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150 WINTERING IN CELLARS

The way we always wintered bees in the old days was by placing them in a cellar which was used for vegetables and was ill-ventilated and damp. We well remember that in the spring the cellar windows were covered with arrested prisoners; we do not recollect that we lost many colonies, but if we did not, it was owing to the ways of inscrutable Providence rather than our own understanding of the needs of the bees. Probably most of the bees in the Northern climates are wintered in cellars; and because they are wintered in all sorts of cellars with varying degrees of dampness the mortality among them is likely to be great. A cellar fit for wintering bees should be cemented on the floor and sides, made mouse and rat tight, and should be well drained, well ventilated and so arranged that the temperature may be kept in the neighbourhood of 45° F. In such a cellar the hives lifted off the bottom boards should be placed four or five inches apart on two scantlings laid on the floor. In the next tier the middle of a hive should bridge the opening between the lower hives on which it rests. This arrangement gives plenty of ventilation to the hive from below, and it is very important that the air be introduced below rather than above. The cellar should be kept dark, and if the weather is warm and the bees seem uneasy it should be ventilated at night by opening the windows, which, by the way, should have wire screens to keep out intruders. Some leave the bottom boards out