ii6 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



and a building was built over it. One 

 third of the floor was loose so that 

 it could be taken up for ventilation. 

 The Captain very strongly urged put- 

 ting a building over the cellar for the 

 purpose of controlling ventilation and 

 temperature. 



Last year Mr. T. F. Bingham, of 

 Farwell, Mich., described, in the Re- 

 view, his cellar built like a cement 

 cistern, and ventilated with a single 

 flue 16 inches square. This ventilation 

 was not sufficient towards spring. 

 The bees "roared-" and became uneasy 

 as the temperature went up. He then 

 put in two more flues, and this year 

 the extra flues enabled him to not 

 only secure a better control of the tem- 

 perature, but to furnish such immense 

 quantities of air, that there was no 

 roaring. It seems that Captain Heth- 

 erington goes so far as to I)e able to 

 take up one-third of the floor for the 

 sake of ventilation. 



I visited 'Sir. Bingham a few days 

 after his bees had been set out, the 

 latter part of March, and they had 

 certainly wintered finely. The frontis- 

 piece this month shows his yard as 

 it looked when I was there. As Mr. 

 Bingham's hives consist of simply 

 closed-end frames, with a board at 

 each side, all held together witli wire, 

 keyed up tight, they are protcctetl with 

 an outer covering of canvas attached 

 to the cover. When the hives were 

 Irought out the special bottom-boards, 

 that give a two-inch space below the 

 hives, were also brought out and left 

 scattered about the yard that the rain 

 and snow might wash them off before 

 they were stored away. Mr. Bingham 

 is an exceedingly neat man, and ob- 

 jected to my taking a picture of the 

 yard with these things scattered about, 

 lint I told him that I should ex))lain 

 all aliout it. His wintering cellar may 

 be seen in the background, the three 

 flues projecting thx'ough the roof. 



While it is true that bees have been 

 successfully wintered under conditions 

 that seem to indicate that ventilation 

 has little or no influence, I must admit 

 that, like Mr. Bingham, I am unalde 

 to conceive hoAV plenty of pxn-e air can 

 ever have a baneful effect upon Itees 

 under any circumstances. Bees have 

 certainly wintered very successfully 

 with only a small quantity of air at 

 their command; but the success may 

 have come in spite of the lack of air. 

 Ventilation is certainly sometimes 

 needed to control temperature, if for 

 nothing else. 



In closing, let me call attention to 

 one fact. Time and again have we 

 heard some old bee-keeper tell how 

 well bees wintered years ago. They 

 were in box hives, with a pebble mider 

 each corner. How they wintered when 

 so exposed he did not know, but they 

 did. They had plenty of honey and 

 oxygen to burn. That may have been 

 one reason. 



There are so many factors that go 

 to the making of successful wintering 

 in a cold climate, that it is not well 

 to pill one's faith to one alone, and 

 ignore the others. 



EXTRACTED 



VENTILATION IN BEE-CELLARS. 



Some Evidence Going to Show that it is 

 Beneficial. 



The publication of Mr. Barber's 

 vicM's regarding the ventilation of bee 

 cellars did exactly what I expected— 

 stirred up the advocates of ventila- 

 tion. Gleanings for ^Nlarch l.")th con- 

 tains the following: 



"Tn tlie Bee-Keepers' Review for 

 February appears an article from Ira 

 Barber on this subject. Mr. Barber 



