THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



649 



the blue-grass was dry aud brown, I 

 noticed the bunches of red clover 

 among it growing luxuriantly. As 

 these insects are absolutely necessary 

 for the production of red clover seed, 

 they should receive better treatment 

 from agriculturists thau heretofore, 

 as it is a common practice to send out 

 a man or boy, at certain seasons of 

 the year, to destroy every nest that 

 can be found, for fear they may sting 

 the horses while fall plowing. 



This may be necesssary on land 

 that is to be plowed in the fall, but 

 where their nests are located in 

 meadows, they could be shut in as 

 easily as to destroy them, and let out 

 after the crop is secured. The nest 

 could be marked in the meadows, and 

 the grass cut away, and after sun- 

 down, when the bees had all entered, 

 the holes could be securely closed, and 

 kept so until the hay was secured, 

 and then opened. 



I'eoria,© Ills. 



vx>r tne American Bee Journal. 



Water-Tiilit Hiyes, etc. 



A. C. TYKRBL. 



I make hives water-tight and dura- 

 ble by giving them two good coats of 

 white paint (three are better), spread- 

 ing the last coat on thicker than the 

 first, and while the paint is still fresh, 

 sprinkle thickly with sand ; what is 

 not absorbed by the paint will rattle 

 off. Sand adds but a trifle to the 

 weight of the hive ; the extra labor is 

 not worth speaking about, and then 

 the hive is practically indestructable, 

 and presents a fine appearance— an 

 ornament to any apiary or lawn. 

 Try it. 



PREVENTION OF MOTHS. 



A good receipt for cooking a hare is 

 to catch it first, they say, aud the bet- 

 ter way to keep moths from honey- 

 comb is to catch the millers, or do it 

 by proxy. 



The most effectual method that I 

 employ, is to allow a flock of Pekin 

 ducks free access to the apiary. They 

 forage during moonlight nights— the 

 only variety, I believe, that prowl 

 about after dark. I have never had a 

 moth in my hives. 



VENTILATING BEE-CELLAKS. 



I am enlarging my bee-cellar, and I 

 wish to know how to ventilate it to 

 the best advantage, and at the same 

 time exclude the frost. The cellar is 

 under the house directly over the 

 dining room, and a pipe from the cel- 

 lar to the outside of the house would 

 be an unsightly object. 1. How would 

 it do to run a pipe through the floor, 

 connecting it with the stove-pipe in 

 the dining room ? 2. Is it absolutely 

 necessary to keep the temperature of 

 a bee-cellar 40'^ or 45^ '? Some say 50°. 



Last fall I took extra pains to make 

 my cellar tight and warm, and the 

 mercury did not register 45^ during 

 the winter, but the bees were very 

 restless all winter, and the number of 

 dead bees in the spring was much 

 greater than the previous year, the 



thermometer registering about 28° 

 during the winter months. 



If the temperature in a cellar on the 

 outside of the hives is say 30°, inside 

 among the bees it must register 80^ or 

 higher, if the colony is strong. In the 

 spring of 188o, a swarm of Italians 

 absconded and took up there quarters 

 in a hollow cottonwood tree, where 

 they have wintered ever since, in a 

 bleak, exposed place. The thermome- 

 ter has not once registered 60° during 

 the winter, and still they live and 

 flourish. 



Madison, 5 Nebr. 



[1. That is quite often done, and 

 works satisfactorily. 



2. Yes ; it is best to keep the tem- 

 perature at from 40° to 45° Fahr.— 

 Ed.] 



Gleanings. 



Cellar vs. Ont-Door Wintering. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



It is a pleasure indeed to discuss 

 apicultural problems with such a man 

 as O. O. Poppleton— one who can lay 

 aside prejudices, and calmly and fairly 

 try to And truth I am glad to note 

 with what unanimity most of the bee- 

 papers and their contributors are 

 dropping personalities — discussing 

 principles instead of men. 



In regard to caring for bees in the 

 cellar, there may be a grain of truth 

 in what Mr. Poppleton says. If a 

 man wishes to leave his bees uncared 

 for all winter, and go off to the " land 

 of flowers," it may be better to pro- 

 tect them thoroughly upon the sum- 

 mer stands. Most of our bee-keepers, 

 however, stay at home in the winter, 

 and to them this question of supervi- 

 sion is not a weight one. Take my 

 own case, for instance. My bees were 

 kept in acellarunderthesitting-room, 

 hence there was no expense for a fire 

 on account of the bees, or else there 

 was no expense for a fire to keep our- 

 selves warm. I presume the majority 

 of bee-keepers are situated in exactly 

 this manner. And now about the 

 supervision in regard to temperature : 



We ripped apart, for a short dis- 

 tance, two breadths of the carpet, 

 bored a hole in the floor, and sus- 

 pended a thermometer by means of a 

 string attached to a cork that just 

 filled the hole in the floor. A rug was 

 kept over the slit in the carpet. Our 

 little girls kept watch of the tempera- 

 ture. It seemed to afford them con- 

 siderable pleasure to have each one 

 guess what the " tempuchafy " (as the 

 youngest one called it) was, and then 

 look and see who had guessed the 

 nearest. The " tempuchary " varied 

 from 40° to 48° ; most of the time it 

 was 45°. When we had extremely 

 cold weather, accompanied by high 

 winds, the mercury would sink to 40°. 

 Upon several occasions I kept a lamp- 

 stove burning all night in the hatch- 

 way, and burned, perhaps, between 

 one and two gallons of oil. Had there 

 been a double door to the hatchway, 

 I do not thiuk this burning of lamps 

 would have been necessary. The 



mercury reached 48° during warm 

 days upon the approach of spring. 

 Nearly all cellars need a drain, and it 

 is just about as easy to make the 

 drain so that it can be used for a sub- 

 earth ventilator as not. My own 

 cellar-drain is so arranged ; but I have 

 not allowed the air to pass in through 

 the drain for the last two winters. 

 Dovouask why V Well, I had my 

 doubts as to its benefits ; and, besides 

 this, it lowered the temperature. Had 

 the pipe been longer it might not 

 have done so ; it is only about seventy 

 feet. 



I had 20 colonies buried in a clamp 

 last winter. They were put in about 

 the middle of November. A wooden 

 tube 3 inches square, and about 8 feet 

 long, extended from near the bottom 

 of the clamp up through the covering 

 of earth, aud projected 4 or 5 feet 

 above the surface. At the bottom of 

 this tube was kept a thermometer, 

 whence it could easily be drawn by 

 means of a string. When the bees 

 were first put up, the temperature in 

 the clamp was 47°. It gradually sank, 

 and in a week had reached 45°. Here 

 it remained until steady cold weather 

 came on, when it again gradually fell 

 until it reached 42°, where it remained 

 unchanged for nearly four months. 

 When the warm days of April came 

 it gradually rose to 45°, at which 

 point it'was when the bees were re- 

 moved. Now, the bees in this clamp 

 wintered splendidly, and there were 

 no fires and no supervision, and the 

 conditions were the same as though 

 they had been wintering in an out- 

 door cellar. 



I am aware that some bee-keepers 

 use a fire to warm their bee-cellars, 

 and, with some cellars, this may be 

 necessary ; but with an underground 

 cellar that receives a steady supply of 

 heat from the earth, fires are wholly 

 unnecessary ; and all the supervision 

 that is needed does not amount to 

 any thing practically, so far as cost is 

 concerned— at least, not to the man 

 who lives at home in the winter. 



Mr. P. speaks of the "wear and 

 tear " of putting bees in the cellar, 

 and taking them out again. I fail to 

 see where there is any "wear and 

 tear." He further says, a cellar will 

 not last always, and must be repaired. 

 This is true of some cellars. A cellar 

 stoned up, and under a building, such 

 a one as Mr. Taylor's or Mr. Hed- 

 don's, will require no repairs for a 

 lifetime. Mr. Root speaks of the cost 

 of preparing the cellar for wintering 

 bees ; that the windows must be dark- 

 ened ; sub-earth ventilation furnished, 

 etc. Candidly, do you, or does any- 

 body know that all these things are 

 needed V Do we know that a cellar 

 must be dark V and if we do know it, 

 is it expensive to darken the cellar ¥ 

 Where is the man who knows that 

 sub-earth ventilation, or any ventila- 

 tion for a bee-cellar is needed V Mr. 

 P. says there are two " ifs " in the 

 quotation from Prof. Cook ; and then 

 in the next sentence he (Poppleton) 

 says, " Chaff hives are safe in severe 

 winters if " (there it is again) " they 

 are properly constructed and hand- 

 led;" but the really weak point is 

 this part of the argument is found in 



