AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 497 



When the hives, without tops or bottoms, were placed, I covered the ditch with a 

 slanting roof made also of scantlings, on which I spread a good coat of straw, then 

 of earth, and a second coat of straw and earth. To give some air to bees, I b lilt 

 two chimneys, two inches square inside, at both ends of the silo. 



During the first two years, the winter having been dry and cold, I succeeded 

 splendidly ; but, when I unearthed my hives after the third winter, I found every 

 comb damp, or even moldy, a part of the colonies were dead, and all the others were 

 more or less depopulated, the winter having been warm and moist during the usually 

 coldest months. 



Some bee-keepers build, on purpose, cellars which are half below and half above 

 the surface of the soil. I have never tried them, and I suppose that such cellars 

 may succeed on the condition that their walls are suflSciently thick, and furnished 

 with double doors for the entrance, with straw between to shield the inside against 

 the fluctuations of the outside temperature. 



As to the cellars under inhabited houses, I have tried them with success, yet I 

 prefer to winter bees on the summer stands. 



As a part of the subscribers of this paper live farther North than I do, and as 

 bees cannot endure a seclusion of two or three months, I will give the conditions 

 which I think the best to succeed. 



The cellar ought to be mice-proof, dark, well aerated, and as dry as possible ; 

 yet I have seen water wetting the soil under the hives without bad results. 



The cellar ought to be deep enough under the surface of the soil to prevent its 

 temperature from being too much influenced by the outside fluctuations of the 

 weather. Of course its ceiling, unless it is vaulted, ought to be plastered, or other- 

 wise well protected. The space of ours, between the floor above and the ceiling, is 

 filled with sawdust, and the bee-room is separated from the part of the cellar used 

 for the needs of the household, by a double wall made of boards with sawdust be- 

 tween the sides. 



A bee-cellar must be provided with some ventilation from the outside. Some 

 bee-keepers ventilate their cellars by means of pipes dug in the earth. I did not 

 try these pipes. My cellar has two windows and shutters with a wire-gauze between. 

 The air that slips through them seems to suffice, although these windows and shut- 

 ters are nearly always closed ; for we never open them, except during cold nights, 

 when the weather has been too warm in daytime. Of course we keep a thermometer 

 in the cellar ; but we could do without it, for, as long as the thermometer remains 

 between 42° and 46-, the bees are so quiet that it seems that they are all, or nearly 

 all, dead ; while at 48°, or more, the bees are uneasy, the queens have begun to 

 lay, if this temperature has been maintained for a few days, and the workers are 

 impatient to fly out. On the other hand, when the temperature of the cellar goes 

 down to 40^ or less, the workers flap their wings to raise it ; then they eat more, 

 their intestines are soon filled, and they get the diarrhea. So the noise of the bees 

 is a good indication in the wintering in cellars. 



Some German bee-writers advise bee-keepers to give water to bees wintered in 

 cellars. I tried it long ago, with bad results. 



A wise precaution, not to be forgotten, is never to put bees into a cellar but 

 after a clear and warm day, during which all the bees have flown outside to get rid 

 of their feces, as there is more room in their bowels to keep the residues of their 

 digestion during their long captivity. 



I consider it also necessary to mark the place of every colony in the apiary, so 

 as to return them as exactly as possible on the same spot, and to commence the 

 moving of the bees by those which are located the farthest. 



