92 ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 



We were surprised last spring to see how few bees wasted away 

 while they were confined In the cellar. The average loss was less than 

 % pint to the colony, and that with a confinement of over five months. 

 Every additional year's experience In wintering a large number of col- 

 onies convinces me more and more of the vital importance of giving 

 them a pure healthy atmosphere during these long northern winters. 



I often think that, if those who have gone to much expense 

 building bee-cellars, and putting in ventilating-pipes conveying the air 

 directly from outdoors in among their bees had only realized how much 

 better it would have been to have had this air first tempered, as it 

 were, by being a short time in an adjoining room, they would soon have 

 changed their ideas In regard to ventilation. But here is the rock that 

 shattered their faith In ventilation. When they saw this current of 

 ever changing temperature from outside kept their bees restless and 

 uneasy they went to the other extreme and closed up all ventilators in 

 disgust, and have ever since been prejudiced against ventilating their 

 bee-cellars. 



This is one of the questions we bee-keepers have studied on for 

 many years; and it does seem strange that it took us so long to see 

 the great difference in results when our bees were ventilated by giving 

 them fresh air directly from the outside or from adjoining rooms. Th6 

 first has almost invariably done far more harm than good, while the 

 second has given us the very best results we could possibly ask for, 

 keeping our bees quiet and contented clear into the spring, so that it 

 is not necessary to disturb them until the flowers are again ready for 

 them to work on. I sometimes think how much easier it would be it 

 we could look ahead and shun these hard problems of life; but then it 

 is much better as it is, for it is through their study that our perse- 

 verance is developed, and in this way we are ever passing to a higher 

 and a more intellectual plane. 



With the continually changing weather of last winter it would have 

 been almost impossible for us to prevent a very heavy loss of bees had 

 we depended on opening outside doors to ventilate or cool off our cellar; 

 for every time this is done it excites and disturbs every colony. 



There are many things to take into consideration in order to winter 

 our bees successfully. Many neglect putting their bees in proper con- 

 dition as they should, early in the fall. I think this should be done 

 before Oct. 1. Every colony should have a good queen not over fifteen 

 months old; also a good sized colony of bees with at least 20 pounds 

 of honey. "This amount is sufHcient if they are wintered in a good cellar, 

 and you expect to do some feeding in the spring to stimulate early 

 breeding, which is very essential in order to secure a surplus of early 

 honey. But if you don't expect to feed any in the spring, then 30 pounds 

 or more is better to carry them through to another season. 



In the above I forgot to say that, during the winter, we close the 

 Inside blinds of all the windows in the room above the cellar, and the 

 tank-room at the end. This makes these two rooms as dark as mid- 

 night, and with the trap-doors partially open, and the doorway into the 

 tank-room covered with a light quilt, there is an even temperature of 

 pure air at all times in the cellar, which keeps the bees as quiet as 

 death, and with them it is like one long unchanging night from the 

 day they are put away until they are carried out in the spring. 



In conclusion, let me advise you by all means, when you build your 

 bee-cellar, not to stop until you have a good substantial building over 

 it — one that will extend either past the end or side of the cellar suffi- 

 cient to hold a few thousand cubic feet of fresh air; then ventilate the 

 cellar into these rooms, and you will have the whole wintering problem 

 solved. January, 1907. 



