10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



greatest demonstration over the loss of a queen 

 that I ever saw. Yet was it not the exact re- 

 sult produced by the adjusting of an escape- 

 board between the two stories? And what of 

 the efficacy of the one-bee-at-a-time exit? 



Mrs. Atchley wrote some time ago, that, 

 while some colonies would mourn greatly over 

 the loss of the queen, there were others which 

 mourn scarcely any. There is as much differ- 

 ence in colonies in leaving the supers or going 

 through escapes, and it is advantageous to assist 

 those which are slow to mourn and move, by 

 the application of carbolized cloths. That form 

 of escape which clears the supers in the short- 

 est length of time Is not correspondingly the 

 most desirable for use. For example, a large 

 amount of smoke will soon drive bees from one 

 super into another, but a lesser amount of 

 smoke, and slower traveling, may leave them in 

 better condition to resume work in the new su- 

 per. An escape does not smoke; but a one-bee 

 exit may waste their thronging tendency, or 

 the air of the super may become so heated as to 

 injure the health of the bees. Such fear of suf- 

 focation clears a super more thoroughly, be- 

 cause, in going out by the natural impulse, 

 there is a number of bees which linger, as 

 guards of the combs of honey. The getting of 

 the main force of bees below contentedly at 

 work in the new super is the practical consider- 

 ation. 



Florence, Cal., Dec. 1. 



[I have read over the foregoing with more 

 than ordinary interest. While Mr. Dayton has 

 written other good articles on this subject, this 

 one, it seems to me, is the most comprehensive 

 from his pen so far. and comes the nearest to 

 hitting the real secret upon which bee escapes 

 do their work. 



Yes. I will admit that the Stampede (in fact, 

 I assumed as much in my answer on page 870) 

 might have been produced without the knowl- 

 edge of either of the other two inventions. 



Although Mr. Dayton seems to have covered 

 the ground very fully, I wish we might have 

 corroborative testimony from others. — Ed.] 



COVERS FOR HIVES. 

 THE IIIGGINSVILLE AND GABLE DISCUSSED 



lili Dr. C. C. Miller. 



Early in November we had a fall of snow, 

 and, unfortunately, my hives were not yet in 

 the cellar, so each one had a covering of snow 

 some^three inches thick. In a day or so there 

 was a sort of basin of snow on each hive. On 

 the middle part of the hive-cover the snow was 

 entirely gone, while at the outer edge there re- 

 mained a border of snow three inches deep. 

 There was some comfort in the thought that 

 the colonies were strong enough so that the 

 heat from them melted the snow. Of course, 

 the heat would be greatest at the m.iddle part, 

 directly over the cluster, while at the outer part 

 there was not enough heat to melt the snow. 



But there was discomfort in the thought that 

 whatever heat came up to melt the snow was 

 heat taken from the bees, and there was no re- 

 sisting the thought that they would have been 

 better off if that heat had been retained. 



While the single-board flat cover has so many 

 advantages that I hardly think I shall ever be 

 willing to go back to the covers I formerly had, 

 still there is no denying the real disadvantages 

 in the flat cover. First, it is cold; second, it 

 warps and twists so that it doesn't n.ake a close 

 fit. Before I had flat covers, if a hive stood out 

 with snow over it, that snow melted away very 

 little faster than the snow on the ground. A 

 quilt or cushion was over the frames, then a 

 space of from one to six inches between that 

 and the cover, so that practically there was a 

 non-conductor over the bees. 



Admitting that, when snow is on the hives, it 

 is to some extent bad to have a single board 

 over the bees, the question'arises whether that 

 matters particularly when no snow is on them, 

 as when in the cellar or under a shed, or even 

 when a board is laid over the cover. Is it any 

 worse to have a single board on top than at the 

 sides and ends of the hive ? 



When my hives are in the cellar I have some- 

 times looked in at the entrance, holding a light 

 there, and I could plainly see water standing in 

 drops on the back wall of the hive. If water is 

 on the back wall, I see no reason why it will not 

 at the same time be on all four walls and also 

 on the cover. Is it any worse for it to be on the 

 cover than on the walls? I can hardly see that 

 water standing on the cover is any worse than 

 water standing on the walls. But when it ac- 

 cumulates to such an extent that it no longer 

 will stand there, tlien there is a decided differ- 

 ence. The water on the walls trickles down to 

 the bottom, while the water on the cover falls 

 in large drops on the combs and on the cluster 

 . 



So it rather looks as if we wanted matters so 

 arranged that no moisture will condense over 

 the bees, whether in cellar or out. Outdoors, 

 with the right covering to favor it. a thick coat- 

 ing of frost will accumulate on the cover, thick- 

 er than on the side walls; for the tendency of 

 the heated moisture is to rise; then when the 

 weather moderates sufficiently, down comes a 

 deluge on the combs and bees. 



Taking in view what I have said, C. F. Muth 

 seems quite reasonable in his contention that 

 the only protection he wants for his bees in win- 

 ter is on top. And isn't it just possible that the 

 great advantage claimed in some cases for ab- 

 sorbent cushions over the bees lay not in the 

 fact that the materials used were good absorb- 

 ents, but that they were poor conductors of 

 heat, hence materials that would not become 

 cold enough for moisture to condense upon? 



The other trouble with the flat cover is a bad 

 one for both winter and summer. Some seem 

 to think that, with a cleat on each end of the 



