1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



811 



year ago. At that time the most of us thought 

 he might as well keep still, as every one would 

 be "agin him" in experience. And. indeed, 

 we tried to club him down; but so many ten- 

 frame users came to his rescue, and more are 

 coming, that it looks quite probable that the 

 single-story eight-frame capacity for brood for 

 many localities is too small to get the best re- 

 sults in honey. Indeed, it begins to appear 

 pretty forcibly that ttie majority of extensive 

 bee-keepers are in favor of a brood-nesi. of a 

 capacity larger than iho eight-frame Lang- 

 siroth of single story for nearly all localities. 

 But here is the situation here at Medina: I« 

 not even .the ten-framo too small? and would 

 it not be better to have two eight-framo stories, 

 one above the other, as one brood -nest '? O. O. 

 Poppleton, who leads off the discussion in this 

 issue, and he is one whose opinions we value 

 much, would have Ki frames. We get brood in 

 both our stories easy enoueh. and it seems oth- 

 ers do. although our friptid who won't be club- 

 bed down does not.— Ed.] 



JAKE SMITH'S LETTER. 



Mr. A. Gleanings, Dear Sir:— Zed reads a 

 good eel in your paper. One day he had been 

 a readin, and he speaks up and says he. "I be- 

 lieve that man has the right of it. Here's a 

 man on page 164 who says a big hive is warmer 

 than a little one. Now a body wouldn't think 

 that till he comes to explain it." 



"Zed," says I, " it's pretty hard to explain 

 how it's easier to keep a big room warm than a 

 little one." 



" Well, it's easy enough after you hear how 

 he explains it," says Zed. Then he read from 

 page 164 of your paper: "I believe the bees 

 form what is known as an inside hive. By this 

 is meant that, around the margins of brood, the 

 bees arrange themselves in such solid lines be- 

 tween the combs as to prevent a circulation of 

 air from within or without the cluster, for the 

 purpose of keeping a high temper- 

 ature there while they allow the 

 rest of the hive to arrange its own 

 temperature; consequently, in cold 

 weather the walls are often coated 

 with frost; and in southern Califor- 

 nia, where frosts seldom come, we 

 find the walls and unoccupied combs 

 dripping with moisture. From this 

 it would seem that the ten-fram 

 hive is actually warmer than the 

 eight, as the cluster of bees and 

 brood would be able to locate far- 

 ther from the outside walls. Even 

 if the cluster was warm enough 

 and near enough to the walls to 

 dispel the moisture or frost, it would 

 require warmth to do it, and such 

 warmth would disappear in the op- 

 eration, and could not aid in brood- 

 rearing, as where there is no frost 

 to be dispelled." Then he read in 

 other places: "The more frames in the out- 

 side hive, the longer beam would there be re- 



quired between the outside and inside cellar 

 walls. . . . The more dead air, the more pro- 

 tection." "Now," says Zed, "don't you under- 

 stand how it is? " 



"That's too high-larnt for me," says I; "I 

 don't understand a word of it; but it seems to 

 me it had ought to take more to keep a big 

 room warm than a little one." 



A few days afterward Jim Short come around, 

 and Zed brought up about a big hive bein 

 warmer than a little one, and read all about it 

 in your paper. .Jim said he didn't know about 

 it." 



" Why, can't you see," says Zed, " that when 

 the bees are .jam up again a wall it takes heat 

 from them to warm that wall; but dead air 

 will keep them warm; and 'the more dead air 

 the more protection?' " 



"You think, then," says Jim, "that it's 

 warmer if the bees are four inches from the 

 wall than if they're only two." 



" Now you've got the idee," says Zed. 



" And 8 inches would be still better than 4." 



" Certain," says Zed. 



" And 16 better still." 



" Ye — - 1 suppose so," says Zed. 



" And if it was ten foot to the walls all 

 around," says Jim, " then I s'pose it would git 

 so hot the bees could hardly stay in the hive 

 in winter." 



Zed didn't say a word — jest looked. 



" Zed," says Jim, " I'm afeered there's ascrew 

 loose somewhere." 



By that time I begun to study over it, and, 

 says I, " I s'pose the bees know pirty well 

 what's warm and what's cold. When it gits 

 too hot in a hive they git out where it's cooler; 

 and when it freezes they huddle up together to 

 keep warm. Now don't you s'pose the bees 



would hunt out the warmest place in the hive 

 when you hive them ? " 



