164 ANNUAL REPORT 



there has been a case of diphtheria or sore throat. There is no 

 mistake about it but that it is a cure for diphtheria. Not that 

 lam advocating the use of honey as a medicine. I have always 

 raised it and sold it as food, and there is nothing better than 

 honey. Excuse me for talking so long. 



Mr. Ridout. I would like to ask this gentleman some ques- 

 tions. What time do you put your bees in the cellar and when 

 do you take them out, and do you cover the hives with anything 

 in the cellar; how do you manage them; at what temperature 

 would vou advise a cellar to be kept ? 



Mr. Urie. I have no cellar, I have a building of which you 

 will find a description in the September number of " J^arm, Stock 

 and Home.'' ' If you will build one on the same plan I guarantee 

 you will have a perfect place to winter bees. It is necessary to 

 have a dry place with pure air and it should be above the ground. 

 If wintered under ground, in damp cellars, the combs will be- 

 come mouldy, the honey sour and thin, and the bees liable to 

 disease, often causing the loss of the colony. 



A building 12x24 and eight feet high is large enough for one 

 hundred and twenty-five colonies, and for an ante-chamber in the 

 front part. I choose a good dry place, near the centre of the 

 the apiary, putting the building on a wall six inches above 

 ground; sills 6x10 will answer; I leave a ventilator open on 

 each side to keep the floors dry in summer; I close them in 

 winter and bank the sides to keep out frost; use 2x2 for studs, 

 using dry lumber, and boaid on outside with drop siding and on 

 tne inside with matched stuff; use a shingled roof; put in a win- 

 dow on each side and use double doors. I use ventilators to 

 keep the temperature as near as possible from 45° to 50°. This 

 winter it is too warm as it is ranging from 50° to 55°. I don't 

 need a thermometer as I can tell the temperature by the action 

 of the bees. When you go in and find the bees buzzing it is too 

 warm; but with right temperature they will be perfectly quiet 

 and in a dormant condition. If too hot or too cold they will 

 roar, and if it gets too warm I leave the doors open at night. 



Col. Stevens. How is it with the wild bees in the woods; do 

 they have the proper amount of ventilation when found in trees? 



Mr. Urie. When you find a bee tree in the woods you find 

 rotten wood, and the perspiration passes into the rotten wood; 

 in the hive we have nothing of the kind. 



Mrs. Kennedy. Mr. President, I don't hardly agree with the 

 gentleman in his statement that there is more money in keeping 



