ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 91 

 VENTILATING OUR BEE-CELLARS. 



There are but few things connected with the wintering of our bees 

 that elicit such a difference of opinion as the ventilating of our bee- 

 cellars. While it Is true that bees have been and are frequently win- 

 tered In cellars that have little or no ventilation, It is also true that, 

 in these, we usually find the combs badly molded, honey thin and watery, 

 and the bees somewhat affected with dysentery, and far from a healthy 

 condition when taken out. Certainly it is contrary to natural law to 

 confine our bees under ground five months or more, compelling them to 

 breathe the same air over and over thousands of times, and then expect 

 them to remain in a healthy condition so as to stand the ever change- 

 able weather of our spring season. 



In constructing our building we had several objects in view. First, 

 and one of the most important, was to give the cellar proper ventilation; 

 next, to give us a large room above to do our extracting in, and store 

 our surplus hives of extracting-combs and many other things connected 

 with the business. Then we wanted a tank-room where we could have 

 our honey-tanks so arranged that, in a moment, we could turn the honey 

 directly from the extractor into either tank; then we wanted a shop 

 where we could make hives and do all kinds of odd jobs, such as mak- 

 ing beeswax into comb foundation, grafting larvse for queen-cells, which 

 should always be done in a warm room, and, lastly, plenty of room to 

 store a large crop of honey in until sold. 



First, I will describe the building, which is 24 feet wide and 56 

 feet long. The longest way is north and south. The cellar occupies 

 24x40 feet of the ground floor at the north end; then the tank-room 

 occupies 16x24 feet of the south end, and its floor is on the same level 

 with the cellar floor. This room has four doors in it — one wide door 

 opening into the south end of the cellar; also one wide outside door in 

 the south end of the building where we roll out the barrels of honey 

 into the wagon when we ship. Then we have a door on each side of 

 this room, which comes very handy to carry bees in and out of the 

 cellar from the lower part of the bee-yard by putting screens on these 

 two doors; and by leaving them open we get a fine current of air through 

 the tank-room, which has much to do with ripening and thickening the 

 honey. The cellar also has an outside door at the northeast corner, 

 where the greater number of colonies are carried in and out. The shop 

 part is on the upper floor, which is level with the floor of the extracting- 

 room, and is 16x24 feet. 



This extracting-room or store-room is 24x40 feet; and directly over 

 the cellar in the floor of it we have four trap-doors about 10 feet apart. 

 In size 2x2% feet, directly over the bees. These we can easily open 

 to any size of hole from a little crack to the whole space, 2x2% feet, 

 which allows all impure air to pass off into the large room above. We 

 can also put a quilt in the place of the large door at the south end of 

 the cellar, which gives fine ventilation into the tank-room and up the 

 stairway into the shop, and up a garret. We have two pipe-holes in 

 the chimney, one of which Is always open, and makes a strong current 

 of all foul air out of the building. This steady and gradual ventilation 

 of the cellar into these two large rooms, one at the end and the other 

 directly over the cellar, keeps the air as fresh and healthy where the 

 bees are as it is outdoors. 



With this way of ventilating the cellar it is never necessary to 

 open any outside doors, letting in cool fresh air, which will arouse a 

 whole cellar of bees to the extent that they never again become quiet, 

 and form themselves into a nice compact cluster, as they should to go 

 through the latter part of the winter without loss. 



