382 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



That " getatai5I.e " business on p. 362 is 

 good; but if you're hitting at me it would be 

 better to tell me privately. But I do try. I'll 

 tell you how I do generally. Before sending 

 any thing off, I try it on my folks. If they hes- 

 itate about understanding. I don't explain, but 

 change it till they do understand. 



Why don't you make a bag-holder, friend 

 Root, instead of wearing out that little girl's 

 elbow (p. 359)? If you can't do any better, put 

 two hooks in the wall to hold the bag in two 

 places, then one hand will do the rest. But to 

 make a bag-holder of a little girl! The idea! 

 Next you'll be making a man get down on all 

 fours to use him for a step-ladder. 



"This spring isn't so very bad, and it isn't 

 so very good. Up to April 20 we've had few 

 days for bees to fly." That's what I said last 

 number. Since that, spring has just humped 

 itself to show that it was no milk-and-water 

 affair. April 20 started in for a two-days' 

 snowstorm, and then it continued cold, wet, 

 and windy. May 3 was the Hrst day for bees to 

 fly, and I'm almost afraid to count up how 

 many colonies I have left. 



EL-WOOD'S MAMMOTH BEE-CELLAR. 



A REPOSITORY WHERE 1300 COLONTES ARE WIN- 

 TERED successfui.i.y; necessary re- 

 quisites FOR wintering; artificial 



HEAT AND VENTILATION. 



When the editor of Gleanings visited us two 

 years ago he requested that a photograph be 

 taken of our premises after the bees were gath- 

 ered in from the out-apiaries. The accompany- 

 ing view, which has been waiting "copy " for 

 more than a year, is a reproduction of this pho- 

 tograph. The artist endeavored to get a front 

 instead of a side view, but the lay of the land 

 prevented. Nearly half of the whole number 

 of hives are not shown. By going upon a hill a 

 short distance away, the whole might have 

 been included; but the hives would have ap- 

 peared too small and indistinct. 

 The permanent home yard does 

 not appear in the picture, being 

 located in the back part of the 

 orchard, the fore part of which 

 is seen in the left side of the pic- 

 ture, and is about fifteen lods 

 from the buildings. It was put 

 there to get the protection uf a 

 natural windbreak, and is as iieir 

 the house and barn as I care to 

 have it. The ouiyards also, to 

 prevent annoyance, are all located 

 some distance away from build- 

 ings. The home yard is managed 

 the same as the other yards, and 

 is looked over but once in a week 

 or ten days. The cart shown in 

 the picture is used in working this 

 yard. Supplies for the out apia- 

 ries are i-airied in a wagon which 

 is driven up as close to the bees 

 as possibli'. and left there during 

 the day. As will be noticed, the 

 rows of hives are irregular, which 

 is an assistance to the bees in locating their 

 own hives. For the same reason, it is preferred 

 that, in spring and fall, the hives tip in con- 

 formity to the ground unless such irregularity 

 cause the hives and comb to lean much side- 

 wise. It is not well to allow combs to bulge, 

 as such never become perfectly true again. 



The large building is a cumbined barn, wag- 

 on-house, and honey-house, with a bee-cellar 

 under the whole, except under the part occu- 

 pied by the horse-stable. 



The second story has a stove room over the 

 honey-room, a shop over the wagon-room, hay- 

 mow over the carriage and feed rooms, and a 

 straw-mow over the horse-stable. The cellar is 

 divided in the middle by a partition that can be 

 closed when putting in or taking out bees, and 

 has an ante-room, as indicated by the dotted 

 lines in the wagon-room. There is a well in 

 one corner, with a pump up in the feed room. 

 It would be an improvement to put in an ele- 

 vator at the foot of the honey-room stairs, run- 

 ning to the second story, and by means of a trap- 

 door down into the cellar. The bees are now 

 taken in and out of the cellar from the back (or 

 west) door, down three steps. A heavy bank of 

 earth nearly up to the sills protects the back side 

 of the cellar. The front side is in a bank. 

 There is a good drain from the cellar, and in 

 addition there is a line of tile a fqot in diameter 

 extending out about a hundred feet, where 

 there is an opening. From this point, for an- 

 other hundred feet, the size is 8 inches. This is 

 a fresh-air tube, and is always open. In a very 

 wet time it also acts as a drain; and once dur- 

 ing a spring freshet it paid for itself several 

 times over by a few hours' drainage. A large 

 chimney, with three flues, runs from the cellar 

 up. The middle flue is for smoke; the outside 

 ones, one foot by one and a quarter feet each, 

 are for ventilation. There is always a good 

 draft up, but it can be materially improved in 

 muggy weather by building a fire in the shop 

 stove. There are double outside cellar-doors. 

 The innei' one is largely of wire cloth, for ven- 

 tilation when the outside door is open. There 

 are also openings in the floor over the cellar, 

 for ventilation. At no time during the severe 

 winter just past have the ventilators been 

 wholly closed. One night, with the tempera- 

 ture at zero, the ventilators were too far closed, 

 and the next morning the temperature of the 

 cellar had risen to a dangerous point. Former- 

 ly a stove in the ante-room kept the tempera- 

 ture up to 45 degi'ees: but now the increased 

 number of bees makes a stove unnecessary for 

 this purpose. The amount of moisture in the 





PLAN OF ELWOOD'S HONEY-HOUSE AND BARN (FIRST FLOOR). 



air is as important as the temperature. The 

 best results were obtained when a fire was 

 built in the au*e room stove regardless of tem- 

 perature, whenever the hygrometer showed the 

 air nearly approaching the point of saturation. 

 The same results are now sought for by increas- 

 ing the ventilation; but occasionally the plan 

 fails; for when the air is saturated, and above 

 freezing outside, it does not become dry enough 

 when it reaches the slightly higher temperature 

 of the cellar. The cellar will hold comfortably 



