A recent posting by Peter Borst quoted a century-old publication in the ABJ
in which a purchaser of a shipment of 2 pound packages of 'Yancey's
Hustlers' hived them on combs in 10 frame boxes in his basement. It was
reported that they did very well.

I am intrigued by this concept, given that April weather in Connecticut
(where I live and learn from my bees) is often still quite chilly. Nice
days are increasingly frequent as the month goes by, but a week or more may
go by with no good foraging days, and despite global warming, it still gets
cold enough for snow & ice.

Is there any experience that can be provided from Bee-L members on starting
packages in controlled environments? My hypothesis (from what was described
from a century ago) is that a queen from a 3 pound package that is kept in
the basement on combs from winter die-outs (that have bee bread, pollen,
nectar, and capped honey) will be able to increase the volume of the space
she lays up to a greater degree than the queen in a 3 pound package from
the same shipment that's hived outdoors. I anticipate there'd need to be
arrangements made for providing ample water for brood rearing for the
indoor hive.

How long might it be reasonable to keep such a hive in the basement? Is
there experience from current era controlled-environment indoor wintering
or from the era when bees were often carried into the basement of a home?
It's known that bees that are hibernating can go months without cleansing
flights, but when brood is being reared and fed, there's a lot more need
for the bees in the hive to consume bee bread and pollen to feed the larval
brood, and thus an  increase in the need to have cleansing flights.

Jonathan Knisely
New Haven, CT, USA

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