566 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 5, 



Coj;)tributed /V^ticles^ 



Oh Lmjiort ant Apiarian Subjects. 



Underground Bee-Cellar — How to Make It ? 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



During, and at the end of every winter in which there is 

 long-continued cold weather, reports come in of great mor- 

 tality of bees, and as the last winter was one corresponding to 

 the above, though not so long-continued as was that of 18S2- 

 83, in which nearly 75 per cent, of all the bees in the United 

 States perished, yet there was cold of sufBcient duration to 

 cause the reports of heavy losses to come forward in sufficient 

 numbers to show that the colonies of bees in the Northern 

 States depreciated fully 25 per cent, since the previous fall, 

 among those colonies which were left to " while winter away" 

 on the summer stands. These losses cause the bee-keepers' 

 eyes to be turned toward cellar-wintering, and as I have been 

 quite successful in wintering bees in a wholly underground 

 bee-cellar, I am requested to give a description of the same in 

 the American Bee Journal. 



At the west side of my bee-yard is a small knoll into 

 which I dug a hole 24 feet long, S feet wide, and 11 feet deep 

 at the back end, and 'd)i at the front. I next dug a trench 

 all around the outside of the bottom of this hole, the same 

 being S inches deep at the southwest corner, and 20 inches at 

 the northeast corner, from which the drain went, so as to 

 make the bottom dry, if it ever should become so wet that 

 water ever came into it. This trench was filled with fine 

 stone, and on these stones was built a wall of mason work, one 

 foot thick, and six high, very much as any cellar-wall is built, 

 except as to thickness. In this way the floor or dirt bottom of 

 the cellar is always free from water, or comparatively dry, 

 although it is never so dry that dust will form. 



On the walls, pieces of timber 4 by 8 inches were placed, 

 so as to form plates for rafters, which were made of 2x8 hem- 

 lock, and placed about 18 inches apart so as to hold the great 

 weight of dirt which was to be placed over the roof. On the 

 rafters were nailed common inch hemlock boards, the joints 

 between the boards being made tight enough so that no dirt 

 would rattle through. Over these boards, or this inner roof, 

 dirt was put on so that there was no place where the earth 

 was less than three feet deep. This whole work was done in 

 a very dry time, and the dirt put on over this roof was so dry 

 that the dust would fly in shovelling it. To keep this dirt dry 

 (as frost will not penetrate dry earth nearly so deep as it will 

 damp or wet earth), another roof was placed, made of rough 

 hemlock lumber, the boards running up and down, with the 

 cracks battened, this being much larger than the inner roof, 

 so as to carry the water out beyond the dry earth some dis- 

 tance, so it would not soak back into the dry earth. 



A ventilator was placed on the rear end, having a throat 

 6x8 inches in size, and a sub-earth ventilator was provided, 

 coming in at the front end, the same being 100 feet long and 

 4 feet deep at the cellar end, by 18 inches deep at the outer 

 end, this making an average depth of about 2>o feet, so that 

 the cold outer air would be quite materially warmed in enter- 

 ing the cellar. These ventilators had gates or doors in them 

 so that the ventilation could be controlled from none at all to 

 the full capacity of each. In high cold winds I had to keep 

 all closed, or the temperature of the cellar would be caused to 

 run down to the freezing point or below, while in still, warm 

 weather there would be little if any circulation through either. 

 The regulating of these ventilators made so much work that 

 I gradually began to leave them closed, for a short time at 

 first, then longer, until one time, at the end of a month, I 

 could not see but what the bees were just as well off as they 

 were when I was spending much time in manipulating the 



gates in them. This resulted in my leaving them closed all 

 the while, and I found by doing so that the temperature in 

 the cellar did not vary two degrees in all winter, no matter 

 whether it was 30- below zero outside, or 60^ above. 



After a time I found that my hemlock roof was getting 

 rotten and must be renewed, which was done, but as this last 

 held no longer than the first (the time being only about five 

 years in either case), I decided to make this inner roof of 

 something which would last as long as I lived, so about six 

 years ago I covered it with flagstone, the same taking the 

 place of the inner roof, as this was the one which decayed so 

 often. In putting on this flagstone roof I made no provision 

 for ventilation, and during the past five winters the bees have 

 been remarkably quiet, and wintered extremely well with no 

 air entering but that which came through the flagstone roof, 

 the walls of mason work, and the wooden doors. 



The wall at the entrance was run out six feet, and only 

 wide enough to take a door frame, using a common door. In 

 this space I use three doors, so as to enclose two dead air 

 spaces when the three are shut, while at the end of the wall 

 is a little room which I call an " ante-room," this having a 

 door also ; yet with all this provision the inside of the inside 

 door is the coldest place in the whole cellar, when all are shut. 



In this cellar the bees enjoy one long, totally dark night, 

 the night lasting from about Nov. 5 to the 15th, when they 

 are put in, to April 20 to the 25th, when they are put out; 

 while during all this time the temperature keeps an even 43'J 

 to 45-3. I consider that this keeping of an even and uniform 

 temperature has very much to do with successful cellar-win- 

 tering, and had I a cellar whose temperature could not be 

 kept within the bounds of from 40° to 483, standing the most 

 of the time at from 433 to 45°, I would prefer to leave the 

 bees on the summer stands in chaff-packed hives. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Bee-Keeping in Southern California. 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



In the first place, one should locate his apiary in a shel- 

 tered locality. To illustrate: 



The apiary that I managed two seasons in Ventura county 

 was located on rather a high point of land, slanting to the 

 east. The west side of the apiary was fully exposed to the 

 prevailing coast breeze. It was almost impossible to get a 

 young queen fertilized and back into her hive, and a large 

 proportion of the working force was unable to make headway 

 against the wind and get to their hives. The consequence 

 was, the east side of the apiary was always strong with bees, 

 and produced the largest amount of the honey. I could ex- 

 tract from the east side of tener than from the west. The api- 

 ary could have been located but a short distance west, on 

 lower ground, and where they would have been protected 

 from the prevailing wind by large live-oak trees, and it would 

 have been a great sight more satisfactory to me. The first 

 season a young man had his bees all on the west side, and the 

 consequence was he lost some 30 or over of his young queens, 

 and I have no doubt that at times I got a large share of his 

 working force. 



The second season I put all my increase on the west side, 

 and lost nearly every young queen. The young man moved 

 his bees to a new locality. 



Many of our California bee-keepers pay but very little 

 attention to their bees — only at extracting-time, and then they 

 take out all the honey they can get, and leave them the bal- 

 ance of the year to work out their own salvation. But there 

 is a vast difference between that kind of bee-keeping and the 

 man who keeps his bees in the right condition, and gives them 

 all the necessary care and attention. To illustrate : 



Mr. Andrew Joplin started in this season with 150 colo- 



