THE AMEBICAK BEE JOUBNAL. 



129 



house somewhat more costly, but nevertheless a 

 good one for the purpose. A honey board with 

 the proper ventilation is just as good as his 

 straw mat; but as he uses the Kidder hive, he 

 has the mats and of course uses them. Mr. J. 

 C. Wedge, of Fon-du-lac city, Wisconsin, a 

 practical and well posted apiarian, uses a house 

 14 feet by 20, with double board -walls and a 

 foot space between each rilled with strawdust, 

 with perfect satisfaction. Mr. Chas. Dadant, 

 of Hamilton, Ills., gives us his method of bury- 

 ing bees, and, with his method of ventilating 

 the trench, there is no doubt but it will work 

 well. His method of ventilating is the true 

 method of ventilating a wet cellar, or a cellar 

 or cave dug into the side of a hill and covered 

 with dirt. If you put oue tube or pipe in the 

 top it is no ventilation at all; or if you put two 

 in, both of the same length, it amounts to just 

 the same. But put one in and let it just come 

 up through the covering of the roof and extend 

 down to within an inch or two of the bottom of 

 the cave or cellar; then put in another, letting 

 it go down just through the covering, and ex- 

 tend five or six feet above the covering or roof, 

 like a chimney, and you have the very best of 

 ventilation without a strong current of air. The 

 fresh air goes down through the lower tube, and 

 the foul or heated air goes out through the up- 

 per one, slowly and surely, no matter from 

 what point of the compass the wind blows. 



I understand that Bidwell Bros., of St. Paul, 

 Minnesota, practice burying their bees as soon 

 as they are clone gathering honey. Their 

 method of burying I do uot know. A common 

 house cellar is an excellent place, but the most 

 of them are kept too warm. If all those places 

 mentioned above can be kept at an even temper- 

 ature, just above the freezing point, with each 

 swarm ventilated just right to suit the size of 

 the swarm, they will answer well. A large 

 swarm must be ventilated sufficient to keep 

 them perfectly quiet. See vol. 3, page 192, for 

 my method of ventilating. Then, in handling 

 stocks in the fall and again in the spring, you 

 cannot, without actual weighing, discover that 

 the bees have consumed any honey whatever ; 

 but we cannot say that of any method of winter- 

 ing on their summer stands. So the conclusion 

 that we have come to is this, that the saving of 

 honey, and the absolute certainty of wintering, 

 pays all the trouble and expense incurred. 



I am aware that some say that a cellar or 

 cave dug into a bank, burying, &c, is bad policy, 

 Of this class is a correspondent at Red Wing, Min- 

 nesota. Mr. T. B. Miner, in his American Bee- 

 keepers' 1 Manual, published in 1854, condemns 

 the cellar for wintering bees. By the way, this 

 man said, on page 175 of said book, "I think 

 the reader will, on wading through these pages, 

 when he comes to 'finis,' exclaim, 'enough, 

 enough! I want no more.'" Well, if he" is 

 still alive, aud stopped where he left off in that 

 book, he knows precious little about bee-keep- 

 ing. About thirty-five years ago I failed in 

 wintering in the cellar, but the fault was not in 

 the cellar, it was in not knowing how to do it. 

 The conclusion is that if anybody fails, although 

 the cellar may be quite damp, it is from want of 

 the requisite knowledge. 



Mr. J. II. Thomas, of Brooklin, Canada, in 

 his Canadian Bee-keepers' Guide, on page 46, 

 gives a description of his bee-house for winter- 

 ing in. He says that a house five feet wide, 

 ten feet long, and six feet high, is large enough 

 to hold thirty of his hives, and allow a passage 

 between, &c. His plan is to have double walls 

 filled in with tan, sawdust, or fine straw. By 

 the way, in my list of bee-books I galloped over 

 his without auy mention. The price is twenty- 

 five cents. It is worth the money any time to 

 auy new beginner. 



A strong large swarm, with abundance of 

 honey and properly ventilated, will winter well 

 on its summer stand ; but it is almost impossi- 

 ble to give written instructions to new begin- 

 ners that will winter every swarm, without as 

 much trouble in fixing up as it will cost to fix 

 some of the special repositories above-men- 

 tioned. Our winters are so variable that the 

 same method that will work well in one winter 

 would not answer the next on the summer 

 stand. With an especial repository we have 

 the winter under our control, and wintering re- 

 duced to an absolute certainty with proper ven- 

 tilation. We must remember that a large num- 

 ber of swarms create a large amount of animal 

 heat, and a small number create heat in propor- 

 tion. So in ventilating we must take this, into 

 consideration and govern ourselves accord- 

 ingly. 



About that wire gauze. If you fasten in your 

 bees with fine gauze and one bee takes a notion 

 that he wants to go out, he commences butting 

 his head against the wire, and very soon com- 

 municates his agitation to others of the swarm, 

 and they lose some of their number every time. 

 Now, instead of the gauze, ventilate each hive 

 just right, and you will not lose a dozen bees 

 per swarm in the whole winter. If you are 

 troubled with or afraid of mice or rats, use 

 coarse wire that a bee can pass through easily, 

 and still keep out the mice. I winter in the 

 cellar, and yet ventilate each swarm so that I 

 can go all around with a light and not a bee 

 stirs or attempts to come out. If a large swarm 

 is not peaceable, give more ventilation. If 

 from a small swarm some of the bees come out 

 and discharge every time you go into the cellar 

 with a light, the inference is that there is too 

 much ventilation. E. Gallup. 



Osage, Iowa. 



ii ^ 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Color of Bees. 



Mr. Editor : — My experience with the Ital- 

 ian bees leads me to the belief that the color of 

 the black bees is transmitted to the Italian race 

 by them as nurses. I am so confident of the 

 fact that I am willing to sacrifice my reputation 

 as a bee-keeper that it is so, 



Lockport, N. Y. J. L. Culver. 



Many people have so strong a dread of bees 

 that no assurance of safety can prevail on them 

 to act familiarly with these insects. Indeed there 

 seems to be a hidden quality in some men which 

 renders them disagreeable to the bees. — Wild- 

 mar. 



