226 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



want it. That is because the cluster has 

 better means of preserving heat than has a 

 sine^le human body. 



Fire in stoves or furnaces in rooms ad- 

 joining the bee-cellar seems in many in- 

 stances to have had a good effect. Mr. Wm. 

 Prisk, of Mineral Point, Wis., reports very' 

 successful wintering. His cellar is one of' 

 four rooms under his dwelling. It is the 

 northeast room, and entirely under ground. 

 One of the outer rooms is used as a shop, 

 and has a stove in it to supply heat in win- 

 ter. He winters without loss, and there are 

 very few dead bees on the cellar floor at the 

 close of winter. I do not think such results 

 would have been possible without artificial 

 heat in the adjoining room, which purified 

 and dried the air. A man at Bloomington, 

 Wis., not far from here, wintered 20 colo- 

 n es perfectly last winter, shut in the hives 

 wit,h screen. They were placed in the cel- 

 lar under his dwelling, in which there was a 

 furnace for heating the upper rooms. I 

 would not shut bees in the hives that way, 

 but he reported very few dead bees in the 

 hives. 



In 1904 when our' apiary here consisted 

 of only 75 colonies I helped carry them down 

 a steep hill and place them in the cellar un- 



der the house. It was very hard work, and 

 I promised myself it should never be repeat- 

 ed, but that a new cellar should be built be- 

 fore another winter, and built right in the 

 yard among the hives. This was done, for 

 we had to move several hives in order to dig 

 ^the pit. I had the cellar all planned in my 

 ^mind before a blow was struck; then the 

 digging was done during the season when 

 some one had to be in the apiary, so the ex- 

 pense of that part was small. 



The room was designed to hold 100 to 150 

 colonies in eight-frame hives. It is located 

 in the hillside, and we took out of the pit 

 enough good limestone to build the walls, 

 and had some left for wings to support the 

 bank. 



While we were digging there were some 

 very heavy rains, but not a drop of water 

 would stand in the pit — showing that the 

 drainage through the limestone bottom is 

 good, and, of course, there is no necessity 

 of putting in any special drains. 



If the bottom had been clay instead of 

 limestone I think I should have made drains 

 leading out from underneath the floor. In 

 these 1 would have placed porous tile sur- 

 rounded with broken stone. 

 The main room is 9x16 feet inside, and 7 



HARRY LATHROP'S STuNE BEE-CELLAR IN THE SIDE-HILL. 



