ENTRANCES TO HIVES. 



158 



EXTRACTED HONEY. 



gain in ventilation. You can't make me 

 believe that it is not easier for the bees to 

 have one hole for the air to go out and 

 another for it to come in than to make the 

 \ air go both ways in the same hole." The 

 practical bee-keeper will soon discover for 

 himself when and how to use a plurality 

 of entrances, for much depends on the 

 climate. Evidently it does not work so 

 well with comb-honey production as it does 

 extracted; yet even this may be satisfac- 

 torily arranged. It looks now as if plural 

 entrances were a long step toward swarm 

 prevention by causing the field workers to 

 leave the brood and confine their energies to 

 storing honey in the upper chambers. See 

 Savarming. 



entrances for indoor wintering. 



Authorities differ as to the size of entrance 

 that should be used for indoor wintering. 

 Some argue that, the larger the openings, 



D 



D 



DD 



D 

 DD 



D 

 DD 



the better. A few go even so far as to urge 

 that the bottom-boards be removed entirely, 

 one hive piled upon two others, leaving an 

 opening between the two lower hives of 

 about one-third of the size of the entire bot- 

 tom of the hive. Others advise a regular 

 bottom-board, but an entrance two inches 

 deep by the full width of the hive; while 

 others recommend no larger entrance than 

 the bees have during the summer. 



The preponderance of evidence seems to 

 be in favor of the last-mentioned size. Too 

 much ventilation, even in a cellar where the 

 temperature is reasonably under control, has 

 a tendency to induce too large a consump- 

 tion of stores. Over-feeding causes dysen- 

 tery; and when that happens in a bee-cellar 

 the colony is doomed unless it can be given 

 a flight on a warm day, as recommended 

 under the head of Wintering in the latter 

 part of this work. 



Our practice has been to use the same 

 entrance that we have in the summer for 

 our indoor-wintered hives; and so long as 

 we used that size we had excellent results in 

 wintering. But one winter, for the purpose 

 of experiment, we raised each individual 

 hive off its bottom-board and inserted a rim 

 three inches deeyt and of the same outside 

 dimensions as the hive. The sides of these 

 rims were open, butcovered M'ith wire cloth. 

 The result was that we lost over 100 colonies 

 out of the 230 odd put into the cellar, and 

 the rest came out in a very weakened con- 

 dition. 



The bee is essentially a warm-blooded ani- ' 

 mal. Experience has shown that a temper- 

 ature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit in a cellar 

 gives the best results. An ordinary colony 

 with ordinary summer entrance in such cel- 

 lar temperature will be able to warm the 

 interior of its hive without too much expend- 

 iture of animal heat. When the bees are 

 too cold they will eat largely of their stores, 

 and in doing so bring on disease. 



ISUCALITFTITS. There are something '^ 

 like two hundread species of eucalypti 

 recognized in Australasia by scientific 

 botanists. Baron Mueller, who is the chief 

 authority on this genus, noted that nearly 

 all the eucalypti are honey-yielders, but 

 some are much better than others. Redgum 

 [E. rostrata) seems to be the leader, though 

 others may take the leadership when the 

 Australian bush becomes better known. 

 The most famous of the gum trees of Aus- 

 tralasia is the E. globulus, the blue gum of 

 Tasmania, and this also is a liberal producer 

 of bee nectar. For its valuable properties 

 as a first-class lumber-producer, and as an 

 anti-fever plant, it has been introduced into 

 many countries— California, Mexico, West 

 Indies, South Europe, Egypt, Chili, and 

 other countries; and as it is a fair producer 

 of honey its further propagation can be en- 

 couraged by bee-keepers. Eucalyptus gunnl 

 is also a good honey-tree, and excellent 

 for lumber. Indeed, the whole eucalypti! - 

 family may be regarded as honey-yielders.* 

 Any one desirous of gaining more informa- 

 tion relative to these extremely useful trees 

 may consult with profit Baron Mueller's 

 "Select Extra- tropical Plants for Industrial 

 Culture." It is a book well worth perusing 

 in any event by bee-keepers. Attempts 

 have been made to introduce the honey of 

 the eucalypti into England, but without 

 success. Eucalyptus honey has a peculiar 

 flavor which the English people do not like, 

 and there the matter ends. 



EXTRACTED KOrTEV. J iquid 

 honey, taken from the comb with the honey- 

 extractor, has been before the world since 

 the year 18*35, and much has been the discus- 

 sion, pro and con, in regard to its merits, 

 and its desirableness compared with comb 

 honey for table use. 



If all the extracted honey put upon th». 

 market were as good as some we have raised 

 and purchased, there would, we are sure, be 

 no trouble at all in deciding that it would 

 drive honey in the comb almost out of the 

 question. Much has been said about adul- 



