BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Hives properly shaded to shut out the direct rays of light will permit the doors left open day and night. If the temperature in the bee part can thus be maintained approximately at 45, the conditions for wintering will be ideal; for a |perfect bee-cellar is one where the temperature can be held at about 45, and fresh air admitted every hour of the day. But if opening the cellar-door reduces the temperature that is otherwise uniformly at 45, or causes it to rise, it would be better to keep the bee-cellar closed\(-\)not because the ventilation does harm, but because the change of temperature does. House ceflars are very often too small, perhaps lack room to put bees and vegetables. And right here let us say it is a kind practice to put bees and garden truck together in the same room. They should be kept separate.
Objection has been raised that the noise overhead in the house cellar disturbs bees; but no absolute proof has been deduced to show this. We have had some excellent results in wintering in a bee-cellar under a machine-shop where rumbling machinery every now and then was accompanied by the bumping of heavy castings. We have never been able to discover that this noise interfered with good wintering in that cellar.
But where a house cellar is damp, too small, too cold, too warm, or too something else, it may be well to construct a special repository for the bees. This should be located in a side-hill if possible. A little later on we give illustrations of ceflars used by some extensive bee-keepers; also other schemes of ventilation.
## Arrangement of lives in a bee-cellar.
They may be piled up one on top of another in such a way that any one can be removed without disturbing more than the one or two above it. The reason for this will be apparent later. Strong colonies should be put in first, and placed on a 2x4 scantling. On top of these may then be placed the weaker ones. This has no special advantage except the convenience of having the heavy ones at the bottom and the light ones on top. The entrances of the hives should be left about the same as they were during the late fall\(-\)\(\lx@sectionsign\) deep by 8 inches wide. Some consider it essential to remove the bottoms of the hives entirely. Others consider it good practice to have a deep space under the frames by raising the hive off the bottom in front and supporting it there by a couple of blocks. But some disastrons results in wintering seem to show _us_, at least, that too much bottom ventilation is bad unless the cellar is kept at a temperature of about _do and thoroughly ventilated_. The bee is essentially a warm-blooded animal; and if large openings be used under the bottoms of the hives the cluster will come down to shut out the cold from the interior of the hive. We have uniformly secured the best results with a reasonably small entrance, or one about the size used during the fall or late spring. The larger the colony, of course the larger the entrance that will be required. In the case of a strong populous colony we would have the entrance \(\lx@sectionsign\) deep by the full width of the hive. The colonies of medium strength should have the entrance reduced accordingly.
inspecting the bees during mid-winter; and dead bees on the cellar: botton.
Experience has proven that, when the temperature is maintained at 45 degrees, very little attention need be paid to the bees, especially in the fore part of the winter. But during the last month or two of confinement the bees require watching more carefully; for if they get to roaring many of them will be lost. It then becomes necessary to make frequent examination to determine the temperature and the quality of the air. It will also be found, perhaps, that a good many deal bees will be found on the cellar bottom. This is not necessarily cause for alarm; because in normally good wintering the old bees will generally come out of the hive and die. Their bodies, however, should not be allowed to stench the living bees but
should be swept up often and removed. A disposition to roar should be met by more ventilation, and at the same time the temperature should be reduced. If all the colonies in the cellar should become uneasy during mid-winter it is evident that something must be done at once or the whole lot of bees will be lost. They ought not to become uneasy until late in the spring. If they can not be quieted by infusions of fresh air it may be best to give the uneasy colonies a flight on the first warm day by setting them outdoors and letting them stay there for 24 hours or until they can clean themselves. Dysentery or diarrhea in the bee-cellar is generally the result of too much cold air or too high a temperature, either of which will induce too large a consumption of stores; and where bees are not able to void their foees, the intestines become distended, resulting in purging. A colony so affected should be removed as soon as a warm day comes.
When to put bees in the cellar, and when to take them out.
This is a question that depends entirely on locality. Most bees go into the cellar in the Northern States anywhere from the last of November until the first of January; but usually it is advisable to have all bees in before Christmas. As to when the bees should be taken out of the cellar, authorities differ. Some set them out in March, and then put on winter cases. See Spring Management. Others believe it is better policy to keep bees in late or until the last cold weather is past, and then set them out. We would advise taking the golden mean, waiting until the time natural pollen comes, or, in our locality, soft maples bloom. But when bees are uneasy in the cellar it is advised to set them out earlier than otherwise.
The usual plan for taking bees from a cellar in the spring is to wait until fairly settled warm weather has come, and then on some warm bright day all the colonies are removed at once. The great trouble with this method is that the bees are likely to become badly mixed, owing to their eager flight with outcarefully marking the location. This results in a bad state of affairs, and should be avoided.
Another method followed to some extent is to put some of the colonies out during an evening when all appearances indicate that it will be warm and bright the next day. A third of them, perhaps, are taken out, and these fly quite well the next day. The next evening another third is removed, and the last third the night following. The great trouble with this plan is that the bees removed first get to flying well and then start to rob colonies taken out later, thus making a fearful uproar.
Mr. E. W. Alexander, in _Glenings in Bee Culture_, page \(\geq\)30,Vol. XXX1V., gave a plan open to none of these objections. In his own words it is as follows:
"First get every thing all ready for a big job, and watch the weather closely, especially after a few nice days, for it is quite changeable at this time of the year. Then when the wind gets around in the east, and it commences to become overcast with heavy clouds, and has every appearance of bad weather for the marrow, we commence about sundown and carry out all our bees--yes, even if it takes not only all night but into the next day; and if it commences to rain before we are done, all the better, for we don't want any to try to fly until they have been out two or three days if we can help it. By this time they will have become nice and quiet; and when a fair day arrives they will commence to fly, only a few at a time, and get their location marked, so there will be no mixing up or robbing, because they all have their first fly together. Then when the day is over we find by examining our hives that nearly every one has apparently retained all its bees."
shall we put the colonies back on the old stands in spring?
There is this advantage in putting the colonies back : Mr. H. R. Boardman letters each row in his apiary, and numbers every hive, each body and bottom-board bearing the number and the letter of its respective position. In the spring, in carrying bees out he is able to deposit his hive right where it was the preceding fall. "C6," we will say, is to go directly to the C row, and on arrival it is replaced on bottom No. 6. Mr. Boardman does not attach very much importance to bees being put back uproent at once. The great trouble with conveniently, he prefers doing so, because some old bees will go back to where they were the previous fall.
carriers for hives.
A wheeled vehicle is not as good for moving bees in and out of a cellar as some sort of carrier. There are several good ones and we here show a few.
For hives without projections a pair of U-shaped wires bent to form a sort of ball an
### Wintering
swers nicely. The bottom hooks catch on to the bottom of the hive as shown.
Dr. Miller uses a rope as seen in the next cut. Of course, it can be used only when the hives are cleated at the ends.
Where hives are carried any distance, and help is scarce, the yoke would be better. One man can carry two heavy hives quite easily; descendellar-steps, and go through doors. The
only objection is the rigging, and loaling and unloading.
G. C. Greiner and several others in _Glenings in Bee Culture_. This is presented in the following illustrations.
Two men can easily carry as many as five hives in this way. Where the cellar is loeat-
other's hive-carrier.
ed some little distance from the apiary we believe this to be the most convenient method yet devised.
Instead of constructing a regular hive-carrier as shown, it is possible to get along quite well by the use of two poles. See illustrations, next page. These should be about two inches square and six or eight feet long. They are placed on the ground in a parallel position, and as many hives placed on them as can be carried; perhaps three hives would be all that could be managed easily with the poles. It is much more satisfactory, however, to have the poles nailed together with a framework, making a regular hive-carrier.
### Itow and Winter to Feed Bees during Mid-Vinter
It is advisable to avoid feeding any syrup during mid-winter, because it has a tendency to stir up the bees, causing then to consume too largely of their stores; and, as they can not take a cleansing flight, dysenery is likely to follow. Moreover, the feeding of a single colony in a cellar is apt to stir up, by its roar, the other colonies near it.
When an outdoor colony is running short it should be given a comb of sealed stores. To avoid disturbing the winter nest this should be given directly on top of the broodaries laid upon a couple of sticks. On top of the comb should be placed two other strips and then the packing-material. A comb may be given in the same way in the cellar, but it would be more practieable to take out an empty frame and put the one containing the stores in its place.
If one does not have any combs of honey he may give rock candy, or any kind of beecandy (Good candy), by putting the same in a wooden tray on top of the brood-frames. In putting the packing-material back, careshould be taken not to cover the try so that the bees fail to get at the food.
Some have advised putting the candy right on top of the frames without the dish. But there is some danger that it may be dissolved by moisture from the cluster, and run down between the combs, destroying a good many bees if not the whole colony. So the candy should always be put in some sort of receep-tacle where, if it melts, it can not do any damage.
Where good hard candy can not be obtained, lumps of loaf sugar may be used; but these should first be moistened with a little water. Great care should be taken not to overdo the wetting-down, as the slightest amount of moisture will be sufficient to make the sugar available to the bees.
_BEE - CELLAARS VARIOUSLY CONSTRUCTED._
Having stated the general principles of cellular-wintering, we give views and descriptions of some of those used by men who are very successful in wintering.
Mr. N. D. West, of Middleburgh, N. Y., has been very successful in wintering bees in ordinary cellars under dwellinghouses.
He prefers to have the bee-room separated from the outside door by another room, possibly a vegetable-room, so that the temperature may be controlled more easily.
keep out the rain and snow, but still allow some for foul or warm air to escape from the bee-room. Any openings that would admit light are closed so as to make the room dark and warm. Mr. West thinks it is advisable to have a spring of running water in one corner, if possible, that the temperature may be kept constant.
In placing his hives in the cellar, Mr. West does not remove the bottomboards. Ile makes a platform about four inches above the cellar-floor, and puts one row of hives on this with the back ends resting on a x 5, so that they are four inches higher than the front ends. The next row of hives is placed on top of this row, although set back just a little so that the tiers will not fall over. As will be seen, all the hives will be so placed with the entrances at least four inches lower than the back ends of the hives, so that any dead bees may be easily cleaned out. See illustration.
Harry Lathrop, of Bridgeport, Wisconsin, uses a stone bee-cellar built in a side hill. There are two rooms in the cellar, or, more properly speaking, a main room for the bees ground, is then covered in such a way as to
and a smaller one used as a vestibule. Ile
The cellar is made wholly of concrete, and, what is of particular interest to beekeeny, has a scheme of ventilation that is almost ideal. It is not only theoretically perfect, but practically gives results in wintering that can scarcely be surpassed.
The authors have seen this cellar, and, notwithstanding there were about 500 powerful colonies in it at the time, there was perfect quiet and apparently perfect wintering. The temperature was about 43, and the air was pure and sweet. Scarely any dead bees were found on the cellar bottom.
The bottom illustration, previous page, shows how his big twelve-frame colonies are piled up, having the ordinary entrance and a honey-board on top.
The sub-earth ventilator, in the diagram opposite, extends under ground several hundred feet away from the building where it comes to the surface. At the other end it passes under the floor of the cellar, then up into a small room in which is placed a stove. From this compartment or room the air is distributed all around the cellar by means of a large square wooden pipe suspended from the ceiling. Foul air is taken out at the bottom of the cellar by means of lines reaching down from the roof of the building to within a foot of the cellar floor. The upper story of the building is filled with hives and supers, being, in fact, the place where general shopwork connected with the yard is done.
Right here we can not do better than to give Mr. Holtermann's description and diagrams.
The best-house is of concrete--even to the chimney. This has a cowl on top, which veers its back to the wind to assist in getting a draft. On each side of the chimney is a box ventilator projecting through the peak of the roof. This is 12 in square, with a slide to regulate the amount of air passing through. These shafts enter the cellar at the ceiling above, and are for warm weather. The building is 50 ft, long by 25 wide. The cellar walls are below the level of the ground, in order to get a more uniform temperature from the earth, and less liability for moisture to confines on its walls.
The cellar-ceiling, to secure uniformity of temperature and prevent condensation, has, as seen in the perpendicular-elevation plan, Fig. 2, G, a tongue-and-groove floor; C, E, felt paper; D, air-space; C, tongue-and-groove floor; F, floor of the cellar, is concrete. The only openings from the outside into the cellar are seen in Fig. 1. From B to A are two glazed watertime-jointed filling, coming above ground just outside of the bee-house at B, the wall going down 8 ft, into the ground; then passing under the cellar-wall and floor, entering the cellar at points A. Then there is a stairway, C, which is covered by two doors at the level of the ground, and again closed from the cellar by two doors. Through these doors the bees are brought in and out,
D is a 12-inch glazed pipe with waterline joints 8 ft, under ground. This enters the cellar in the compartment E, a con-stove standing over this opening. In this compartment, if the air is not sufficiently tempered by its passage under the ground it can be warmed before it passes into the cellar.
In Fig. 3 the system of distributing fresh air is shown. The illustration is not quite correct as to the central compartment, however. B is supposed to be the same central compartment as B in Fig. 1, and the distance between it and the west wall should be greater. At the top of this compartment, on the west side, are pipes, D, D, which carry the fresh air to the north and south end of the cellar, E B respectively boring the north and south ends. From there through many one-inch openings (see arrows also, in B, Fig. 2, and the method of turning the cor
# Wintering.
air passing through all the air-passages, yet have kept up a sufficiently high temperature half the time without free.
Two years ago 1 darkened all the windows in the bee-house above, and partially opened a trap-door which leads by means of a stairway alongside of the trenches dug in the ground. These are about 1S inches deep, large enough to hold two rows of ten hives each. The hives are set upon 2 x 4's to keep them off the ground. Three of these are used, one at each side and one in the middle, with the flat or wide side down. The bottoms are removed from the hives, and the covers raised half an inch or so to provide upward ventilation. About 1S inches of straw is thrown over the hives, and then the dirt shoveled on. The engravings shown on next page illustrate the plan as practiced by E. D. Townsend, of Heuns. Michigan. The first engraving shows the dirt partly shoveled away and some of the hives removed. The next illustration shows all of the hives removed in the spring from the pits or clamps and set on their summer stands. It would seem as though there ought to be some provision made for ventilation; but when it is remembered that the soil is sandy and very porous, it is seen that this is not necessary. This plan can not be made use of in a location where the soil is composed largely of clay. Mr. Townsend thinks that it is well to have surface drains along each side of the pits to carry off any water that may come that way.
_WHAT TO DO WHEN JEES SPRING DWINDLE OUTDOORS._
In the spring, especially when cold and backward, many weaker colonies begin to dwindle, and so rapidly that some will have only about a dozen bees or so with theirqueen. It would seem to be goo l policy to unite all these weak colonies into one good strong one; but experience shows that but very little good comes from so doing--mainly because most of the bees from the several forces go back to their old stands and perish. Better than a cure for spring dwindling is prevention, by having a large force of young bees early in the fall; then just about the time they are taken out of the cellar, when indoor wintering is practiced, weak colonies may be united on the "Alexander plan" by putting them on top of strong ones. See Uniting. If practiced early enough it will anticipate and prevent spring dwindling.
One who has outyards can unite several nuclei into one strong colony, then move that whole aggregation to another yard, where, of course, the united forces will remain in the new location.
Wiat to do with coins from hives where the bees have died.
Put them safely out of the way of bees, either in tight hives or in a bee-proof room ; and if you have not bees enough to cover them by the middle of June, or at such a time as you shall find moth-worms at work among them, be sure that all the combs are spread at least two inches apart, as recommended under Bee-motil. Now, whatever other precautions you take, you _must_ look after these empty combs occasionally. They are very valuable, and should not be allowed to be destroyed. A very good way is to keep them in regular hives, piled one over the other. This keeps them perfectly protected, and yet you can quickly look them all over as often as once a week at least, until they are used.
\(WINTERING\) _1N THE SOUTHERN STATES._
The directions so far given apply particularly to localities that are subject to zero weather at times, that have more or less of snow, and, during the greater portion of the year, a large amount of frost in the ground, extending down perhaps two feet.
Where bees can fly almost every day in the year, and for ten months are able to gather a little honey or pollen, outdoor wintering in single-walled hives is recommended. Double-walled hives would do no harm, and might, during the coldest of the weather, save a little brood; but it is doubtful whether the added expense for the extra walls and packing will compensate for the possible slight loss of brood and bees during a few cold days. While we recommend single hives for the southern portions of our country, and for some parts of the West, we always urge that the same be located in an inclosure of trees, a tight high board fence, a hedge, or any thing in the way of buildings that will break the prevailing winds. To establish windbreaks is one of the most important requisites in either the northern or southern portions of the country.
While no great skill is needed to winter bees in such localities as are found in Florida, South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Southern California, yet one must be careful to see that his bees do not run short of stores, as it seems to be a generally acknowledged fact that bees vintered in the South consume much more stores, according to the size of the colony, than in the North. Those in cold climates are compelled to contract into a very small ball for the purpose of concentrating the animal heat; and while in that condition they are in a semi-dormant state, and consume a comparatively small quantity of food. On the other hand, bees in the South, especially in the warmest portions, can have access to all parts of the hive, rear more or less brood, and, as a consequence, when natural flora does not secrete nectar they are liable to run short of stores, and starve. To the Southlander let us urge that the greatest danger is starvation, and the next greatest is more or less of robbing during a dearth of honey. Indeed, all things considered, we believe Southern bees require more watching than those of the North.
In localities like Virginia, Tennessee, and other States lying in about the same latitude, it might be advisable to use double-walled hives; yet we know that the majority of bee-keepers in that latitude winter their bees successfully in single-walled hives; but we believe it is the general practice to place on top of the hive a super containing chaff, leaves, planer-shavings, or some good warm packing-material; moreover, when the colony is not very strong it is advisable to place a chaff division-board on each side of the cluster. In all cases there should not be given a larger cubic capacity than the bees can comfortably fill, spread out as they usually are on a day when the temperature is not below 70 F.
In colorado it is customary to winter in single-walled hives. A shallow cap or tray containing a few inches of packing is placed on top of the hive. Very often, for further protection, a sort of shed or roof, with its back to the prevailing winds, is built over a
How of hives. The Colorado bee-keepers are troubled with sandstorms and aeree piercing winds; while the temperature may go down below zero, it is not likely to remain so for more than a few hours, when one extreme will change to a temperature of 60 or 70 F., and the bees flying. For such conditions double-walled hives and an excess of packing-material have been found to be not at all necessary.
_DO BEES IIIBERNATE?_
In the foregoing pages, under the general subject of Wintering we have spoken of the quiescent state or sleep into which bees enter when the wintering conditions are