OCTOBER 15. 1913 



doors. It could not be dampness alone 

 either; for on wash day, when there was an 

 unusual amount of moisture in the house, 

 no ill etfeets were experienced. That raw- 

 ness was due to a combination of two con- 

 ditions — low temi^erature and damp atmos- 

 l^here. 



Why is one afflicted with colds and bron- 

 chitis in the winter, any way? A right 

 answer to the question will shed some light 

 on the question of wintering bees better. 

 There are in the human system four ave- 

 nues for the esca^De of moisture and impur- 

 ities — the bowels, the kidneys, the lungs, 

 and the skin. In the summer the skin is 

 very active the most of the time. Fresh 

 vegetables and fruit are eaten in abundance, 

 which aid in keeping the system in good 

 condition. Fi'esli air is breathed almost all 

 of the twenty-four hours of the day. The 

 moisture and impurities have abundant 

 opportunity to escape as fast as formed. 

 But in winter the skin is inactive. One 

 does not perspire so much. Fewer fresh 

 fruits and fresh vegetables are eaten, which 

 clogs the system, and impure indoor air is 

 breathed a great deal of the time. Now no- 

 tice. These acute diseases come in the win- 

 ter with the four avenues for the escape of 

 impurities sluggish but still open. 



How is it with the bees? They have but 

 thi'ee avenues for the escape of moisture 

 and impurities — the bowels, the malpighian 

 tubules, which take the place of kidneys, 

 and the tracheal tubes, which take the place 

 of lung's. But when the bees are placed in 

 the cellar, conditions are imposed which 

 close entirely two avenues for the escape of 

 moisture and impurities — the bowels and 

 the malpighian tubules. Thus there is but 

 one avenue left open, and this is obstructed. 

 How is it obstnicted? By the moisture 

 present in the atmosphere. Evaporation 

 can not take place rai:)idly in air which is 

 already at the dew-point. Is it any wonder 

 that the bees become uneasy, and fly out on 

 the cellar floor to die? 



Bees are not great expenders in the win- 

 ter; but in maintaining a comparatively 

 high temperature for five months there is 

 sufficient waste to demand an easy escape 

 for moisture and carbonic-acid gas. 



Wbat eridence is there that bees are need- 

 lessly dying? Go into the bee cellar and 

 stay a while with a lantern. Occasionally 

 you will notice a bee which flies vigorously. 

 Take a few of these into a warm living 

 room and notice what follows. Occasional- 

 ly one will preen itself for two, three, or 

 even five minutes. Is it getting ready to 

 die? It doesn't look that way. Now give 

 it a little honey. Its vigor is quite incon- 

 sistent witli superannuatini!. It seems a 



719 



Cover removed, showing the hive inside the concrete 

 winter case. 



fair inference that these bees leave their 

 hives because they feel uneasy. I have fre- 

 quently raked into a cluster of bees in the 

 cellar when removing dead bees from a shal- 

 low entrance, but the bees did not fly at the 

 light. They hurried back to the cluster. 

 Last February, with a temperature of 50 in 

 the cellar, four feet from the floor, I stood 

 before a colony with a lighted lantern. The 

 bees were loosel}' clustered, and some were 

 quietly resting on the bottom-board an inch 

 away from the cluster. They did not fly at 

 the light. I touched one of these isolated 

 bees. It immediately^ " stood on its hands " 

 and moved sluggishly toward the cluster. A 

 little later I called my wife down to look at 

 a powerful colony which had become so un- 

 comfortably warm near the ceiling that the 



Bosserman's winter case is made of % -inch slabs of 



solid concrete bolted together at the corners. 



Wooden cleats are also bolted on for 



a hand grip. One case weighs 



from 0.5 to 80 lbs. 



