After much discussion pro and con, Wm. 

 Mutli Kasmussen offered the following, 

 which was adopted : 



Resolved, That the bee-keepers be re- 

 quested to adopt the barrels this season. 



J. E. Pleasants stated that the bee-keep- 

 ers of the Anaheim district had adopted 

 them this season, and that freights were less 

 on lioney in barrels than in. cans. 



A. J. Davidson stated that he had taken 

 5,000 lbs. of honey. It was also stated that 

 the firm of Lincoln & Kimble, and others, 

 had taken mucli more. 



Wm. Muth Rasmussen said he had tried 

 the experiment of breaking the caps of the 

 honey cells in the brood chamber, to cause 

 the bees to build comb more rapidly in the 

 upper chamber, and found it worked well, 

 and that the bees would carry the honey 

 above. 



E. W. Sinclair exhibited a specimen of 

 honey, made from boll-sage, which was of 

 most exquisite flavor, and so transparent 

 that the honey was of little or no obstruc- 

 tion in reading a paper through the bottle. 



Mr. Chapman spoke in the most com- 

 mendable terms of comb foundation. He 

 had used $15 worth this season, and wanted 

 as much moi'e. 



As the working season is now upon us, 

 another meeting will not likely be held 

 until late in the season. The subject of a 

 display at the coming Horticultural Society 

 was taken up and discussed. Some objec- 

 tions were made in consequence of the 

 Society having packed the premiums at the 

 last fair, that too many di'ones in the hive 

 consumed the honey. It was agreed that a 

 fair deal on the part of the Horticultural 

 Society, at the next fair, would insure a 

 good display in the agricultural department. 

 No decisive action was taken, and, on 

 motion, the meeting adjourned, to meet on 

 the third Saturday in August, to convene 

 in the hall over the Grange Store, at 1 p. m. 

 N. Leveking, Sec'y. 



Ventilation. 



Read before the N.E. Bee-keepers^ Associ- 

 ation at Rome, N. Y., Feb. 187(5, and 

 published by request of the Society. 



Industry, skill, and economy, will secure 

 a competence in almost any legitimate 

 pursuit. Without these three essentials, 

 business becomes a mere lottery, with 

 many more blanks than prizes ; and 

 althougli the prize of success may occasion- 

 ally be obtained, it adds nothing to the 

 credit of the obtainer. 



Formerly, bee-keeping was supposed to 

 be a highly favored pursuit, success 

 depending not ui)on the amount of labor 

 and skill employed, but upon.the possession 

 of a mysterious something, called luck.— 

 Happily, wiser counsels have prevailed 

 until, at the present time, our leading apia- 

 rists are united in the assertion " That the 

 greatest enemy of the bee is the ignorance 

 of man." Nowiiere do we see the truth of 

 this statement more conspicuously shown 

 than in that much discussed branch of our 

 business, wintering ; and were we, to-day, 

 to examine in detail the many theories 



advanced, and the equally numerous prac- 

 tices founded upon them, we should be 

 compelled to accept the conclusion that 

 luck more often than wit is still to have the 

 credit of success. 



As. a discussion of the whole subject of 

 wintering would require too much time and 

 space, I will confine my thoughts princi- 

 pally to ventilation while in Tvinter 

 quarters ; (a subject upon which no two 

 authorities agree), and in order to be con- 

 sistent, I shall have to disagree, to a very 

 large extent, with the many that have 

 preceded me. At the outset, we shall have 

 to satisfy all that bees require the accession 

 of fresh air to maintain life and health, a 

 proposition that common sense would 

 answer by an emphatic yes, but to which 

 many bee-keepers give as equally an em- 

 phatic no, and bring forward many illustra- 

 tions to prove the truthfulness of their 

 theory. 



Gen. Adair, in an elaborate paper on 

 ventilation, mentions having had a honey 

 box, the air-space of which was half filled 

 with living bees. After proving, to his own 

 satisfaction that it was air-tight, by blowing 

 into it, as a cooper does into a barrel, he 

 covered the entrance with waxed paper and 

 set it away for a couple of days. He then 

 examined it and found that the bees did not 

 seem in the least inconvenienced by their 

 confinement. 



Prof. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, reports that one of his most pros- 

 perous colonies, in the spring, was one that 

 had the entrance to the hive completely 

 filled with ice for nearly the entire winter. 

 But more important than either of these 

 experiments is the well known fact that 

 bees have been buried for months under 

 ground, with no provision for ventilation, 

 and with the surrace of the ground frozen 

 solid during the whole time. Are any more 

 facts needed to prove that ventilation is 

 unnecessary ? We might subscribe to this, 

 did we not know that bees require food at 

 all times, and that from 1 to 3 fts. of honey 

 per month is consumed by each colony, 

 while in winter quarters. Chemistry tells 

 us that the consumption of this amount of 

 food requires the introduction of a larger 

 amount of atmospheric air. It also tells us 

 that the combustion of 3 lbs. of honey, 

 within the body of the bee, produces 2^ 

 lbs. of watery vapor, and nearly 24 cubic 

 ft, of carbonic acid gas. The free atmosphere 

 contains but 3 or 4 parts of carbonic acid in 

 ten thousand, and the best European 

 authorities are united in asserting that for 

 the respiration of man, it should never 

 contain more than ten parts in ten thous- 

 and. Marker and Schultze, of Germany, in 

 their researches on the natural ventilation 

 of stables, have found that for domestic 

 animals the proportion may safely run three 

 times as high, or 30 parts in 10,000. 



On the supposition that bees need an 

 atmosphere no more pure than this, we find 

 the consumption of 3 lbs. of honey requires 

 the passage through the hive of not less 

 than 8,000 cubic ft. of air. As tlie brood 

 department of our hives usually contains 

 less than a cubic foot of free air : this neces- 

 sitates the complete removal of this air, at 

 least, 8,000 times. 



