962 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



have scarcely changed except that he at- 

 taches more importance to ventilation, dry- 

 ness, and uniform temperature— or rather, 

 perhaps, to put it more correctly, he is more 

 convinced than ever that these are essential 

 factors in good wintering. 



THE SECRETS OF SUCCESS FOR INDOOR WIN- 

 ING. 



We went over to the repository where had 

 been done such excellent work. Here was 

 a building 12X50 feet, the walls 14 inches 

 thick, packed with sawdust, I think. It 

 was divided off into three compartments, as 

 shown by the diagram sketched below. As 



L 



J. 



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the seasons had been so poor of late he had 

 reduced the number of his colonies so that 

 he was wintering all his bees in one com- 

 partment on the south end. I said he scarce- 

 ly changed his method; but still he has 

 changed it slightly, and this is in regard to 

 ventilation. He puts 100 or more colonies 

 in one of the end rooms. The middle room 

 and the other end room are left without 

 bees. He found at times it was detrimental 

 to give fresh air to bees directly from out- 

 doors. Ordinarily the air in the other two 

 rooms, when the door of the bee-room is 

 opened, is sufficient to freshen up the air 

 where the bees are. There are times, how- 

 ever, when he lets fresh air into the two 

 outer rooms; then when it warms up to the 

 temperature of the repository he lets it into 

 the bee-room. 



The amount of ventilation given depends 

 largely on the time of the year, more being 

 given in late winter and early spring than 

 in the fall or mid-winter. In the old way 

 he used to have the bees divided in the two 

 end rooms, letting the air come into the mid- 

 dle compartment, and from there dispers- 

 ing into the other two rooms; but by putting 

 all the bees in one place he is able to take 

 in a larger amount of iresh air, letting it 

 equalize with the temperature of the build- 

 ing; then it is given to the bees so that it 

 does not greatly disturb them. The cellar 

 has a cement bottom; and as the repository 

 is entirely above ground it is always dry in- 

 side, or practically so. Whiie he has a small 

 stove in the middle compartment, he does 

 not use it now as he formerly did, to warm 

 up the air in very cold weather. He puts 

 enough bees into the end room so the tem- 

 perature does not drop to a point where it 

 will do any harm. 



When Mr. Boardman was asked whether 

 an underground room or cellar might not 

 have a more uniform temperature, he ad- 

 mitted that it might; but dryness, so essen- 

 tial, would thus be sacrificed to some ex- 

 tent. He did not know why bees should not 

 have just as pure and dry an atmosphere as 

 human beings or any other warm-blooded 

 animal. For that'reason he prefers a build- 



ing above ground. His hives are piled up 

 one above another, five inches apart, as 

 explained in our A B C of Bee Culture, with- 

 out bottoms, in such a way that the top 

 hive will stand on the two hives below. 



Mr. Boardman volunteered the informa- 

 tion that the conditions that we had in our 

 machine-shop cellar, by which fresh air was 

 admitted from an outer and larger room 

 with dry floors into the inner bee-room, was 

 ideal. When I asked him why we lost so 

 heavily at our outyard bee-cellars, he ex- 

 plained that we probably had dampness and 

 variation of temperature, which was true. 

 He thought those two factors were sufficient 

 to account for the loss. Eliminate the 

 dampness and control the temperature with 

 a reasonable amount of ventilation, and the 

 loss should be no heavier at our outyard cel- 

 lars than in the one under the machine-shop. 

 And I would say in this connection that our 

 machine-shop cellar is practically all above 

 ground except one end that is partly sub- 

 merged. In conclusion, Mr. Boardman ex- 

 pressed himself most decidedly that dryness, 

 fresh air that has been equalized to the tem- 

 perature of the building, and reasonably uni- 

 form temperature, were factors in good 

 wintering. Any cellar reeking with damp- 

 ness, or with standing water, or any place 

 that is unfit for the accommodation of hu- 

 man beings, is an unfit place for bees. So 

 much for the cellar-wintering problem. 



THE BOARDMAN SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR. 



While Mr. Boardman is a past master in 

 the wintering art, he is scarcely less an 

 authority on a good many other subjects re- 

 lating to bees. He is the inventor of the 

 large Boardman solar wax-extractor, a ma- 

 chine of which he makes a great deal of use 

 in melting up combs, evaporating honey, etc. 

 I told our friend I was afraid he was losing 

 a good deal of good wax in his slumgum, 

 which, he stated, made excellent material 

 for starting fires. I have sent him a wax- 

 press, requesting him to put some of the 

 slumgum through it. Later he will give the 

 result of his experiments. But we have not 

 been able to do any thing like a clean job 

 with the solar alone. It will handle all 

 kinds of scraps of combs, cappings, and the 

 like, in which there are no cocoons from 

 brood-rearing. But our slumgum from 

 brood-combs from the solar wax-extractor 

 has usually contained a large per cent of 

 wax. 



Many years ago our friend tested baby 

 nuclei, and made a success of them, so that 

 we may almost consider him the pioneer in 

 this. 



BOARDMAN ON OUTDOOR FEEDING. 



Our conversation drifted to outdoor feed- 

 ing. Here, again, he had had large experi- 

 ence covering many years. Where one 

 knows the source of his combs, and feels 

 sure they are free from foul brood and other 

 diseases, and desires to have them cleaned 

 up, he felt sure there was no better way 

 than to expose them right outdoors where 

 bees can get at them. He showed me nails 



