This page has been validated.
HOW TO WINTER BEES
151

on the summer stands, each board bearing the same number as the hive which rests upon it, and thus in the spring it is easy to find the home of each colony; but if the bees are brought into the cellar without the bottom boards on the hive they are quite likely to fly out more or less. Usually, therefore, they are brought in on the bottom boards, and these are piled in some convenient place until needed in the spring. In this case it is advisable to have a map made of the apiary, and the hives and their places numbered on the map, and thus each hive may be returned to its old stand in the spring.

If bees are wintered in the ordinary house-cellar it is far better to partition off the part used for the bees from that used for vegetables, and much pains should be taken to keep the air good and the cellar well ventilated.

Special bee-cellars are in vogue in some large apiaries. The cellar is sometimes made beneath the bee-house, and sometimes it is a structure by itself. Of all such cellars, the Bingham seems to us the cheapest, and surely quite as practical as the others. It is built like a square cistern, twelve feet square at the bottom, sixteen feet at the top and six feet deep; it is cemented at the bottom and on the sides, and the ceiling is flush with the level of the ground. Over this is built a gable roof, the eaves extending down to a drain on either side so that all the water is carried off. The ventilation is secured through a pipe extending from the cellar ceiling to the top of the roof. The floor over the cellar is tight and