THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



297 



iimtlerSini^ of Bees* 



BY G. F. SMITH. 



tl 



kAST January the Review publish- 

 ed an excellent article by Mr. C. F. 

 Smith, of Cheboygan, Michig-an, on 

 the influence of moisture and ventila- 

 tion in wintering- of bees. Quite a num- 

 ber of criticisms and queries came to 

 both Mr. Smith and the Review after the 

 appearance of the article, but Ithoug"ht 

 best not to publish any of them until 

 this fall, when they would be more 

 seasonable. Among- others, Mr. H. A. 

 Bushby, of Scandia, Kansas, wrote 

 and asked a number of questions in 

 reg-ard to the building and manag-e- 

 ment of a cellar. Mr. Smith wrote 

 him a long- letter in reply, and, before 

 sending- it to Mr. Bnshby, he sent it to 

 me that I mig-ht see it, I thought it 

 good enough to print in the Review, 

 and, as the season is now approach- 

 ing when we must begin to prepare for 

 winter, I give the letter entire. — Kd. 

 Revikw. 



Cheboygan, Mich., Feb. 14, 1904. 

 Mr. H. A. Bushby, 



Scandia, Kan. 

 Dear Sir. — Yours of the 8th reached 

 me last night. I am gi ad you wrote 

 me the questions, for the article I 

 wrote for the Review was intended for 

 advanced apiarists. If I were keeping 

 bees in your latitude (as I was once) 

 and were contemplating building a 

 cellar for bees only, there are two 

 things I would consider: 1st, does the 

 honey ever candy in the comb? 2nd, is 

 it ever so thin that it diseases the bees? 



BEE.S CONFINED .SIX MONTH.S, YET 

 HEALTHY. 



You speak of great extremes of tem- 

 perature and sudden changes, also of 

 great loss of bees and stores, caused 

 by fruitless flight, and squads of bees 



freezing solid. In a sudden change, 

 bees often get caught in outside combs 

 and become chilled. If bees pass 

 through six or seven months here on 

 the Straits of Mackinac, in a house- 

 cellar at 40 to 60 degrees, with no 

 flight, (there is often a period of six 

 months that they can't fly if they are 

 out) with no greater loss than six or 

 eight pounds of honey or .syrup, and 

 practically no bees, and keep clean, 

 healthy and quiet to the last, I see no 

 reason why the3' can't in Kansas, pro- 

 viding the honey or syrup is good. If 

 your alfalfa honey candies above the 

 bees, keep the cellar very warm (say 

 60 to 75 degrees) so warm that the bees 

 will be compelled to spread out over 

 the honey and thus keep it dry and 

 warm. For this condition, an under- 

 ground cellar, as a matter of economy 

 in heat and fuel saving, might be best. 

 But if your bees often get a lot of thin, 

 unripe and unsealed honey, I would 

 build a cellar above ground. Build an 

 inner and outer door of double thick- 

 ness with tarred paper in the center of 

 each door, and inside of inside door, 

 and pack the roof well with sawdust 

 or chafl:. 



Put in two eight-inch ventilators 

 with dampers. 



You need no floor or window. Put an 

 inch gas-pipe through the south or- 

 east wall five feet from the ground. I 

 would extract the unripe honey if prac- 

 tical, but if not, keep the temperature 

 high. Allow the great excess of mois- 

 ture to pass freely from the hives, and 

 also from the cellar. If honey will 

 ripen in September at a daily temper- 

 ature of 75 degrees, and nightly tem- 

 perature of 40 to 50 degrees, why 

 wouldn't it ripen in a cellar at a tern- 



