DADAXT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 101 



in the cellar and occasionally also at an outapiary. We dis- 

 continued it because, in our latitude, there are too many win- 

 ters when a number of warm days make it undesirable to have 

 the bees in confinement. We are just a little too far south for 

 regularly successful cellar wintering. If we could foresee the 

 weather, we would put them in the cellar for the cold winters 

 and keep them out-of-doors during the mild ones. 



Our House Cellar 



In 1875, we built a house in which a hot-air furnace was 

 placed. We separated a space, measuring 12x22 feet, from the 

 main cellar, with a double-wall partition. The parts of this 

 room that had the outer wall exposed to the weather in winter 

 were also lined with boards and shavings on the inside, so as to 

 avoid the sudden changes of temperature. This bee-cellar, when 

 too cold, was readily warmed by opening the partition door 

 that separated it from the main cellar. In case of too much 

 heat, two windows could be opened and in fact remained open 

 most of the winter. But both the air currents and the heat were 

 easily regulated. 



In this cellar we wintered bees for some 15 winters, with 

 very good success. The failures were always due to mild weather, 

 when the sun would permit the outdoor bees to fly and our 

 cellared bees were restless. Ice was tried to cool the cellar but 

 it did not seem very practical. We finally abandoned cellar- 

 wintering altogether as unnecessary in our latitude. We have 

 seen many cellars, in locations further north, and we think the 

 hillside cellar, with a well-protected entrance, on a level with 

 the apiary, is the ideal cellar. It must be deep enough in the 

 hill to be immune to temperature changes. 



The degree of temperature that we considered the most 

 desirable in the cellar, was from 42° to 45°. Messrs E. F. Phillips 

 and Geo. S. Demuth, of the Bureau of Entomology, section of 

 beekeeping, at Washington, have made extensive experiments 

 and they hold that a temperature of nearly 50 is requisite. It 

 would be very unreasonable to differ with them, after the positive 



