Wintering Bees in the Cellar.
Written for the American Bee Journal
BY M. M. BALDRIDGE.
On Dec. 4th the thermometers in this city said it was from 12° to 18° below zero. In my bee-cellar, where I have 28 colonies, my thermometer said it was 44° above zero at that time, and that is the lowest I have seen it to this date (Dec. 11th). The highest temperature since Nov. 15th (the date my bees were put into the cellar), that I have noticed, is 50°, but I presume it has been as high as 55°, and perhaps 60°. The range of temperature anywhere between 40° and 60° is satisfactory to me. This will make the seventh winter, I think, that I have used this cellar for bees, and I do not recollect that I have ever lost a colony of bees in it. I have sometimes found in the spring, after the bees have been out-doors awhile, one or two queenless colonies, but that I do not of course attribute to any fault with their winter repository.
In placing my bees in the cellar, I prefer to give each hive some slight ventilation at the top, by raising the cover the thickness of a 6-penny wire-nail, one at each corner. I leave each entrance open the entire width of the hive. No cloths, summer or winter, are used on or about my hives, as I have no use for them. As before stated, I prefer to lift up the hive-cover slightly while in winter quarters; still, I have some winters left some of them waxed down, and I did not notice in the spring but that such colonies were in just as good condition, and with combs as bright and free from mold, as the others. Either plan seems to be all right, according to my experience, when the temperature ranges from 40° to 60°; but perhaps I had better add that the air in my cellar is about as dry and free from impurities as the living rooms of a house should be.
There are three windows to my cellar, and these are left open the entire summer, and closed only just prior to the date the bees are carried in. During the winter I, or some other member of my family, go into the cellar almost every day. The part where the bees are, is divided off by a board partition, but the door that opens into the bee-room is seldom shut, and then only during an extremely cold spell. I keep the entire cellar dark, and never hesitate to visit the bee-room whenever I so desire, as I do not believe even frequent visits therein do a particle of harm. But one thing I seldom neglect, which is, to keep the dead bees swept up from week to week, and removed from the cellar. This prevents tramping on them, and thereby avoids bad smells, or a tainted atmosphere.
My hives while in the cellar occupy but little room, as they are arranged in tiers, five colonies in each tier, and the tiers not more than six inches apart. The bottom hive in each tier is kept about a foot above the bottom of the cellar.
My hives are the “shallow things,” only seven inches deep inside the frames, but I do not see but the bees winter as well in them as in deeper ones, side by side, and, in general, I think a little better. But were it otherwise, I should prefer to use such hives to deeper ones, and for reasons too numerous to mention here. I have now used the 7-inch frames since 1876, the year I was keeping bees in the city of Shreveport, La., and 17 years’ experience with them has taught me that, whether North or South, East or West, I would not use a deeper frame. No, sir; not if made a present of as many hives as I might desire to use!
St. Charles, Ills.