312 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



it has a garden or an orchard. If the ex- 

 periments are all performed at one place 

 they are mutually helpful. ■ If the apiarist 

 wishes to decide some delicate chemical 

 point, an expert chemist with his apparatus 

 is right on hand. If it is a question in mi- 

 croscopy, line instruments and expert opera- 

 tors are near by. In this sense I agree with 

 the Prof, that it is a mistake to move the 

 apiary away from the College, but we who 

 were working to have bee-keeping recognized 

 at the Station were led to believe that $1,000 

 yearly (what it would cost to secure the ser- 

 vices of a competent apiarist at the College) 

 could not be spared just at present, while by 

 having the work done at the home of some 

 competent apiarist it could be done for half 

 the money, which could be spared. It was 

 a question of half a loaf or none. I do not 

 understand that it has been definitely deci- 

 ded that the apiary will never be taken back 

 to the College. But so far as bee-keepers 

 are to be benefitted by experimental apicul- 

 ture, there is one point that overshadows all 

 others, and that is the man who does the 

 work. I was well satisfied that Michigan 

 had made a wise choice, but I must confess 

 that Mr. Taylor is doing better work than I 

 expected of even him. — Ed.] 



Why Ventilation Plays Such an Important 

 Part it the Wintering of Bees. 



B. O. AIKIN. 



To the puzzles thick and thin 

 Look a little deeper in. 



JN our last, we 

 left you with 

 the testimony of 

 four of Colorado's 

 foul brood inspec- 

 tors favoring top 

 ventilation. There 

 was also present, 

 at our annual State 

 convention last 

 January, Mr. W. 

 L. Porter, one of 

 Colorado's leading 

 apiarists. After hearing the testimony in 

 favor of upward ventilation, he decided to 

 look into the matter. .Just at this time the 



weather became quite pleasant, and Mr. 

 Porter and a neighbor went out to see about 

 the ventilation question. Mr. Porter's bees 

 were supposed to be uuder sealed covers in 

 the form of enameled quilts. The bees had, 

 however, made many holes in the quilts. 

 The result of their search was to find every 

 colony with big holes in the quilts dry and 

 nice, while those that had good quilts sealed 

 down, were damp and in the poorest con- 

 dition. 



This spring we purchased bees from a lady 

 who had a few good hives, but most of her 

 bees were in boxes and old traps of hives. 

 Some of the boxes were not over seven inches 

 deep, and ten or twelve wide by sixteen to 

 twenty long. Many of these boxes were so 

 open that the bees had ceased to work from 

 the lower or regular entrance (which was in 

 many cases clogged with bees and dirt, as the 

 hives sat right on the ground in the grass 

 and weeds) and were flying from cracks and 

 crevices about the top. Some had openings 

 from a mere crack to an inch, almost the 

 entire length of the box. Yet the bees had 

 wintered equally as well, if not better, than 

 those beside them in the hives. One thin,' 

 was in favor of the good hives, most of those 

 in boxes were new, being last year's swarms, 

 and some short of stores, while the good- 

 hives colonies had plenty of stores, and 

 young queens. Now these boxes and all 

 were right out in open ground, except that 

 grass and weeds had grown up all about 

 them. 



The situation will be better understood 

 when you remember that this is a dry cli- 

 mate. The ground is bare and often dusty 

 most of the winter, so you will see that these 

 colonies re eived much heat through direct 

 rays of the sun, and the heat radiating from 

 the ground. 



Last winter we had bees out-doors entirely 

 unprotected, and with supposed sealed cov- 

 ers. One lot of seventeen colonies was in 

 a little deep valley in the foot-hills. The 

 first cover over them was a plain thin board 

 cleated, with bee space between it and the 

 top bars of frames ; above this was a regular 

 rimmed outer cover, same as illustrated in 

 the K. D. hive in both the Review and Glean- 

 ings some time ago. This gives about one 

 and one-half inches space between the cov- 

 ers. The inner cover become wet to some 

 extent and warped so as to give a little top 

 vent. Right behind the hives on the north 

 and northwest was a big rock and hill. The 



