempt you to the removal of the bees from the cellar. Wait until the snow is gone, and there is occasionally a day warm enough for bees to fly, then take them out to remain permanently. On the other hand, nothing is gained, and much may be lost, by leaving the bees in the cellar until _late_ in the spring. Many claim superior advantages for out-door wintering, asserting that the colonies build up earlier in the season. They won't if the bees are taken from the cellar early enough; and, certainly, it requires no argument to show that bees successfully wintered in the cellar are better able to bear the rough weather of spring than bees that have endured all of the rigors of the entire winter out of doors. In most of our Northern States the main honey harvest comes early in the season, and to secure this harvest there must be a goodly number of field workers _at the right time_, and the eggs from which these workers are produced must be laid several weeks previous to the opening of the harvest, hence the element of _time_ is an important factor, and nothing stimulates a colony in a healthy manner, and sets it to brood rearing, as does a flight in the open air, even if nothing is brought in. Hence it will be seen that early removal from the cellar gives the bees largely the advantages of both out-door and in-door wintering.
There is no danger of the cold injuring the bees when they are _first_ removed from the cellar, the trouble comes from late freezes coming after two or three weeks of fine weather. At this time the
## Chapter 2 Advanced Bee Culture.