ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



131 



when I told him that such a. colony 

 was dead I had to report the reason 

 why. 



But this taug'ht me some good les- 

 sons. 



The hives that we used, in substance, 

 for the last two years have formed our 

 wood pile and I have quit using that 

 kind of hive. The cost in losses by 

 outdoor wintering would pay for a bee 

 cellar. 



I put up a new' cellar this fall, 15x22. 

 The cellar alone, ready to put building 

 on, cost me $90.00. Put a bee house 

 above for the convenience it would 

 furnish. If there ig a leisure hour dur- 

 ing 5'our convention I would like to 

 speak of it. 



Mr. Rattig — About building a cel- 

 lar on the side of a hill, it would be 

 necessary to double wall where one 

 end would be exposed to the weather. 

 Would it be proper to make the cellar 

 double walled and fill in? 



Mr. France — It would be better to do 

 that. 



A member — My cellar is built on 

 the side of the hill. My south wall is 

 built up, boarded on the inside and 

 filled in between with dry sawdust; 

 this stops the cold all right; I walk 

 right in from the level, right from the 

 outside. 



Mr. Dadant — Here is a question that 

 has come in. 



Question — Does Mr. Miller find any 

 saving in stores by cellar wintering; 

 if so, how much? 



Mr. Miller — I do not believe I can 

 answer that question. I do not know 

 just what consumption of stores would 

 be outside, although I tried wintering 

 outside for several years and lost about 

 from 40 to 50 per cent of bees when I 

 did so. 



I have estimated that it is about 

 fifteen pounds. It might be less; some 

 years more and some years less. 



I have thought of weighing the hives 

 in and out of cellars to test that out 

 but found there was a great deal of 

 labor connected with it. 



Mr. Dadant — We want to hear from 

 Mr. France on the convenience of that 

 cellar he spoke of. 



Mr. France. — There is one thing I 

 would like to answer in regard to this 

 cellar wall being out of ground: 



For convenience I always selected 

 my outyards on sloping ground 

 to the southeast; that would leave the 

 lower - side wall necessarily out of 



ground. I saved the soil that came out 

 of the cellar to back up with inside 

 with the exception of the runway 

 which is long, with double doors in 

 through so that we can go in on the 

 level from the yard. I have an abund- 

 ance of inlet and outlet for fresh air. 

 I use 80 feet of six inch tile, coming 

 in under the cellar wall for inlet, and 

 a . foot square box tube from bottom 

 of cellar to roof of house above for 

 outlet. Have a hinged door in outlet 

 near ceiling to open in case the cellar 

 gets top warm. 



The cellar walls should be all un- 

 derground thus avoiding outside 

 weather to affect inside temperature. 



Another thing — We used to have a 

 Wisconsin man who came down here, 

 who wintered his bees by sealing that 

 cellar and putting sawdust in. He 

 has now passed away. I was down 

 there to help the boys finish up the 

 honey season. I called their attention 

 to the fact that the floor was sinking. 

 There was quite a crop of honey on the 

 floor but the floor was sinking. 



They found that the sawdust packed 

 between did not get ventilation, and 

 the result was dry rot, and you could 

 pick the joist with your fingers. 



If you pack absorbents between cel- 

 lar joists it will soon dry rot the joist. 

 Better have dead air space and pack- 

 ing over floor above. 



I advised them that dead air space 

 would be much better. 



In all my buildings I have paper 

 lined on the underside of the joist and 

 little common forest leaves put on the 

 floor in winter; then the joist will not 

 dry rot. 



As to the convenience of cellar win- 

 tering: 



It used to require, when labor was 

 cheaper than now, more men to pro- 

 duce less honey than now. 



We had to have one man whose 

 business it was to attend to the fau- 

 cets; brought the honey from the ex- ' 

 tractor in pails and put it in the 

 strainer, and then in cans, and put it in 

 the wagon. 



Now that is overcome by having a 

 bee house and bee cellar. 



It is a pleasure to me now to produce 

 extracted honey. I have several out 

 apiaries with beehouse over bee cellar 

 at each apiary, and the hives and sup- 

 plies remain in the apiary. 



The honey as it comes from the field. 



