464 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July 15 



VENTILATION AT THE ENTRANCE TO PRE- 

 VENT SWARMING A MATTER 

 OF LOCALITY. 



BY ALFRED L,. HARTL. 



On page 691, Nov. 15, 1909, Dr. Miller dis- 

 cusses ventilation to ])revent swarming, and 

 the editor calls for reports. For the first few 

 seasons I gave every colony an entrance y% 

 inch by the width of the hive. I had al- 

 ways been a believer in plenty of fresh air, 

 and I certainly did not want my bees to suf- 

 fer from a lack of it; but exi)eriment and ob- 

 servation soon convinced me that so much 

 ventilation was too much of a good thing. 

 I have since concluded that y% by the width 

 of the hive is the best. I know that many 

 will say that this will cause swarming and 

 melted combs; but I tried this size of en- 

 trance side by side with a %, and the yi en- 

 trance has always given better results. I 

 would not say that the }i entrance is large 

 enough for all localities; but it certainly is 

 for this locality, for the reason that our 

 swarming season comes early in April, when 

 the weather is not yet hot and the nights 

 are cool. We are not bothered with swarm- 

 ing after the honey-flow is started in earnest, 

 provided enough super and brood room is 

 given. 



My father has kept bees as long as I can 

 remember, and he had them in coinmon 

 box hives, with a ^-inch hole bored in one 

 end for an entrance. Nearly every colony 

 always swarmed in April, because he did 

 not ])ut on supers early enough (he neglect- 

 ed his bees because of the stings) , and in 

 June the hives were always overflowing 

 with bees again during the second mesquite 

 and cotton flow; but no colony ever sent out 

 another swarm. Now, does not this show 

 that bees will not swarm on account of lack 

 of ventilation? If ventilation were neces- 

 sary to prevent swarming, these colonies 

 certainly would have swarmed, having only 

 the >^-inch round entrances. 



Our hives face south and southwest the 

 year round. We have hard south winds 

 which force the air right into the hives, and 

 I am positive that an entrance as large as 

 Dr. Miller uses would result in very little 

 surplus honey. With so large an entrance 

 there is too much space for the wind to push 

 in, and a large number of field-bees would 

 have to stay in the hive to maintain the 

 l)roi)er temperature. This would surely 

 mean a smaller honey crop. It is true that, 

 on very sultry days, some colonies will clus- 

 ter out on the fronts of the hives, especially 

 those that are crowded for super room; but 

 by providing i)lenty of supers there is never 

 very much clustering out. 



It is my opinion that a ^-inch entrance 

 would hardly be large enough in a locality 

 where the swarming season begins with the 

 main honey-flow and lasts until the flow is 

 on the decline — during the hottest time of 

 the whole year. This only goes to show 

 that there can be no one standard entrance; 

 for an entrance that is just right for one lo- 



cality is sometimes wrong for another, and 

 the only way to decide is to try the large 

 and small together and make careful note 

 of the results. 

 Elmendorf, Texas. 



THE ORANGE-TREE OF CALIFORNIA. 



Is It a Reliable Source of Nectar? 



BY J. O. SHEARMAN. 



The article by Mr. Powell, on page 709, 

 Nov. 15, 1909, seems to me rather one-sided, 

 as locality has much to do with the ques- 

 tion, even if the word is worn out. I take 

 it Mr. Powell lives near Riverside, where 

 the ocean fogs do not hang on all the fore- 

 noon, as they did here near Pomona last 

 season. And while the fog hangs on there 

 is but little honey gathered. 8o through a 

 larger part of the orange yield the bees did 

 not do much in the forenoon in this locality, 

 or at Corona, or between here and the coas't. 

 Near Riverside or San Bernardino the fogs 

 do not last so long, and sometimes do not 

 reach there at all when they do here. 



We had just four days this last season 

 w^hen the weather conditions were ideal for 

 honey, and then every thing seemed to be 

 wet with it. Big colonies that were ready 

 filled up in four days. Smaller ones 

 stuffed their brood-combs with nectar, not 

 thick honey. The teams, where they had 

 to cultivate, were wet with nectar, and so 

 were the harness, so my neighbors here 

 told me, and so they told me four miles east 

 of here. But that is not always the case. 



After large tracts have been irrigated near 

 an apiary the nectar will be thinner for a 

 few days; and toward the end of the orange- 

 flow, when weather is quite warm, the hon- 

 ey will be fit to extract the day after it is 

 gathered — i. e., usually, but not always. In 

 short, the orange-tree is a profuse yielder of 

 nectar, and beats basswood about 30 days if 

 the weather is just right. 



I have said nothing so far about why bee- 

 keepers do not put enough bees near the 

 orange-groves to gather all of that nectar 

 that often goes to waste. First, they do not 

 know when a phenomenal flow of honey 

 will come, as such a flow does not always 

 occur in every season, although every sea- 

 son yields sonie honey; and, generally, some 

 time in the month or so that orange blooms 

 freely, there is a time when it comes in 

 q\jite freely for a few days— three or four 

 may be, and then at times only in the after- 

 noon. Then as to locating near orange- 

 groves. In the best places, where orchards 

 are close together, and no room between, 

 the owners of the orchards will not allow a 

 stand of bees to be on their land, and there 

 is no room but the highways for miles at a 

 time. Then, after the orange-flow is over, 

 nothing comes in for several months, then 

 only a dribble of dark honey, pepper, or 

 hoarhound. 



Pomona, Cal. 



