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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



[This article was written late last spring; 

 but as it was then a little out of season we 

 have held it as we have held other articles 

 on wintering. 



We saw Mr. Phillips a few days ago, and he 

 reported that this colony, while he was away 

 on his vacation, gathered $5.00 worth of hon- 

 ey, and that the colony Prof. Chamberlain had 

 in his room gathered 75 lbs. of tine comb hon- 

 ey while his other live colonies, wintered 

 outdoors, barely survived the shock of last 

 winter, and gathered absolutely nothing. 



Perhaps thirty years ago A. I. Root tried 

 a similar experiment on a larger scale by 

 putting a stove in a house-apiary; but he now 

 says he did not keep up a coiitimwus fire; 

 that the building was not frost-proof. Well, 

 the wintering was not of the best. It is 

 probable that the occasional fire stirred up 

 the bees — possibly stai'ted brood-rearing. 

 Mr. Phillips emphasizes the importance of a 

 regular heat at somewhere living-room tem- 

 perature. 



A few years ago a bee-keeper in Michigan 

 reported that a colony he had in his house 

 with an entrance to the outside wintered per- 

 fectly, and he secured a big yield from that 

 colony. We desire to inquire whether there 

 are others who have tried the experiment 

 described by Mr. Phillips. 



By the way, he reports that the consump- 

 tion of stores was not large, and that the 

 bees seem to be dormant— almost in a state 

 of sleep, except when it warmed up, when 

 they took a flight. — Ed.] 



BEECELLARS. 



Can the Atmosphere be Too Dry ? The Re- 

 lation between the Size of the Entrance 

 and the Condition of the Atmosphere. 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 



Nothing else in the last January 1st num- 

 ber of Gleanings impressed me so sti'ongly 

 as what Mr. Alexander had to say on p. 27 

 about a cellar that was too dry for the good 

 of the bees. If some person of less experience 

 and mental capacity than Mr. Alexander had 

 offered that experience we should be inclined 

 to think that some error had crept in some- 

 how. As it is, we assume that Mr. Alexan- 

 der gave the phenomenon careful and dis- 

 criminating study, and that he rightly elim- 

 inated every thing but dryness as a possible 

 cause for the uneasiness of the bees in that 

 dry cellar. 



Indeed, the fact that the bees rushed for 

 water as soon as they had opportunity shows 

 that something was wrong; and this fact, 

 coming as a supplement to the statement that 

 the honey left in the hives was gummy lends 

 strong credence to all Mr. Alexander's rea- 

 soning. These two facts of observation are 

 the only ones with which we are furnished 

 whereby we can judge the case for ourselves, 

 and decide that the cellar was too dry. And, 

 even with these, something tells me that the 

 cellar was simply too dry for the hives as 



they were left, but not too dry for them as 

 they might have been left. 



It is surely a revelation to most of us that 

 a cellar, in the natural course of things, can 

 be too dry, though an artificially too dry cel- 

 lar might be easily possible. But recogniz- 

 ing the possibility of such a thing as a cellar 

 naturally too dry, it now remains to ask our- 

 selves how much the fact is worth. Surely, 

 against this one instance of a cellar too dry, 

 we can easily name many of cellars too wet. 

 Against this one instance of bees wintering 

 poorly in a dry cellar we can place hundreds 

 of cases of poor wintering in a wet cellar; 

 and, therefore, we are forced to conclude 

 that in most cases, and for the majority of 

 us, a di'y cellar is the best place for our Lees, 

 and is a friend rather than a foe. 



My own cellar is extremely dry in winter 

 — so dry that lumber seasons beautifully in 

 it; so dry that vegetables and- fruits become 

 desiccated and shriveled beyond use unless 

 protected from the cellar atmosphere. In 

 spring the atmosphere changes so as to be- 

 come sufliciently humid to keep sections in 

 good condition to fold without wetting. In 

 winter the air is so well ventilated by the 

 draft of the steam-heater, though no window 

 nor door nor ventilator is open, that bees 

 falling to the floor become dry and brittle. 



Last fall I placed in this cellar six colonies 

 which I had in single-walled hives, and which 

 I did not care to protect for outside winter- 

 ing. They were placed some twenty feet 

 away from the heater, in a dark corner, with 

 entrances turned to the wall. When taken 

 out late in March they were in excellent con- 

 dition — bees healthy and combs clean. Two 

 of these colonies were furnished with an en- 

 trance only 3 inches long by § inch deep, and 

 not one of them had an entrance nearly as 

 ample as I furnish the colonies left outside. 



Now, I feel almost certain that, if the cel- 

 lar had been damp, those bees would have 

 suffered from dampness in the hive, and been 

 restless from overloaded abdomens long be- 

 fore March. The momentous question is, 

 what would they have suffered if the bottom- 

 boards had been removed and the combs ex- 

 posed to the free circulation of the cellar at- 

 mosphere? Whatever be the possible facts, 

 we can see here the desirability of knowing 

 something definite about the humidity of our 

 cellars and of governing the ventilation of 

 the hive interior accordingly. In the case of 

 a damp cellar we had better leave bottoms 

 off or give ample entrance. In the case of a 

 dry cellar we had better curtail the entrance. 



That bees manufacture water in digesting 

 or burning honey is beyond question. That 

 this water is sufiicient to enable the bees to 

 dissolve gummy honey, sugar candy, etc., is 

 also beyond question. That if the atmos- 

 phere robs the bodies of the bees of this wa- 

 ter more rapidly than it is replaced through 

 the burning of honey, bees must suffer, and 

 perhaps starve, I concede. I have myself 

 seen them starve in a dry cellar on sugar 

 candy, leaving the candy as hard and dry as 

 a brick. 



Allow me to state the results which I had 



