258 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



so I have to open four doors every time I go 

 into the cellar. As these doors all fit nicely, 

 I have three large dead air spaces through 

 which the cold air must pass to get into the 

 cellar and yet the first mentioned door is 

 the coldest part of the cave or cellar, as is 

 readily shown by the moisture collecting in 

 drops upon it. After the bees are put in 

 here, all is shut tight, and left so till spring 

 after the bees are set out. 



Before remodeling the cellar the last time 

 I put in a sub-earth ventilator, one hundred 

 feet long and some four or five feet deep, 

 also a ventilator at the top, both of which 

 could be controlled at pleasure. From much 

 manipulation of these, through a term of 

 years, I finally left them shut all the while, 

 and as the bees did better with them shut, 

 and, as the temperature could be better con- 

 trolled w th them shut, they were left oit 

 entirely in the last construction, and I now 

 would not have them back again on any ac- 

 count. On no one point did I ever go with 

 more caution or more "fear and trembling"' 

 than on this ventilation matter, so that no 

 one need tell me that I jumped at conclu- 

 sions regarding it. I am positive that a 

 properly constructed, wholly underground 

 bee cellar, needs no more ventilation than 

 will naturally come through walls of mason 

 work and the earth. 



After the bees are set out in the spring 

 the doors are fastened open and left so all 

 summer, so that the heat shall dry all out as 

 much as possible preparatory to another 

 winter. By thus leavidg it open during the 

 cool and frosty nights of October, it so re- 

 duces the temperature of the cellar and 

 ground around it that it stands at about 47° 

 after the bees have become quiet. As win- 

 ter proceeds it gradually lowers till it reaches 

 44° varying only from 4;^ to 45° no mat- 

 ter what the temperature is outside, whether 

 70° above zero for a week, or from 20" to 

 30° below zero for the same length of time. 

 Herein is where such a cellar has the advan- 

 tage over a cellar under a house, as Bro. H. 

 so well brings out on page 244, and it makes 

 no difference as to the temperature whether 

 there is one colony or one hundred in this 

 cellar. The whole is controlled by the tem- 

 perature of the earth, or very nearly so. 



Why I say "very nearly so" is, that 

 to the west of the cellar, about one rod, is 

 30 feet of fence, feet high, whicn causes 

 the snow to drift over the roof and cellar 

 from three to eight feet deep, and this snow 



has a little to do with the matter; but I have 

 never known a lower degree than 41 to be 

 reached in winters when we had no snow. 



Unless a cellar would maintain an even 

 temperature of from 41° to 47° I should 

 prefer bees out of doors in chaff packed 

 hives, and this temperature, too, whether 

 bees were in it or not. 



Where the bees are depended upon to keep 

 up the temperature of the place they are in 

 during very cold weather, it is very liable to 



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^ 



OUJ-U>E MV.- M 1 M ( 1 1 1 \B. 



be too warm during a mild spell in late win- 

 ter or early spring, which causes more trou- 

 ble in cellar wintering then all else com- 

 bined, as the bees will become uneasy and 

 start brood-rearing at such times in spite of 

 the opening of doors and windows at night, 

 carrying in ice, etc., which can be done, be- 

 sides when bees must "burn" honey to warm 

 their hives and the room they are in, it 

 causes a great loss of stores and vitality. 



I see by the leader that Bro. H. would 

 not have the floor of the bee cellar cement- 

 ed. Neither would I; but there are bees dy. 



