FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 519 



report success in wintering bees in such conditions. The attributing of 

 differences in manipulation and methods to "locality" has been greatl> 

 overdone by beekeepers, particularly since they usually do not describe 

 the characteristics of the locality or analyze their conditions to deter- 

 mine why certain things prove best. This peculiarity in the beekeeping 

 literature is probably largely to blame for the discussions on the virtues 

 of upward ventilation. It should be borne in mind, however, that while 

 sealed covers may be harmful in colder regions, upward ventilation is 

 not objectionable in warmer regions. A careful study of the methods em- 

 ployed by the beekeepers who winter their bees most successfully would 

 probably show that the quotation given above from Hutchinson is correct. 



EFFECT ON THE HUIIIDITY OF CHANGING THE OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE. 



Any change in the temperature of the bee cellar may affect the humidity 

 of" the air in the hive in two ways. As the optimum cellar temperature 

 is approached, the heat produced by a normal colony will diminish and 

 this decreases the food consumed and consequently the water produced. 

 The widely varying reports of the food consumed by bees in cellars find 

 their explanation chiefly in the difference in the temperature of the cluster. 

 As the cellar is cooled below the optimum not only is there mere water 

 produced, but the cooler atmosphere is incapable of holding so much and 

 there is therefore an augmented cause for condensation. 



In this connection it may be of interest to record a few observations 

 made by one of the authors on bee cellars not long since. The first cellar 

 was away from any house, was ventilated by the sub-earth system and 

 was without any artificial heat. The temperature of the air at the floor 

 was 40° F. and in the center of the cellar 41° F. There was little circu- 

 lation of air and moisture had condensed freely in the chamber above the 

 cellar proper, under the roof. In this cellar were 98 colonies in 24 stacks. 

 Of these, condensed moisture was seen on the bottom boards of 21 in the 

 bottom tier, 11 in the next tier, 3 in the third and 6 in the top tier. There 

 was no condensed moisture on the floor. The only adequate explanation 

 for the greater number of wet colonies in the lower tiers is the slightly 

 lower temperature at the floor. If now there had been more ventilation 

 provided without greatly lowering the cellar temperature, this moisture 

 might at least have reached the chamber above the cellar before con- 

 densing, and doubtless if the temperature could have been raised a couple 

 of degrees all of the condensed moisture would have disappeared from the 

 bottom boards. There might still have been condensation on the covers, 

 where it first appears, but this, too, would doubtless have evaporated at 

 45° F. with good ventilation. 



In a second cellar where the temperature was 45.5° F at the floor and 

 50° F. six and one-half feet from the fioor, there was no condensed mois- 

 ture in any of the 93 colonies. Here the ventilation was much more 

 abundant and the cellar was artificially heated. In a third cellar, tem- 

 perature 40° F. five feet from the floor, there was moisture on several 

 covers but none on the bottom boards. The ventilation was excellent. 

 In a fourth cellar, temperature 52.5° F., no condensation was observed 



