586 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 15 



brids, at least, are very raucli awake all the 

 time. 



I believe the instinct of bees to huddle to- 

 gether for mutual protection against cold is 

 a fruitful source for the development of 

 scientific methods of wintering bees along 

 new lines, and I am now conducting experi- 

 ments along lines touched upon by Dr. Mil- 

 ler's Straws, p. 36, and your reply to it. Dr. 

 ]\r. is right about combs full of honey and a 

 big space below the frames. The editor is 

 also right in thinking the frames should be 

 shallow. It has not yet been proven to my 

 entire satisfaction that bees will winter bet- 

 ter in frames 12 in. deep with empty cells 

 for a winter-nest than they will upon combs 

 of solidly capped honey 5 in. deep with a 

 sjjace of 5 in. below them, either for outdoor 

 or indoor wintering. It begins to look as 

 though the successful wintering of the fu- 

 ture will be conducted along this line. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



PAINTING HIVES. 



The Bees Paint the Inside ; Man should Paint 

 the Outside. 



BY DR. A. F. BONNEY. 



Once upon a time, when I knew a little 

 less about bee-keeping than I now do, I 

 wrote the editor of Gleanings asking him 

 if I should paint the inside of my hives. 

 His reply was that the bees would attend 

 to this, and I think he was quite right, for 

 i have been looking over some hives which 

 have been in use one and more years, and I 

 find them coated inside with wax or propo- 

 lis, or both, until, I should judge, they are 

 utterly impervious to moisture. 



This is to be expected, for I have in time 

 past noticed that the cavities in trees from 

 which I have taken bees were plastered with 

 waterproofing ; and if it had not been done, 

 the bees would have had a cold wet place in 

 which to live, instead of the warm dry 

 place; for the tree-nest is warm, and it is 

 dry, and, to all intents and purposes, the 

 hive is too, although, having a flat top, the 

 moisture will not so easily run down and 

 out as from the tree cavity. That the inside 

 of the hive gets wet, and even moldy, is 

 more the fault of the shape than any thing 

 ■else; for, given a chance, the water would 

 fall and work its way out, just as the carbon 

 "dioxide does, evolved in considerable quan- 

 ■tities by the bees in the act of breathing. 



Such being the case, that the inside of the 

 liive is waterproof, what becomes of the argu- 

 ment that, to paint a hive, makes it wetter 

 inside? There is not a bit of doubt that a 

 white hive, ventilated at all, will in summer 

 be many degrees cooler than one alongside 

 of it not painted; for, the darker the wood 

 the more heat there will be absorbed; and as 

 to cold weather, the color of the hive has 

 little to do with inside heat; for if a single- 

 walled hive is left on a summer stand it will 

 be protected ; and if cellared it needs none. 



If a chaff hive is used, color will have no 

 efTect excepting, possibly, black, which 

 might cause enough heat to be absorbed to 

 raise the inside temperature, though I 

 doubt it. 



If Dr. Miller or any one else has unpaint- 

 ed hives, being financially able to paint 

 them, it shows that his bump of beauty- 

 love is undeveloped ; for a hive is like a 

 house — much better looking for a couple of 

 coats of nice white paint. I came near say- 

 ing white-lead paint, for that is the only 

 thing suitable to use, although, having been 

 saponified by the action of the atmosphere, 

 it will rub off in time, which, to my notion, 

 is better than having it i)eel off, as the zinc- 

 lead heavy spar compounds will. A paint- 

 ed hive is like a painted house. It looks 

 nicer, is cooler in summer, will last twice as 

 long for the paint, and the lumber is not so 

 apt to warp. To my notion there is every 

 argument in the world in favor of painting 

 hives, and not one against it, except here 

 and there an example of individual taste. 

 For the sake of the elevating tendency of 

 beauty, if for no other reason, let us paint 

 our hives. 



Buck Grove, la. 



A Short Cut with Half-filled Sections. 



The clover season closed this year abrui)tly. ow- 

 ing: to the drouth, and the result is 1 have a large 

 number of half-fllled sections to be disposed of. It 

 is useless to put them back on to be finished, for if 

 the bees tovich them at all it is only to round them 

 off before they are filled out. It is not judicious to 

 put them away unsealed or into jars, for fear some 

 will sour. I use frames for baits instead of sections, 

 a la Townsend, because when old sections are used 

 the bees tliicken the comb before refilling, making 

 an unsalable section. To take out the sections and 

 replace them in specially made frames to be ex- 

 tracted is a long tedious job; so, being inclined to 

 save labor, I took sonie lath, smoothed them a little 

 with a block plane, cut lengths the same as the bot- 

 tom of the section-holders, and was ready to work. 



Taking a Irame filled with sections I tacked a lath 

 over the top, squeezing the end pieces together as I 

 drove the last nail, eash being put in about half its 

 length. Then, uncapping with a special knife, I 

 ran them through the extractor, then removed the 

 bar to be applied to another holder. The sections 

 were put into a box as fast as extracted, and set out 

 to the bees. 



I append a drawing of the knife I use. It is a 

 paring-knife with a five-inch blade. One bent at 

 right angles might do as well: but this one serves 

 my purpose. There is wax and propolis enough 

 on the sections to keep them from falling out of the 

 section-holder, held as they are by the bar. 



I use the Danzenbaker hive and supers. I fancy 

 a little ingenuity will enable one to adapt this plan 

 to any kind of section which is held in a holder. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. A. F. Bonney. 



