THB JEMERICJtN BEE JOURNffil^. 



263 



MO^TII OF APRIL,. 



WritUn-Jor the American Bee Journal 

 BY EUGENE SECOK. 



The gentle showers 



And springing flowers 

 Proclaim the winter ended ; 



The perfumed breeze 



From Southern seas 

 With song of birds is blended. 



With active glee, 



The joyful bee 

 Plays hide-and-seek with pleasure 



'From tulip-bell, 



In search of mel, 

 She conies with dusty treasure. 



'Tis time towed 



The maples red. 

 And bees transport their kisses ; 



The willow sees, 



Those blushing trees, 

 And tempts the little misses. 



Box-elders smile. 



And oft beguile 

 The insect world to tarry ; 



Anemones 



Too, treat the bees 

 To more than they can carry. 



Thus April brings 



The truit of Spring's 

 Bright hopes and youthful ardor ; 



The birds Djabe love. 



From wren to dove. 

 And, nesting, work the harder 



At His behest 



Who gave them rest. 

 So Winter's kindly given 



To make us prize 



These sunny skies, 

 And dream once more of lieaven. 

 Forest City, Iowa. 



VENTILATORS. 



Automatic Ventilators for Use 

 in a Bee.Cave. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY C. THEILMANN. 



This is surely something new in 

 bee-literature, at least I have never 

 heard of it, or have I seen it in print. 

 It is not theory, but facts, and my 

 personal observations. 



Some time ago Mr. Doolittle said 

 that iiis bees do not need any ventila- 

 tion, while in liis cave in winter, and 

 reijuested other bee-lceepers to describe 

 their e.xperiments on the problem. As 

 I winter my bees in a cave similar to 

 one that Mr. D. has described in 

 (Heaninys, I will give my experiments 

 for the past three winters. 



I cannot refrain from expressing my 

 surprise, that there is so great a differ- 

 ence in the results of the two caves, 

 and I could hai'dly believe what Mr. D. 

 tells us (if his observing abilities did 

 not rank among the liest of our scien- 

 tific writers), namely, he had 710 venti- 

 lation in his bee-cave all wiyilcr ; though 

 there are many queer things in bee- 

 keeping we do not yet understand. 



Mr. D's cave is 26x6j feet, 7 feet 

 high to the plates, and contains 1,092 

 cubic feet ; mine is 19x10 feet, 7 feet 

 high, and contains 1,330 cubic feet ; 

 but if lie would reckon the space above 

 the plates, to the top of tlje roof, the 

 difference in room would be still 

 greater between the two caves. 



My cave-entrance has three doors, 

 and his has four ; I have one under- 

 ground ventilator (100 feet long, 4 feet 

 underground, made of 6-inch tiling), 

 and one at each gable end, 4 inches 

 inside, and 8 feet high, of boards nailed 

 together. As I understand it, Mr. D's 

 cave lias ventilators, but he has them 

 shut up during the winter ; this latter, 

 with my greater capacity of cave, and 

 that I keep from 100 to 135 colonies, 

 and Mr. D. onlj- about 50 colonies in 

 the cave, is the only difference of con- 

 sequence between our caves ; yet his 

 bees keep quiet and winter well, while 

 mine would suffocate — die, in less than 

 one week's time, from gasses, if I would 

 close the ventilators tight. 



My experiments are as follows : Two 

 years ago on Nov. 17, I put 100 colo- 

 nies into the cave, and shut up the 

 lower ventilator after the bees were all 

 quiet ; the temperature kept steadilj' 

 at 420 above zero, until the week of 

 Christmas, when a storm came on, 

 with 20° below\ I then shut up the 

 two upper ventilators ; the wind blew 

 stronger and colder for four days, and 

 it reached a temperature of 35^ below 

 in the evening of the fourth day. I 

 went (or rather tried to go) into the 

 cave, but every time I opened the in- 

 ner door, my lighted candle went out. 

 The third time I got in far enough with 

 the light to see the register of the 

 thermometer, which indicated 42^ 

 above zero by the time my light was 

 nearly out ; but thinking of gasses, I 

 held it up high, but it did no good, so 

 1 lowered it, when I was at once in the 

 dark.- How is this explained, that 

 gasses are heavy or light, low or high, 

 on the bottom or on the top ? 



The time I was in the cave while 

 the light burned, was not more than 

 about half a minute. My head com- 

 menced to "swim," and I could hardly 

 find the door, but I got out safely. 

 Some of the bees were quite noisy. 1 

 at once opened all the ventilators 

 (think of it, 35^ below zero outside ! 

 How is this for a sudden change ?) and 

 in one hour's time the gasses had es- 

 caped and the bees were quiet. I then 

 closed the lower, and partly shut the 

 upper ventilators, but watched them 

 closely afterwards. 



Last winter we had just about 

 another such a storm, when I tried the 

 same thing, but went into the cave on 

 the third day after closing the ventila- 

 tors, and found the same conditions as 

 the year before, but in a weaker de- 



gree, as the time the ventilators wei-e 

 closed was shorter ; this time I did not 

 open the lower, but opened the upper 

 ventilators, and have left them open 

 ever since, and for the past nine days 

 it has been SS-" below zero (on two 

 mornings, Jan. 15 and 16, it was 50° 

 below zero) ; in the cave it keeps 

 steadily at 45° above zero. 



Almost all experienced bee-keepers, 

 and other scientific men, would theor- 

 ize that with two 4-inch holes in a bee- 

 repository, with a temperature of 50° 

 below zero outside, it would surely 

 freeze considerably inside ; but it must 

 be remembered that the tubes are only 

 8 feet high, from the inside top of the 

 gabel end, and will create a great draft 

 in the cave, especially when the outer 

 air is much colder than the inner. But 

 here comes in my natural .automatic 

 arrangement, which is as follows : 



In moderate weather the upper ven- 

 tilators furnisli pure air enough to keep 

 the ca\-e at alxiut 42° above zero ; 

 when the weather gets colder, white 

 frost accumulates in and on top of the 

 tubes, which makes the holes smaller ; 

 at zero weather the holes close to 

 about 2 inches, and get smaller as the 

 cold increases. At 1(1° below zero, a 

 volcaiu)-like cone forms on top of the 

 tubes, througli which a steady volume 

 of steam rises four or five feet high, 

 which is (piite a curiosity to behold at 

 sunrise. 



At present (Jan. IS) there is a pyra- 

 mid of ice one foot high on top of the 

 tubes, closed solid ; but next to the 

 base of it the frost and ice is porous, 

 through which ventilation goes on, 

 and when the weather becomes warmer 

 the frost melts gradually, which reg- 

 ulates it better than 1 possibly can. I 

 have not done the least thing in regard 

 to I'egulating the ventilators, since a 

 year ago the forepart of this month, or 

 since the second attack of the gasseS 

 in the cave, and my bees seems to en- 

 joy it. By this, I feel that nature 

 would do a great de.al more for us, if 

 we would only give it a chance, and 

 direct our minds to aid it more closely. 



The lower cave-ventilator is used 

 only in the fall and spring, when it is 

 too warm in the cave ; 45° above zero 

 is as high as my bees will stand it, 

 without getting noisy. 



One thing that I do not understand 

 is, that the gasses did not raise the 

 temperature in the cave. Will Prof. 

 Cook, or any others, give us some 

 light on this ? 



1 forgot to mention that with all the 

 gasses and sudden changes of tempera- 

 ture, the bees have wintered with little 

 loss ; but I am convinced that they all 

 would die on account of the gasses, if 

 all the ventilators were closed up for 

 one week. 

 I Theilmanton, Minn. 



