108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



TEMPERATURE OF SUB-EARTH VEN- 

 TILATORS. 



SOME INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. 



J HAVE just been makiug some observations on 

 the temperature of my cellar, sub-earth s'en- 

 tilator, etc., and will give you the result. 

 Yesterday morning' the thermometer stood 

 ]-i° below zero; and as this was just the tem- 

 perature outside when C. C. Miller made his tests, 

 it gave me a chance to get at comparative tempera- 

 tures, and 1 found my cellar and ventilator just 

 tallied with his; viz., 42° for the cellar, 43° for the 

 air coming in at the sub -earth ventilator. The 

 other end of the ventilator was covered with snow 

 when these tests were made. I wonder if Mr. Mil- 

 ler's was. To-day, in order to know just how much 

 the temperature of the air was raised in passing 

 through under the ground to the cellar, I cleared 

 away the snow at the outside end and put a ther- 

 mometer in and found it stood 8° above zero, while 

 the general atmosphere was only 4° above, although 

 the bulb of the thermometer was not over 10 inches 

 from the outside. Can it be there is a circulation 

 both ways in an underground ventilator? This 

 would seem to show it, although the inward draft 

 in the cellar is quite sti-ong— so strong that a match 

 burns with difficulty when held in it. Nc.Yt I again 

 tried the cellar end of the ventilator, and found it 

 stood at 44°, or an increase of 40° degrees over out- 

 side temperature. My ventilator, which also serves 

 as a drain, is 80 ft. long and about 8 ft. deep at the 

 cellar end, and comes to the surface at the other 

 end. The opening is made by laying small stones 

 on each' side at the bottom of the ditch, so as to 

 leave a space between, and then a Hat stone to 

 bridge them over and hold up the dirt. The size of 

 the opening varies, but I think it nowhere less than 

 ;iX4 inches. 



I consider ventilation of cellars for bees of pilme 

 importance, not so much on account of the purify- 

 ing of the air, as affecting temperature. It is true, 

 that we can keep the temperature up well enough 

 without ventilators; but, can we keep it f?o«'?i 

 equally well? Perhaps this might be done with ice; 

 but not every bee-keeper has ice, and I am one of 

 the number who do not believe in a temperature of 

 much ojer 45° for bees; and if I could have my 

 way abgut it, I would have it go no lower than 40° 

 nor higher than .50°. How a temperature of 60° can 

 be kept up in this latitude, without artificial means, 

 is more than I can see. Mr. Barber thinks he is 

 master of the wintering problem under his high- 

 temperature plan, because he has saved an average 

 of 80;. I have a record of my losses for .5 years, 

 and thej^average is a trifle over lO'^, . I do not think 

 that the advocates of high temperature can claim 

 nil success for their plan, and 1 think the idea is 

 fraught with much danger to the novice and inex- 

 perienced, 



THE TE.MPERATURE OF A WEI-I. AND A SWARM OF 

 BEES IN WINTER. 



I have also tested the temperature of my well, 

 which is 123 ft. deep, and find the water, when coming 

 direct from the bottom, is .50°. Do you not suppose 

 that the temperature of water in wells will vary 

 more than the temperature of the earth? To test 

 the.heat of a cluster of bees, I pushed the bulb of a 

 common dairy thermometer right down among 

 the bees, put back the quilt, left them until they 

 were quiet, and drew it out. It showed 88", while 



the lower end of the cluster hunf 

 air, which was 42°. 

 Ithaca, "Wis., Jan. 12, 18e6. 



right out in the 

 C. A. Hatch. 



AN arched STONE CELT.AR, AND THE EFFECT OF 

 A I.AROE DRAIN UPON IT 1.50 YARDS I.ONO. 



Permit me to give you an account of a little e.\- 

 periment, made with reference to the temperature 

 of the earth, etc. I have a cellar, the bottom of 

 which is 12 feet below the surface of the earth. It 

 is covered by an arch of stonework 18 inches thick, 

 with a basement and dwelling-house above it of 

 stone. It is connected with the outside air by 4 

 flues running from the top of the arch up through 

 and above the top of the liouse, flues 8 inches 

 square. The cellar has a drain from the bottom, 

 running 1.50 yards to the lake, from 12 feet below 



j the surface at the cellar, to 4 feet below, where it 



! comes out at the lake. The outlet is two 2-ineh tile, 

 but the drain is much larger inside in some places, 

 being of stone. 



.Tan. 8, thermometer outdoors 14° early in the 

 forenoon, and at 20° when I made the e.vpcriment. 

 Temperature of cellar, 45°, si.x feet above the flooi-. 

 The wind was coming in at the entrance of the 

 drain sufficiently strong to blow out a candle, and it 

 felt colder than the cellar. I placed the thermome- 

 ter in the entrance, and was surprised to find it jyo 

 up to 50°. As the air entered the drain at 20°, and 

 was warmed up in its rapid passage to the cellar to 

 .50°, I conclude that the earth at the depth above 

 mentioned must have a temperature greater than 

 .50° here on Pelee Island, Canada. 



Jan. 12, thermometer early in the forenoon, zero; 

 at noon, 12° outdoors; 42° in cellar, and 48° in en- 

 trance to drain. The cellar is at a low temperature, 



I on account of the Hues being open all the time. 



I Thaddehs Smith. 



I Pelee Island, Ont., Can., Jan. 1.5, md. 



6.5^ outside and 40° INSIDE. 



lam quite interested in the temperature of the 

 earth in different places. In my new bee-cellar, 

 which is si.x feet deep between floors, the ther- 

 mometer stands at 40° when it is at 6i° outside; and 

 when it goes to 10° below zero outside it goes to nfi° 

 above in the cellar, with the sub earth ventilator 

 open. This ventilator is made so that the entrance 

 for the air is four inches square. It is but 20 ft. 

 long, and is about five feet under ground, nearly all 

 the length of the ventilator. Do you think that 40° 

 is warm enough, or would it be Itest to use artificial 

 heat to make it warmer? The bees are quiet, and 

 seem to be doing well. Wm. L. Kino. 



Sodus, Mich., Jan. .5, 1886. 



llepoiis seem to indicate, as you will no- 

 tice, that the temperature of the earth varies 

 considerably, even though the depth be about 

 the same. The jSlammoth Cave is probably 

 at the highest extreme, but the depth may, 

 of course, have something to do with it. I 

 believe, however, we can depend upon get- 

 ting a temperature of between 40 and -30 

 degrees at any season of the year by going 

 down, say, 10 or 15 feet. Am I not right V 

 Landreth, in his catalogue, says that the 

 best temperature for a greenhouse for let- 

 tuce, radishes, etc., is between 40 and 50 

 degrees; and, if I am correct, the general 

 experience of those who winter bees in cel- 

 lars seems to be in favor of about the same 

 temperature. Some think 55 degrees will do 



