OCTOBKK, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



759 



WINTERING IN WESTERN IOWA 



How Beekeepers in the Vicinity of 

 Sioux City are Wintering in Caves 

 or dugouts with oAlmost no Loss 



By E. R. Root 



IN our issue 

 for July, I 

 d e s e r i bed 

 beekeeping con- 

 ditions in and 

 a. b o u t Sioux 

 City, Iowa, par- 

 ticularly with 

 reference to the 

 growth of sweet clover. In the present 

 article I desire to refer particularly to the 

 dugouts or caves that are used for winter- 

 ing bees in this, locality. 



The soil in this part of tlie country is 

 very deep and firm. One can dig down 

 ten, twenty, or thirty feet almost anywhere 

 and the banks will remain intact year in and 

 year out — that is to say, one can dig a 

 trench or a bee-cellar almost anywhere in 

 this soil, making the sides straight and per- 

 pendicular without the necessity of putting 

 in a retaining wall to suj^port the clay. 

 This peculiarity of soil conditions in this 

 localit}- enables one to build bee-cellars for 

 a very moderate sum. 



Mr. E. G. Brown, of the Western Honey 

 Producers, uses a number of these cellars, 

 and he estimates his cost of bee-cellars, 12 

 X 16 X 6 feet high, inside in the clear, is only 

 about $25.00. This includes all material 

 and labor. At this figure he can not, he 

 says, atford to use outside winter cases, and 

 it is doubtful whether anything in the form 

 of outside protection would stand the ex- 

 treme drop in temperature that is experi- 

 enced in this locality, where the mercury 

 goes down to 40 or 50 degrees below zero, 

 and remains so for davs at a time. 



Mr. Brown 

 has been using 

 these dug - out 

 cellars with clay 

 l)ottom and clay 

 walls for a num- 

 ber of years, 

 and the loss has 

 been confined 

 down to around 1 per cent, not exceeding 

 2 per cent at most. In Figs. 1 and 2 are 

 two of his cellars, one at the Glen yard 

 and the other at the Belfrage yard. Both 

 of these cellars are 12 x 16 x 6 feet inside 

 measurement. 



Mr. Brown digs a square hole 12 x 16, 4 

 feet deep. In each of the corners he sets a 

 post that i^rojects above the surface of 

 the ground about 2i/2 feet more. Boards 

 are nailed on the outside of the jDOsts, leav- 

 ing a tight board fence from 2 to 21/2 feet 

 deep around the scjuare 'hole, to catch the 

 dirt as it is thrown out and to avoid re- 

 handling the dirt. He proceeds to build the 

 cellars as follows : With a post-hole digger 

 he puts down four holes into the ground 

 12 feet apart at the sides, and 6 feet apart 

 on each end. Four fence-posts are put in- 

 to these holes that are just deep enough 

 to leave the posts projecting above the 

 surface of the ground 21/3 feet, as already 

 mentioned. Rough boards are then nailed 

 around the outside of the posts, leaving a 

 solid fence 2 to 2^,^ feet high. After this, 

 Avith a pickax and a spade he digs out 

 the ground to a depth of three or four feet, 

 depending somewhat upon the land of 

 drainage that he has, and general soil con- 



Fia;. 1. — Brown's dugout wiutcr-repositoi-y without retaining walls, at a net cost of $25.00. 



