104 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



with, the cluster. The warmed air in 

 and immediately about the cluster 

 rises, spreads out against the mat or 

 cover, chills, settles and tlows out the 

 entrance as naturally as water. This 

 natural current is accelerated by a 

 part of the air being charged with 

 carbonic acid gas, which is heavier 

 than pure air of same temperature. A 

 small entrance restricts this flow, but 

 in a single-walled hive the current is 

 quicker than in a chaff hive. IIoav- 

 ever, the single-walled hive is not, in 

 the average winters of this latitude, 

 an economical one in which to keep 

 the bees. It is too thin, affords too 

 little protection against long continued 

 cold, and, though it warms through 

 quickly when the sun shines on it, it 

 almost as quickly cools off afterwards. 

 The chaff goes to the other extreme; 

 it chills through slowly, but no one 

 day's sunshine will warm its walls. 

 With a wide entrance affording plen- 

 ty of fresh air the bees in either of 

 these extremes can better resist the 

 adverse conditions. 



CHEAP, EFFICIENT PROTECTION FOR A 

 SINGLE-WAI,!, HIVE. 



I believe, however, that there is a 

 middle gi'ound where we can secure 

 better results than with either type of 

 hive above alluded to. It is with a 

 single-walled hive covered with a 

 Avind and waterproof wrapping of 

 black. I find that such a hive warms 

 through rapidly when exposed to the 

 sun and retains the heat thus acquir- 

 ed for a long time. For two winters' 

 I have had many colonies so protected 

 and in every case they have done as 

 well or lietter than colonies in chaff 

 hives but in every instance they have 

 had an entrance 15 inches wide. 



Whether or not such protection will 

 prove sufficient for colder climateS re- 

 mains to be seen. With any kind of 

 a hive it is important that the bees 



can without efllort get all the oxygen 

 needed, and it is equally important 

 that the ventilation be downward, not 

 upward. 



rrovidence, R. I.. March 2.5, 1903. 



MOW TO PREVENT BOTH 

 SWARMING AND I N" 

 CREASE. 

 BY L. STACHEI.HAUSEN. 



The production of comb honey in 

 out-apiaries has some difficulties. Tlie 

 first question is, how to manage 

 swarming V At present our best bee- 

 keepers think a small brood-chamber 

 (9 Gallup or 8 Langstroth frames) 

 necessary for comb-honey production; 

 and bj' the time the main honey-flow 

 commences, this brood-nest must be 

 full of brood, and kept so, as much as 

 possible, during the honey-flow, thus 

 forcing all the honey into the sec- 

 tions. Probably this is the best plan 

 as yet known, but it has some disad- 

 vantage,".. 



First, much handling of brood- 

 frames is necessary in the spring (Doo- 

 little), while with a large brood-nest 

 we could get larger colonies without 

 any handling of frames. Second, 

 these small colonies will swarm soon- 

 er or later, thus making it necessary 

 to hire a watchman for every out- 

 ni)jnry. 



Therefore we need a plan, which 

 prevents all natural swarming. Many 

 l>ee-keepers have worked on this prob- 

 lem; but, as far as I know, with little 

 success. If I am not mistaken, it \vas 

 Doolittle who offered to pay a sum of 

 money for a safe plan to prevent 

 swarming; and he expects such a plan 

 may be invented by somebody about 

 1925. 



Some bee-koepers do the next best 

 and swarm their colonies artificially, 



