334 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



IMPROVING THE ATMOSPHERE OF A 

 DAMP CELLAR. 



I have made several wintering- cel- 

 lars in side hills that did g-ood service, 

 and have a cellar under my dwelling 

 at Monroe, Wisconsin, that is all 

 rig-ht. An underg-round repository 

 should be comfortable to the bees. 

 Bees are just like men in one respect; 

 they live by breathing, and they cannot 

 be contented in a damp, foul-smelling 

 atmosphere. The repository may not 

 be dry throughout, there may be water 

 on the floor or running through the 

 room, but the air must be good. A 

 dry well-protected cellar, one not sub- 

 ject to sudden changes is the best. 

 One way to help a bad cellar, suppos- 

 ing you find it too damp and mouldy 

 on paying it a visit along in the winter, 

 is to put a foot or so of clean, dry, oat 

 straw in the bottom. As to the efl'ect. 



I ask you, svipposing you were com 

 pelled to stay in that cellar a few days 

 and nights, would not tliat load of 

 straw go a long way toward making 

 3'ou comfortable ? Bees do not ask to 

 have the temperature of the room as 

 high as you would want it, but other- 

 wise the air should be as pure. The 

 straw is a good means of absorbing 

 surplus moisture and making better 

 conditions. 



A dry earth roof is also a good ab- 

 sorbent, and I regard it as the best 

 covering for a bee cellar. It will not 

 contract mould nor dry rot as saw- 

 dust will many times. Its office is to 

 absorb moisture from below and give 

 off no bad odor. 



To sum up, we want good queens, 

 plent}' of bees, and plentv of sealed 

 stores as a preparation, anil comfort- 

 able quarters for winter. 



Bridgeport, Wis., Aug. 12, 1904. 



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The American Bee Journal has 

 some neat, new department headings. 



Texas bee-keeprrs feel that it is 

 now their turn to have the next Na- 

 tional convention. 



Overstocking will ever be an 

 interesting subject of discussion. 

 E. F. At water of Idaho writes that Mr. 

 G. E. Dudley of Caldwell, Idaho, has 

 secured a fair crop of comb honey 

 from an apiary containing 400 colo- 

 nies. Mr. Atwater says that he shall 

 increase some of his apiaries to 200 or 

 250 colonies each. 



How far South are cellars used for 

 the wintering of bees ? This a ques- 

 tion that a subscriber would like to 

 have answered, and I am somewhat 

 interested myself. Will every man 



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who winters his bees in the cellar and 

 who thinks he is pretty far South, 

 please write me. 



Foul Brood is much more easily 

 controlled when comb honey is pro- 

 duced than in the production of ex- 

 tracted honey, and one of my sub- 

 scribers would like to have some one 

 tell exactly how to produce extracted 

 honey, going into all of the details, in 

 a locality where foul brood is ram- 

 pant. 



Harmony prevailed at the St. Louis 

 convention to an extent that is seldom 

 equalled and never excelled. Both in 

 and out of the sessions, not a harsh, or 

 unkind word or criticism was heard. 

 President Harris is certainly to be 

 congratulated upon the kind, thought- 



