457


     T H E



THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



BEE-K EEPER.



              Wintering Bees.

  K. P. Kidder, in the November number of
the FARMER, recommends wintering bees in
the cellar. I have wintered bees in five dif-
ferent cellars in this and New York State, and
have not yet found one dry enough to prevent
the combs moulding more or less where not
occupied by bees. Where the cellar has been
quite damp, it has nearly or quite ruined the
stocks. Though bees winter much better with
hives inverted with bottom boards removed,
(if in box hives.) than in the old way of pla-
cing them right side up, as on their summer



stands. Yet we opine that even then, few cel-
lars will be found dry enough to altogether
prevent moulding. Then, again, in transfer-
ring bees that have been wintered "on their
heads,' we have found much filth that the bees
have failed to retnove in the spring. They
had spent much time in covering the filth
that remained with propol is. If this accumu-
lation should continue to accumulate year af-
ter year, it would be a serious objection to
wintering bees in an inverted position. An-
other objection to wintering bees in the house
cellar, is on account of their being so fre-
quently disturbed by the admission of light.
This disturbance may be produced by t e
opening of a door or by a light carried into
the cellar. All apiarians agree that they
should be kept as quiet as possible duringthe
winter. Yet this is impossible, in the house
cellar, where the various inmates are constant-
ly visiting it for vegetables and other family
supplies. Then does not analogy teach us
that the cellar or underground rooms are un-
healthy places for wintering bees. We know
that mankind or animals, kept in damp, un-
derground rooms, soon grow diseased. That
the bee needs pure air as much as any breath-
ing thing, is evinced by the instinct given
them, to provide constantly n fresh supply of
pure air by ventilation. How, then, can we
expect that we can immure them in the im-
pure air of a cellar, with decaying vegetables
and dampness, always to be found in greater



or less degree, and expect that they will come
out unharmed in defiance of the general law?



Reason teaches us better. At the same time,
if we are so situated Chat we cannot do bet-
ter, we may perhaps winter bees in a dry qui-
et cellar, and suffer less loss than we would
by letting them stand exposed in our severe
climate, without any adequate protection. If
we go upon the principle, " choose the best of
two evils," it may be advisable to put our bees
in the cellar. But we cannot help regarding
it as an evil to be endured only until we can
make a better provision for wintering our in-
dustrious little subjects.
                          L. L. FAIRCHILD.
 ROLLIN'! PRAIRMe, Wis., NOV. 1863l.

    One Effect of the High Price of Sugar.
  Nothing is more characteristic of our peo-
ple than fertility of resource, and the readi-
ness they display in adapting themselves to
circumstances, favorable oradverse,is remark-
able. This trait has recently been brought to
our notice with great force, by reason of the
immense numbers of bee hires inventors have
forwarded to us, with the commedable design
of stimulating, through better habitations
and economical arrangement generally, the
art of bee culture. In this, the shrewd obser-
ver will see a loophole of escape from the high
prices of all kinds of "sweetening " which
now prevail, and which are not so much due
to the taxes imposed by Government as to the
combination of unscrupulous speculators.
Sorghum mills were at one time all the rage,
and also other apparatus for defecating and
granulating the sap of all sugar bearing
plants and trees; but we think nothing is
more noteworthy in connection with this sub-
ject than the efforts of our inventors to pro-
vide comfortable and profitable bee houses,
whereby the crop of honey-a delicious sub-
stitute for molasses-will be largely increased
during the coming year.    If it tends to
lower the price of the article, now far beyond
its intrinsic value, the exertions of the inven-
tors will not have been put forth in vain.-
Scientific American.

  A writer mentions the case of a swarm of
bees leaving one of his hives. The bees staid
in the hive some four days. On the fourth
day the sun came out upon it very warm for
the first time; and, he says, "they had made
quite a lot of comb." He supposes the heat
started the rosin in the boardq and that the
smell of it made the beees leave the hive. It
is more probable that the heat itself drove the
bees away.



.
                                                                A::