146 BEE CULTURE. 
drawing off the heat and permitting the escape of noxious 
gases generated by the bees. It will be observed the flues 
or dampers connected with the outer or circulating air 
chamber can be opened or closed at will, to regulate the 
temperature in the outer space, and this again can be dis- 
charged in the main room by means of flues piercing through 
and independent of the dead air or second space. The floor 
and ceiling are each double, air-tight, and connected with the 
dead-air space. The outer or front door is a double battened 
door, with an inner or sash door. A house of this kind, 
12x18 feet, will accommodate about 300 colonies. 
Mr. F. W. Comings gives the following description of a 
house which passed the ordeal of the winter of 1880-81 with 
the loss of but two, which succumbed from starvation: ‘The 
house is 12x18 feet, and studding ten feet. There being no 
cellar under it, we dug a trench about two feet deep, and laid 
a heavy stone wall init. The sills were 6x14 inches. We 
then put up a set of 2x5 inch studs, and double-boarded the 
outside and sided up the inside, filling the wall with sawdust. 
Then put up a set of 1x2 inch studs against this wall and 
sided up; then another set of 2x5 inch studs and sided with 
matched spruce, filling the second wall with sawdust. Thus 
we have two five-inch stuffed walls, and an inch dead-air 
space between them. Overhead we put ten inches of sawdust, 
and studded the floor, using four inches for that. We use 
three doors in one end, in winter, making two dead-air 
spaces. Have ample ventilations in roof and floor.” 
WINTERING BEES IN CLAMPS, 
Mr. M. Quinby favored wintering bees by burying, which 
is practiced by many at the present day. The mode 1s to dig 
a trench in a hillside or ground with sufficient slope to insure 
drainage. ‘This is partly filled in with straw, on which the 
hives are placed; boards are slanted up in front; wooden 
tubes placed in position to ventilate the pit, straw thrown on 
the hives, over which boards are laid lengthwise, and dirt 
piled over all to turn off the water. 
