ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



127 



the thermometer as the air passes 

 through. I took probably twenty dif- 

 ferent readings along through Febru- 

 ary and March; some of those readings 

 when the thermoneter was down to 

 zero and. I found that in the intake the 

 thermometer had been raised 15 or 20 

 degrees. 



I took other readings when the ther- 

 mometer outside was from 60 to 65 de- 

 grees, and I found it had been lowered. 



The average thermometer inside here 

 was between 50 and 45 degrees. I 

 would rather have had it higher. 



I have in a double floor since, so as 

 to keep it warm, and the thermometer 

 can be kept higher. 



Another point I want to call atten- 

 tion to is this: The cellar should be 

 kept as nearly air tight as possible to 

 keep out the cold air. If the cold air 

 gets in there you can hardly get it out 

 unless it is by means of this chimney. 



If you have no outlet that cold air 

 -will stay in all winter and the bees will 

 be cold and damp. 



The cellar extends IVz feet from 

 ceiling to floor. 



This cellar is built of concrete. 



I have three cellars of concrete 

 cement blocks. 



A member — Do you place the colonies 

 in tiers? 



Mr. Miller — Yes. I formerly put 

 three hives high; then four; and now 

 I am piling them six. 



I place the back of the hive to wall, 

 leaving the front hollow. I do not 

 remove cover or bottom board, but give 

 them 7-8 inch space across hive. Place 

 one hive directly on top of the other. 



In removing the bottom board it is 

 apt to disturb the bees, and in this case 

 it is not necessary because they pass 

 through the winter all right without it. 



Mr. B. F. Kindig — What is the size 

 of the cellar, and what the size of the 

 intake and outlet you use? 



Mr. Miller — In this particular cellar, 

 € inch intake, but I advise a larger one, 

 8 or 10 inch intake. The cellar is 

 18 X 20, outside. 



I have another cellar built especially 

 for bees; the other one is 16x20; it 

 will hold very nicely 100 colonies; but 

 you can put 200 in just as well. 



If you have 200 in there the ther- 

 mometer is higher and with high tem- 

 perature you have more current and 

 the air will pass through more rapidly. 



I reside in Valparaiso, Ind. 



A member — What is the idea of hav- 

 ing the intake so long? 



Mr. Miller — To warm the air as it 

 passes in to the bees, for one reason. 

 Another reason is so that you can get a 

 horizontal direction in the tube. The 

 wind moves horizontally and not verti- 

 cally. The wind is the force that car- 

 ries it through there. 



The wind pressure carries the air 

 through the underground tube. 



Mr. Coppin — It does not make much 

 difference in regard to which way the 

 wind is blowing; it is the difference in 

 the thermometer; the temperature is 

 warmer in the cellar than it is outside. 



Mr. Miller — Through the chimney, 

 yes. 



And the more difference there Is in 

 the temperature, the more air will 

 travel; and that tile, the longer it is — 

 it should be long enough for the air to 

 be tempered on the ground before it 

 reachers the cellar, or else it will cool it 

 off too much. 



And then again, if the thermomete'r 

 on the outside gets to be the same as 

 the temperature on the inside, your 

 ventilation will stop entirely (unless 

 the wind blows). 



Then your stove will be necessary in 

 the room above to start a little fire; 

 that will give you internal heat and 

 start your ventilation. 



So it is necessary in order to have 

 ventilation all the time that you should 

 have that stove in the upper room and 

 not have it down in the cellar, because 

 that would interfere with the ther- 

 mometer of your cellar; but have it in 

 the room above and it will not inter- 

 fere with the thermometer in the cellar. 



It will just raise the temperature in 

 the flue and the draft will go in the 

 tile and up the flue and give the venti- 

 lation the bees need. 



Mr. Miller — If you have clay ground 

 you'd better use vitrified tile and 

 cement joints. 



If I had time I might show by chemi- 

 cal mathematical equation just how 

 much oxygen these need. 



Mr. Coppin — I experimented a little 

 one time. I had 100 colonies of bees in 

 the cellar and the temperature got to 

 49 in the cellar and 49 outside, and 

 above the cellar I had a stove in the 

 room, and I went and put a thermome- 

 ter in the room above, w-ent into the 

 cellar and measured the air that was 

 traveling through the flue into the 

 cellar and found there was 640 cubic 



