The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-01-23

roof put over and three feet of earth put
on top of the roof. Herein he wintered
his bees successfully. thus proving the
value of such place for wintering bees.
Concerning his further proceedings in this
line Mr.. Doolittle says:
When the board became rotten I tore
all down and put in good wall of stone
and mortar, on top OF which put a good
strong roof which was covered with three
feet of dry earth, and over the whole was
a larger roof so as to keep the earth and
all under it dry. Since then the "strdng
roof" rotted out, and now have the dell
lar covered with Hagstone, SO that the
whole is permanent thing.
The first cave or cellar did not have the
outer roof; consequently the dirt was kept
wet by rains and SHOWS. / find the latter
much better, as the dry earth seems to
keepa more even temperature than did
the former.
The east-end wall is twenty-four feet
from the west, and here is the entrance
door, so that the cave IS in reality only
twenty-four feet long by six and one-half
wide by seven feet deep, inside measure.
Two feet out from the entrance door is
another door, and still two feet farther out
IS another door. and in front of this last
door is on auteroom four feet square, which
has a door To that, SO | have to open four
these doors all tit nicely, | have three
large dead air spaces through which the
cold air must pass to get into the cellar,
as is readily shown by the moisture col
Letting in drops upon it. After the bees
are put in here all is shut tight and left so
till spring after the bees are set out
Before remodeling the cellar the last
time | put in q sub-earth ventilator 100
feet long and some four Of five feet deep,
also venti.ator at the top, both of which
could be controlled at pleasure From
much manipulation of these through
term of years / finally left them shut all
the while, and as my bees did better with
them shut, and AS the temperature could
be better controlled with them shut, they
were lett out entirely in the last construct
ion, and | would not have them back
again on any account. On no one point
did | ever go with more caution or more
fear and trembling" than on this yenri-
latlon matter, so that no one need tell me
that | jumped at conclusions regarding it.
l am positive that properly constructed.
wholly underground bee cellar needs no
more ventilation than Will naturally come
through walls OF mason work and the
earth.
Mr.. Doolittle states that he would not
have the floor OF the bee cellar cemented
but he adds: There are bees diving OF
old age all the while in any colony. and
where many colonies are wintered IN any
cellar these old bees coming out on the
cellar bottom TO die, as they always do
with the above temperature, make the
bottom of the cellar very unpleasant 10
walk on. Besides the foul smell from de-
caylnS bees Is very offensive to me.
whether offensive to the bees or not. To
overcome this l evenly scatter a two
bushel bag of sawdust over the door every
month. which not only keeps down all OIL
fensive smell and prevents crushing the
dead bees on the floor. but absorbs much
of the moisture thrown off by the bees as
well. Since using the sawdust as above
can say that am perfectly satisfied with