What is the best way to feed bees when wintering in the cellar? I started in 1891 with three colonies, but have had bad luck the last two winters. I have 13 colonies at the present time—9 outdoors, and 4 in the cellar.
M. W.
Sterling, Ill.
Answer.—There is nothing better than to give them frames filled with honey. Carefully remove two or three of the empty combs till you strike the brood-nest—that is, till you come to a comb with bees on—then put in a comb of honey. Be sure that there are bees enough on the comb next to the honey so that there will be no doubt about their commencing on the honey right away, for there might be such a thing as their starving without ever touching it, unless it were pushed right under their little noses. If the first frame in the brood-nest has too few bees, it may be best to put the honey between this and the next comb with bees on. If the temperature of your cellar varies, don't take the time when it is coldest.
Bees Dying in the Cellar.
As I have always had bad luck in wintering bees out-of-doors, I thought I would winter them in the cellar this winter, so I have followed the American Bee Journal along, and studied closely all that has appeared in it about wintering bees in the cellar. I finally settled upon the way of one writer's plan, thinking it perhaps a good way; that is, to raise the hive from the bottom-board about an inch, by putting blocks under the corners. I believe he said that the bees would not come out if kept in the dark—that I have done, and I find every time I go to them, that the ground is covered with dead bees, and at this rate I think there will not be any left by spring. Why do my bees come out, if others do not?
My crop of honey last season was none, as usual, and I have had to feed to carry the bees through the winter.
E. H. H.
St. Johnsbury Center, Vt.