1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



19 



We are having good stiflF winter weather ; 

 and if it should continue long it would be 

 rather hard on outdoor bees. 



The steady increase in our subscription-list 

 is seen by an equal increase in our advertising. 

 This is as it should be. 



Dooi^iTTLE has a seasonable and valuable 

 article in this issue for one who is just trying 

 his luck at wintering indoors. To know when 

 bees are wintering well in the cellar in spite 

 of appearances to the contrary, is important. 



Section-presses and foundation-fasteners, 

 either singly or combined, are getting to be 

 very numerous. Many are good, and just now 

 we are trying to decide which ones, from the 

 point of economy and efficiency, are best. 



Mr. Leahy, of the Leahy Mfg. Co., of 

 Higginsville, Mo., writes that he has just com- 

 pleted arrangements with James Heddon, of 

 Dowagiac, Mich., for the manufacture of his 

 divisible-brood-chamber hive. Those interest- 

 ed can obtain these goods of Mr. Leahy or of 

 Mr. Heddon. 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. 



During the coming year more space will be 

 given to answers to questions ; but those who 

 send in all such must not expect immediate 

 replies, nor that the same will be published in 

 the " very next issue." The questions should 

 be separate from matter intended for the busi- 

 ness department, written in good clear hand, 

 and numbered. Those that are not of sufficient 

 importance to the general reading public will 

 be answered privately. Indeed, we answer 

 scores of letters almost every day that have no 

 reference to business, but are simply designed 

 to help out beginners. 



REQUISITES FOR INDOOR WINTERING : TEM- 

 PERATURE; WARMTH OF MOTHER earth; 

 FOOD ; VENTILATION ; SUB-EARTH 

 VENTII^ATORS DISCARDED. 



In the November Revieiv appears quite an 

 extended article from the editor, on bee-cel- 

 lars and their construction. After referring to 

 the fact that the majority of bee keepers in 

 northern climates have found that indoor win- 

 tering gave better results than the outdoor, 

 and that it is cheaper to gather a lot of hives 

 together under one general protection than 

 surrounding each individual colony by some 

 material that is a poor conductor of heat, he 

 goes on to say that a cellar of itself does not 

 create warmth; but by being close to Mother 

 Earth it derives heat from that source, and 

 that an up-ground building can be made a suc- 

 cess only when a large number of colonies can 

 be placed in it; because the bees themselves 

 will then be able to generate considerable heat. 



He then states the gist of the matter in the 

 following sentences : 



This whole question of cellar wintering is one of 

 temperature. Don't understand me as saying that 

 temperature is the only thing to be considered in the 

 matter of successful wintering, as there are several 

 others ; among which is that most important of all — 

 food. What I mean is that ventilation and moisture 

 have but little bearing only asthey affect temperature. 

 In a dry atmosphere bees can endure a much lower 

 temperature than they can in a damp atmosphere. 



It is well known that outdoor colonies will 

 stand a greater range of temperature than 

 those confined in the cellar; and the only rea- 

 son I see why this can be true is because the 

 outside air, when it is very cold, will of neces- 

 sity be very dry; that is to say, the outside 

 temperature of frozen air, even down to zero, 

 with a dry atmosphere, will probably be no 

 more destructive to bee-life than the inside 

 temperature in the cellar, where there is a 

 large amount of moisture, down to the point 

 of 35 or 40 degrees Fahr. 



Say as much as we like, cold is the principal 

 agent that causes dj sentery. Bees never stain 

 their hives up in warm weather ; and an api- 

 ary badly attacked with dysentery will be cur- 

 ed just as soon as warm weather sets in; but 

 when we admit that cold is the prime cause of 

 dysentery we must also admit that moisture, 

 an excess of it, has a good deal to do with the 

 matter; but an excess of dampness alone, if 

 the temperature can be controlled at the right 

 point, will not cause winter losses. 



REQUISITES FOR INDOOR WINTERING. 



We have had reports of how bees wintered 

 successfully in cellars reeking with dampness, 

 with water on the cellar bottom. Indeed, al- 

 most every good bee-cellar has more or less 

 moisture arising from the breath of the bees 

 that collects on the stone walls or on the stone 

 roof if there is one. And, again, bees have 

 wintered very successfully with windows clos- 

 ed tight with scarcely an inlet for fresh air. 



There was a time when sub-earth ventilators 

 were considered quite necessary to the success- 

 ful working of a good bee-cellar; and for the 

 benefit of our new subscribers I will explain 

 these were nothing more nor less than wooden 

 pipes about a foot square, or tile or sewer-pipe, 

 running under ground for a distance of 100 or 

 200 feet, one end of which communicated 

 with the outside air, and the other end with 

 the cellar. The theory of a sub-earth venti- 

 lator was very plausible. The outside air at a 

 zero temperature, it was argued, would enter 

 the duct, where it would be warmed in its pass- 

 age under ground to the cellar, up to about 40 

 or 45 degrees, which, on entering the cellar, 

 would not chill the bees like the cold air di- 

 rectly from outdoors in the usual way. 



Notwithstanding the fact that a good many 

 sub-earth ventilators were made twelve or fif- 

 teen years ago, we hear very little about them 

 now ; and yet bees winter better nowadays 

 than they did formerly when their owners 

 thought they knew all that was possible 

 about bees. They did not realize the force of 

 Josh Billings' question, "What's the use of 

 uoin' so much when so much you no ain't 

 so? " 



But sub-earth ventilation, when intelligent- 



