THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



261 



Has been up to .TO" in house cellar a good 

 part of the winter. Made tire in stove for 

 first time. Fire wouldn't go — chimney 

 stopped up. Cleaned out chimney, and 

 raised thermometer lying on hive nearest 

 stove to 73°. Next morning bees quieter. 

 After that cellar kept cooler — I think be- 

 cause the chimney is open." 



Now if the trouble was that so many colo- 

 nies made too much heat, the matter 

 wouldn't be helped by putting in fire. The 

 real trouble was that so many bees used up 

 the oxygen, and there was nothing to change 

 the air. The fire didn't do any good be- 

 cause it made the bees warmer or colder but 

 because it helped change the air. The air out 

 of doors had gone up to about the same 

 temperature as in the cellar, hence no 

 change, and to make matters worse the 

 chimney was stopped up. Raising the air 

 to 7.3° mide the colder outside air rush in 

 to take the place of the warmer air in the 

 cellar. If the air in the cellar had been 

 lowered to 30°, the final result would have 

 been much the same. Anything rather than 

 to have the air alike within and without. 



For years I have been in the habit of leav- 

 ing the cellar wide open all night long when 

 the bees became uneasy. The bees roared 

 longer than ever for some time after the 

 cellar was opened, but next morning would 

 be very quiet. For a long time I satisfied 

 myself with the belief that the bees were 

 quieter because the cellar had been cooled 

 off, but one thing puzzled me very much. 

 After the cellar had been open all night, if 

 I went down toward noon I found all quiet, 

 but on looking at the thermometer found 

 the cellar as warm or warmer than the night 

 before. Then I asked myself, "If the bees 

 were noisy last night because too warm, why 

 not noisy now when just as warm?" The 

 answer was that it was not cooling off that 

 quieted them, but purer air. 



You're right about the advantage of a side 

 hill so as to walk into the cellar on a level, 

 and another important thing is to have a 

 wide door. Five feet is none too wide. It's 

 handy when carrying in or out. 



I can see no advantage in having the stove 

 in an ante-room. The only objection in hav- 

 ing it in the same room with the bees that I 

 can think of, is the light from the fire, al- 

 though the stove door always stands open. 



When it comes to your last paragraph, I 

 am somewhat radical. If there's any one 

 thing that I think I know about cellars, it is 



that they need ventilation. If the cellar 

 ventilates itself through cracks in the wall 

 or otherwise, well and good, but ventilation 

 in some way it must have. So far from be- 

 lieving ''that ventilation has a bearing only 

 as it influences temperature," I think that 

 sometimes temperature has a bearing only 

 as it influences ventilation. I have sub-ven- 

 tilators, and although I may lose caste by 

 saying so, I intend to keep them. 



You ask me why I overhaul my hives 

 about once a week. Between you and me, I 

 don't think I would overhaul them quite as 

 often as I do if I had my own way, but Miss 

 Wilson is a very hard mistress to work for, 

 and she is always so afraid that Iwillnot get 

 around in time enough that she keeps me 

 crowded two or three days ahead. I've 

 thought of striking sometimes, but I don't 

 know where I could find another job. But 

 the reason I want to go through every hive 

 about once- in ten days is because I don't 

 know how to do better without having some 

 one watch for swarms, and that would take 

 twice as many hands. Possibly bee-hivers 

 may solve the problem. Can you tell me 

 any way to manage an out-apiary run for 

 comb honey and have no one go near it 

 oftener than once in ten days, without over- 

 hauling each colony so often? 



I'm glad you have another nice baby. But 

 you don't tell it's name. And I never knew 

 that you had any children but the twins, un- 

 til now you speak of Ivy. Are there any 

 more? 



Makengo, 111., 



Sept. 20, 1892. 



[I did not know friend M. that you were 

 speaking of an out-apiary; I supposed it was 

 the home-yard. I should suppose swarming 

 would be over by the first of August, but I 

 presume you meant that you had been very 

 recently overhauling the bees weekly. 



I am glad to see you defend sub-earth 

 ventilation even at risk of "losing caste." 

 So many have not the courage to stand by 

 their convictions. The Review has always 

 welcomed men who would defend even an 

 unpopular truth. 



Although Ivy is only twelve years old, 

 while her twin sisters are fourteen, she is 

 such a chubby little body that I have three 

 dark eyed girls of about the same size; 

 while baby "Feen" sees the soft gray of her 

 eyes reflected in those of her mamma. 

 That's all of 'em. Dr.— Ed.] 



