11 
these things are secured at the expense of making the temperature of the cellar too 
cold and changeable. The trouble with such a system of ventilation is that, contrary 
to the furnace, which regulates itself automatically, it acts least when most wanted 
and most when least required. In cold weather when warm, moist air is needed, cold 
dry air is drawn in strongly through the smallest opening, while in mild weather 
when cool, dry air is desirable, very little air will enter through the largest opening, 
and this is comparatively warm and moist. Therefore the ventilators need to be kept 
almost closed in cold weather, and opened wide in mild weather, and thus they need 
frequent adjusting in regions where mild weather alternates with cold during the 
winter. But in a region where it stays cold through the winter, the ventilators do 
not need much attention. Indeed, such a region provides us with two ways in which 
the draught may be, in a rough measure, automatically reduced im winter and 
increased in spring. These are the reduction or even closing of the mouth of the 
cellar chimney by hoar frost from the condensed moisture from the cellar in the 
winter, and the heating of the chimney or of the building containing it (provided 
this has a chimney) by the warm sunshine in spring, because by the time the cold ~ 
weather ceases, the sun is high and powerful. 
The necessity for frequently adjusting the ventilators in a region where cold 
alternates with mild weather, especially in cellars not deep in the ground, constitutes 
a serious disadvantage to wintering in such cellars in southern Ontario and in 
southern Alberta. In southern Ontario, cellar wintering has therefore been largely 
teplaced by outside wintering, and in southern Alberta, where the temperature 
changes are very great and sudden, and the ground is dry, good results have been 
obtained at the Experimental Farm at Lethbridge, by wintering in a dug-out. 
For convenience, we have spoken of the temperature and humidity of the bee 
cellar. The temperature and humidity, however, that we need to consider are those of 
the air in the hive surrounding the bee cluster. This air may be warmed and moist- 
ened to some extent by reducing the size of the entrance. of the hive, and by placing a 
warm impervious cover over the hive. 
In taking temperatures, it is very necessary to have a reliable thermometer. 
Cheap thermometers may be quite accurate at 32°, but may be several degrees in error 
between 45° and 50°, which are the principal temperatures that we wish to record 
accurately in the bee cellar. The temperature near the ceiling of the cellar is usually 
several degrees higher than near the floor. 
If it is desired to measure the relative humidity of the bee cellar, a dry and wet 
bulb thermometer may be waved or revolved briskly in the air and the percentage of 
relative humidity may be calculated from tables based on the differences in the two 
readings. About 50 per cent relative humidity in the bee cellar is a good percentage, 
but a wide range from below 40 to over 60 per cent may also be satisfactory. Under 
certain conditions, and for a short period, as low as 30 per cent and as high as 80 
per ceat may do no harm. It must be remembered, however, that while the relative 
humidity of the main part of the cellar may be low, and it may also be comparatively 
low inside the hives in the upper tier, the relative humidity in the back corners of a 
hive in the bottom tier in a damp, cool corner of the cellar may be at saturation and 
water may stand here the whole winter and mould the combs and do considerable 
barm to the colony. ; 
Tt is the usual practice of Canadian beekeepers to keep the bee cellar temperature 
rather low, at about 42°, because it is found that a higher temperature frequently 
makes the bees restless, especially towards spring. This restlessness, however, as has 
been shown, does not originate from the high temperature but from unfavourable con- 
ditions, of which the most important is unwholesome stores. which make the bees 
restless in the higher temperature. It is quite possible, by having the bees on whole- 
some etores and bringing them into a suitable cellar before they have been exposed 
