154 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



content with what we should not be content 

 with, and delude oui'selves with believing- 

 we are doing- the best w en we are not. 



When a man loses in winter a colony with 

 a queen and plenty of good stores, there is 

 something wrong. Many a man g^ets no 

 hone3'-flow, because the bees wintered so 

 poorly they could not take advantag-e of the 

 flow that came, especially early clover, or 

 a blossom which stands in a relative posi- 

 tion. 



In the house above the cellar I have a 

 comb-honey room, a room for extracted hon- 

 ey, and a room for store combs and hives. 

 The first and last are almost air-tight, and 

 can be fumig-ated. Then there is the work- 

 shop. 



There are, of course, other conditions, 

 such as good stores, the strain of bees, size 

 of brood-chamber in proportion to the num- 

 ber of bees, etc., which influence winter- 

 ing-; but I have not time to enter into those 

 questions now. 



There is one item in your Jan. 1st issue 

 that is worth more to me than I he subscrip- 

 tion price. I have had every volume for 

 over twenty years — in fact, ever since I 

 have kept bees. No man can aftord to do 

 without a periodical upon the subject he is 

 eng-ag-ed in. 



Brantford, Ont., Can., Jan. 20, 1902. 



Laler. — It was with much pleasure that I 

 noticed your editorial remarks in your Jan. 

 15th issue concerning the necessity of fresh 

 and pure air for the bees. If I had yo\i 

 here for 24 hours I could thoroughly cor,- 

 vince you that temperature is also of great 

 importance. In that flash-light photo of 

 hives piled up in the cellar, the second hi\e 

 from the top, front row, right-hand side, is 

 one by which I can tell you to a deg-ree the 

 temperature of the cellar, or I can go to the 

 thermometer and tell you to what extent the 

 bees appear under the comhs and bottom- 

 bars. How? At 40° the cluster contracts 

 sufficiently to draw all the bees above the 

 bottom-boards, and out of sight when you 

 cast your eye through the opening made be- 

 tween the bottom-board and bods' by block- 

 ing- up the brood-chamber }% of an inch. At 

 41 a few bees appear below the bottom- bar; 

 at 42, still more. This condition has pre- 

 vailed all winter. That cellar, I believe, 

 has not varied fcur degrees all winter, and 

 it aft'ords a beautiful object-lesson. Varia- 

 tions in temperature cause, as per abo\e 

 (contraction and expansion of the cluster), 

 activity; and to husband vitality and stores, 

 this is not desirable. 



At this date, Feb. 1, not one hive is spot- 

 ted by discharges from the bees in winter 

 quarters, and they make no more noise than 

 when they first went in. k. v. h. 



[This, according-' to our experience, is 

 good orthodox teaching"On the subject of 

 bee-cellars and their construction. While 

 temperature is important, ventilation is 

 more so, particularly if it be under con- 

 trol. The plan outlined above is ideal if it 

 is expensive. At present we are securing 



ideal results in our cellar by opening and 

 closing- of doors at night, for we aie scarce- 

 ly losing- any bees, not to say colonies. ( ur 

 cellar is bone-dry, air sweet, and l)ee>. 

 perfectly quiet, notwithstiinding- the noise 

 above. — Ed.] 



BEE CELLARS OR REPOSITORIES. 



The litiportatice of Having them Properly Ventiicfec; 



Painted Hives Soaked with Moisture ; a Nut 



for Mr. Doolitfle to Crack. 



BY T. F. BINGHAM. 



I wish to call attention to what Mr. Doo- 

 little says in the January Rcviciv regard- 

 ing the eftect of paint on his hives, and how 

 they were affected by moisture. In the 10 

 years he has been wintering" bees in his 

 cellar successfully, I do not remember, un- 

 til this winter, seeing a description of it 

 and its shortcomings, if any. But now in- 

 cidentally it has been shown by him that 

 he had found air in his cave incapable of 

 supporting combustion (that is, a lighted 

 lamp) awa}^ from his three-door entrance. 

 On p. 21 of Review above referred to. near 

 the bottom, he says, " The mistake which I 

 think he i Mr. Miller) makes is in assuming 

 that this wooden wall remains dry during 

 the winter and spring, " and then Mr. D. goes 

 on to explain that the wood between the 

 walls of propolis and paint of his painted 

 hives was " thoroug-hly saturated with wa- 

 ter—so much so, if possible, the same were 

 worse than green lumber." From this 

 statement there can be no doubt as to the 

 condition of his cellar. He is not alone in 

 cave wintering'- in New York; but while I 

 ;im unable to say that his plan is the com- 

 mi n one, I am of the opinion that most of 

 tlie New York cellar repositories iire con 

 structed upon the practical non-ventilation 

 system. 



Mr. Doolittle's conclusions on the paint 

 and moisture question are reasonable, and 

 deduced from experience that no one can 

 deny. The point I wish to raise right here, 

 however, is not the effect that paint has 

 when applied to bee-hives, but, how did the 

 /lives alisorb ivater to such an extent as to he 

 equal to j^reeii lumber f The no-paint rem- 

 edy that Mr. Doolittle applied, no doubt fa- 

 cilitated the drying of liis hives after being 

 brought ovit of his cellar; but would it not 

 h.'ive been better, or at least as well, to 

 h.ive kept the hives dry in the cellar, with 

 or without paint, with ample ventilation? 



Mr. Doolittle's stone-roof air-tight cellar 

 is quite the reverse of your repository under 

 the machine-shop. It would be of no use to 

 inquire of 3'ou if the liives below the shop 

 were dry. 



My first winter's experience witli a three- 

 inch ventilator-flue in my cellar demon- 

 strated conclusively its insufficiency. M\- 

 hives, like Mr. Doolittle's, became charged 

 with water; and, while not painted, they 

 did not fail to show that thej' had been five 

 months in a warm damp atmosphere. A 



