228 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURN"AL. 



[For the Americau Bee Jnnrnal ] 



WinterinG: Bees. 



Will any of your many experienced corres- 



iioudents favor us with an article on buryinir 

 )ees in a trench, for the benefit of myself :ind 

 other inexperienced bee-keepers — how they 

 ventilate, and with what success ? I see by 

 reading your Journal that the cellar seems to 

 be preferred ; but all have not got a cellar 

 suital)le for keeping a large stock of bees. 



Last winter I buried my whole stock in a 

 trench, with ventilation alike in all. Some 

 stocks were strong, others were weak young 

 ones. The strong stocks were placed at one 

 end of the trench, which was protected from 

 the winds, and was cousequently the warmest 

 part. The weak stocks were more exposed, 

 but wintered the best. In one of my best 

 stocks I neglected to arrange the ventilation 

 tube. Consequently it was nearly shut out 

 from air, or an accession of fresh air. This 

 spring the bees of that stock were nearly all 

 dead, only about a quart remaining ; Avhich 

 were badly off with dysent ry. I concluded 

 the cause was want of air. Mr. Adair's article 

 in the April number ot the Bee Jotjunal puts 

 me in doubt. Will Mr. Adair explain ? 



E. Shulze. 

 Brownsville, Iowa. 



"Wintering Bees. 



A number ofyears ago, I accidentally discover- 

 ed that a bee hive under cover, where rain or 

 snow could not fall on it, might stand with the 

 lid or cover off, entirely open, through the cold- 

 est weather, and no frost or wet would accumu- 

 late in the hive. Having made this accidental 

 discovery, I concluded next winter to put it in 

 practice. I had a narrow shed, j ust long enough 

 to hold eighteen hives, the ends and one side 

 were already boarded up. I boarded up the 

 other side, leaving a door to go in at ; made it 

 it as tight as I could with common rough 

 boards: still there would be some cracks 

 through whicli the light peeped in. I took the 

 covers off all the ,hives, they stood there all the 

 Avinter perfectly dry, not a particle of wet or 

 frost was to be seen about them, but some of 

 the bees would get out at the cracks on bright 

 days, and were lost, because they could not find 

 the way back again. Very early in March they 

 became so restless and so many would get out, 

 that I was compelled to put the covers on, to 

 open the front of the shed and let them go. I 

 thought, then, that if I had something to put 

 over the hive that would keep it dark, and yet 

 let the damp vapor pass off freely into the open 

 air, I should have just the thing that was want- 

 ing, but it cost me several years of study and 

 experiment to make that discovery. 



W. Y. Singleton. 



Springfield, III. 



JI^~Queens may attain the age of five or six 

 years. But usually they die in the third or 

 fourth year. 



[For the American Bee Journal ] 



Want of Air, and Upward Veatilation. 



Facts are consistent with truth, and so far 

 as we understand the truth we can explain the 

 facts. 



IVIr. Adair says bees live without air. But 

 oxigeu and carbon sustain animal boat essential 

 to life, and when the animal is hot a much 

 greater amount of oxigen is needed; witness 

 the panting of a dog after a race. The bees 

 which Mr. Adair says had plentj^ of air, were 

 probably smothered. If bees cannot get out 

 where they see light, they becomi alurmi^d, and 

 crowding there prevent the admission of air, 

 while the struggling thousands behind them 

 perish. Bees may worry to death against a 

 window, or the glass side of a cap. It is not a 

 natural position, and puts their inbtinct at fault. 

 They obey the law of their natui'e. Tlie bees 

 which Mr. Adair says lived without air, were 

 few in number, a part having made their es- 

 cape. The hive contained some air; and tho 

 light being excluded, the bees were quiet and 

 needed little air. But I must be allowed to 

 doubt their being in air-tight confinement. 



The remarks of Bruckish, (Patent Office Re- 

 port, 1860, page 270), are strange. Only two 

 hives, probably covered with boards, contain- 

 ing a large air chamber outside the hives, 

 buried also in dry earth through which oxigen 

 penetrates freely, seeds germinating six inches 

 deep — thus i)laccd, the bees would have plenty 

 of air. But fine swarms outdo^jr-i, witli ny-holo? 

 only at bottom, are sijiothered every winter, in 

 the first severe cold snap; for then they must 

 have more air to generate more heat. But lae 

 bees below, driven up by coid, pack closely and 

 exclude the little air they have. If Mr. Adair 

 will hold a feather at the fly-hole of a hive bc- 

 tbre swarming, he will find there is a strong 

 circulation of air. 



Mr. Grimm states that in the warm cellar his 

 bees wanted water, and did not get the dysen- 

 tery. This was because they were warm 

 enough to perfpirc freely, not using much hon- 

 ey and air to generate heat, they did not gene- 

 rate much water. If the outer air had been be- 

 low 45°, they would be quiet, if the tops were 

 tight. In a cold cellar, with nine ho'es in the 

 honey board to let off the moisture, the bees 

 raised brood, and he thinks without water. 

 As bees increase most in wet seasons, and 

 Bruckish says they stop breeding in time of 

 drouth in Texas (Patent Office Report, 18G0, 

 page 275), and Dzicrzon says they must have 

 water (Bee Journal, 1881, page 143), and the 

 the young bee is mostly water, I will try to ex- 

 plain hew they get it. As the heat passes off 

 nearly as fast as generated, the outer or surface 

 bees are cold, (see remarks on temperature. 

 Patent Office Report, IBGO, page 90), and form 

 a compact crust. Consuming great quantities 

 of honey and air to generate heat, they are full 

 of water, and could only avoid the dysentery 

 b}' sweating freely in the centre of the cluster, 

 where they are warm enough ; while the tem- 

 I)eralure beneath the crust is low enough to 

 condense vapor, for dew falls in a warm sum- 



