THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



365 



I think ventilation has as [much to do 

 with the successful wintering of bees, as 

 has the food, but I mean real ventilation 

 /. e.. supplying more oxygen. When you 

 air-slack lime in a bee cellar you ventilate. 

 It is a chemical process. The lime con- 

 verts the moisture (water) into several 

 parts HO 2 (hydrogen 1, oxygen*2 ) and 

 there is much free oxygen liberated in 

 the air, making it better for humans and 

 bees. 



When Fred A. Krause said that the 

 ventilator did not "chase out" the damp, 

 foul air, he was nearer a solution than he 

 knew. The barrel of lime you placed in 

 the cellar in Northern Michigan did more 

 good than the bags of sawdust' at the 

 door. I doubt if the latter did any good. 



Make a cellar perfectly air-tight if you 

 can, then put a single small pipe through 

 the roof for the ventilator, and there is 

 no movement of air. Of course, there is 

 a little movement, because fyou cannot 

 make the cellar air tight; but the snugger 

 it is, the less movement there is; so the 

 air lies dead and still, robbed of its oxy- 

 gen by the bees and loaded with carbonic 

 acid gas. All this can be easily and 

 cheaply altered if given a little thought. 



We will take the Krause cellar for an 

 illustration: He should have built a frost 

 proof cellar alongside of the cellar door. 

 Made it about large enough to shelter 

 a stove and the fuel, and allowed 

 himself to get into it. Over the stove 

 place an air tight drum (stove should 

 have a side-feed door); make three holes 

 in it of the same size to take a 6- to 12- 

 inch pipe; one at the side near the top 

 leading to the cellar; one on the opposite 

 side near the bottom leading out doors, 

 and one on top, which should have a 

 tight fitting lid. The pipe leading out 

 should have a damper to use if the air 

 passes through so quickly that it does 

 not get warm enough to suit. Run 

 another pipe of the same size out of the 

 cellar, and connect this up to the bottom 

 of the stove, at the draft-opening, doing 

 a fairly good job at the connection, for, 

 as a fire must have air to stay alight, it 

 will have to suck the cold, wet air from 



the cellar bottom, giving room for the 

 fresh, warm air to come in, which it will 

 do without any perceptible air currents 

 in the cellar, two feet away from the 

 pipes. That is all there is to it. I think 

 the air would be so pure that when a 

 warm spell came in the spring, too early 

 to take out the bees, they would stay 

 quiet; but, if it continued warm some 

 time, so that it seemed as if they wanted 

 a change of air, the operation could be 

 reversed; the pipe leading out doors from 

 the drum could be taken out and placed 

 in the hole on top, and continued through 

 the roof; putting the lid in the side-hole; 

 the lower pipe disconnected at the bottom 

 of the stove and extended to the outside 

 air. The fire would warm the air in the 

 drum, causing it to ascend, thus sucking 

 air from the cellar, when the outside air 

 would flow in through the lower pipe. 



There is a saying that I never could 

 agree to; "That is all right in theory 

 but won't work in practice." 1 always 

 maintain that that kind of theory is false. 

 The above plan I know to be no false 

 theory, for I have proved it by something 

 more positive than mere bees, viz., myself. 



1 was greatly pleased to read in the 

 December Review, about your visit to T. 

 B. Terry, to examine into his system of 

 heating and ventilation, and thit you 

 adopted it. 1 do not know the system, 

 but, as it includes ventilation, I will give 

 it as my opinion that you will get more 

 profit out of the money spent in making 

 that visit and installing the system, than 

 anything else in the house, not even ex- 

 cepting the open fire place, although that 

 is a good investment, too, as the outward 

 visible sign of it is the smallest part of 

 its usefulness, for it is a good ventilator 

 as far as it goes. I am troubled the 

 same as A. I. Root, in being very sensi- 

 tive as to the quality of the air 1 breathe. 

 On that account 1 hate to go to church, 

 lectures, etc., and, I do not make long 

 visits in winter to people who have steam 

 or hot water heating installed; the better 

 built their house is, the worse it is for 

 me. Seventeen years ago I built my 

 house in New York, and many an hour 



