MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 271A. I never tried it, but those who have tried it generally condemnthe practice. I remember especially E. D. Godfrey, of Iowa,who, years ago, suffered loss by it. When the bees find themselvesimprisoned, they make such a to-do as to stir up the wholecolony. I have used wire-cloth at entrances in winter, but it was,of course, three meshes to the inch,Q. Do bees in the cellar change the location of their clusterduring the winter?A. Bees do both ways, both in the cellar and out. Sometimeshoney is carried from an outer comb, without changing the placeof the cluster. Usually the cluster moves gradually backward orupward, as the bees eat their way into the full combs.Q. When bees are fed in the cellar at a temperature of about40 or 45 degrees, will the queen go to laying and hatching brood?A. Hardly, unless the feeding be kept up regularly for sometime.Q. There is a whitish liquid running out of some of the hivesin my cellar, and others have a dry substance like fine sawdustin front of the entrance. The hives from which the liquid comesseem to be wet inside and nasty. What is the cause of this? Theyhave plenty of stores.A. The sawdust-looking material is the gnawings from thecappings and other debris, and indicates nothing wrong. Theliquid is the moisture from the vapors condensing in the hive.Your cellar is too cold, and hive-entrances hardly large enough.Q. In American Bee Journal, R. H. Smith says the best temperaturefor wintering bees is 45 to 48 degrees above zero. If Iremember rightly, all our best authorities agree on 42 to 45 degreesfor most successful wintering in cellars. I have oneStandard barometer and three Fahrenheit thermometers. One ofthe latter is filled with quicksilver or mercury, and the otherswith colored fluids. I have all these in my cellar, and the variationfrom the one that shows the highest to the one that showsthe lowest, is 10 degrees. Upon which can I depend for the desired42 to 45 degrees which is necessary for successful winteringof bees, as claimed by our best authorities?A. So you're up against that mixed matter of temperature incellar. Latest investigations seem to show that the right temperatureis about fifty or fifty-five degrees. But, as you have foundout, thermometers vary. You will also probably find that cellarsvary, perhaps on account of the difiference in dryness, perhaps forsome other reason, so that if the same thermometer is used in twocellars, it may need to be higher in one than the other. I don't