OCTOBER 15, 1912 



653 



Conversations Avith Doolittle 



At Borodino, New York. 



BEE-CELLARS — CONTINUED. 



*'I have done some thinking about bee- 

 cellars since I was here before, and have 

 come to the conclusion that it will pay 

 me to build a special cellar." 



"What is the lay of the land near your 

 apiary?" 



"On the west of it, and facing the east, 

 is a rather abrupt hill, rising about twelve 

 feet high. The base of tlus hill comes 

 near the center of the beeyard on the west. 

 Will that be a good place for the cellar?" 



"Most admirable; for where a cellar can 

 be placed in a side hill, having a slope 

 more or less abrupt, and the slope being 

 on the side where the entrance is desired, 

 the Cjuestion of ease of access is settled, 

 so that the labor of carrying in and set- 

 ting out will be much less fatiguing than 

 where from three to eight steps for a 

 stairway have to be used. Then where the 

 entrance can be on the east side, it is 

 much easier to guard against the cold, and 

 at the same time it guards fully as much 

 against the heat of the sun in February, 

 March, and April. The entrance provides 

 also against the extreme high winds of 

 the west which rage to a great extent above 

 all others in this section. By the remo.val 

 of very little eai'th you can have an en- 

 trance on a level with the bottom of your 

 cellar, so that with a wheelbarrow or a 

 hive cart the bees can be run right into the 

 cellar, thus saving a lot of hard lugging 

 and lifting." 



"The soil of this hill is a sort of gravel. 

 Will this be as good as any?" 



"Many prefer sandy or gravelly soil, as 

 there is less danger of dampness. But to 

 my mind it makes very little difference. 

 At the farmer's cellar, where my out- 

 apiary is situated, water runs right through 

 it in slight depressions cut for this pur- 

 pose in a stiff clay soil, at all times when 

 the ground is at all wet from fall rains; 

 but so far as I can see, the bees winter 

 there as well as anywhere. If the stores 

 are good, bees seem to winter well in al- 

 most any cellar where an even temper- 

 ature at some point between 38 and 45 

 degrees can be maintained. But with a 

 cellar where the temperature is unstable, 

 going anywhere from below the freezing- 

 point up to sixty one week, and back again 

 the next, or where it changes with every 

 «hange outside, poor wintering is apt to 

 result, no matter what the soil is." 



"What about proper protection?" 



"Having your excavation made to the 



amount of about tAvo square feet for each 

 colony you expect to winter, say 8x25 

 square feet for 100 colonies as the floor 

 surface, you will build permanent walls 

 all around the sides about 7 feet high, but 

 the top of the wall should not come more 

 than six inches above the surface of the 

 ground, or just enough to turn off all sur- 

 face water at any time the soil might be- 

 come excessively saturated with water. On 

 top of these walls should be placed old or 

 worn railroad rails, cut to the proper 

 length if you can possibly get them, and 

 on these jDut flagstones; or a covering of 

 concrete can be made of suitable thick- 

 ness to hold the earth which is to be placed 

 on top, to a depth of at least three feet. 

 Four feet would be better still. Over tliis 

 earth is to be built, a cover of some kind 

 which will shed water. After the first 

 year tins covering of earth will remain 

 dry, as the heat of summer will make all 

 this as dry as dust. With four feet of 

 earth over such a special cellar in a side 

 hill, the temperature will not vary more 

 than five degrees during the whole winter. 

 Often during the whole winter, after the 

 bees get settled down from being carried 

 in, there is not two degrees variation in 

 my cellar built on this plan, the mercury 

 standing from 42 to 44 degrees during the 

 five months while the bees are in this cel- 

 lar. The doorway into the cellar should 

 have 'wing' walls, turned at right angles 

 for three doors, which should be two feet 

 apart, thus enclosing two dead-air spaces 

 of two feet each when the doors are shut. 

 This is very essential to the maintaining 

 of perfect protection and an even tem- 

 jDerature." 



"What about ventilation?" 



"This is a matter I am not wholly cer- 

 tain about. I have wintered bees with 

 abundant ventilation provided through 

 what is known as sub-earth ventilators, 

 which take the air from 100 to 200 feet 

 away from the cellar, and carry it under 

 ground at a depth of two or more feet, 

 so that it becomes the same terajjerature 

 as the cellar by the time it enters it. I 

 have also wintered bees without any pro- 

 vision being made for air, keeping the cel- 

 lar as close as possible, and secured fully 

 as good results as I did when I had the 

 ventilation." 



[We know that Mr. Doolittle has had 

 good success with his cellar; but nearly 

 every other beekeeper has secured far better 

 results with abundant ventilation. — Ed.] 



