786 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



and as suddenly vanish. The raft itself was 

 lifted and nearly upset by them. Under the 

 exciting strain of the moment Fred's imagina- 

 tion was getting distorted. He thought those 

 vicious roots were Dawson's arms grasping for 

 him, and he clung closer to the braces. 



"Matt! O Matt!" he shouted in terror, as a 

 huge root swung across the end of the raft; but, 

 too late; faithful Matt Hogan, with a vain 

 gurgling cry for help, was swept into oblivion. 

 The same avenging arm crashed its way along 

 toward Fred. 



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' ANSWERS TO 



BY G.M.DOOLITTLE. B0RODINO.N .Y. 



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CORRECT BEE-SPACE. 



Question. — What is the exact space required 

 for a worker-bee to pass through, and that the 

 queen and drone can not go through ? 



Answer. — It is no trick at all to exclude drones 

 and let the worker-bees pass, as any thing from 

 •^ of an inch up to nearly or quite {^ will do it. 

 But when it comes to a space which will allow 

 a large worker to pass and stop a small queen, 

 we find that it needs a nicety of workmanship 

 not found in the average bee-keeper. Queens 

 and workers vary very much in size, and I have 

 had several queens which would squeeze through 

 an opening which many workers considered an 

 effectual barrier 10 themselves, preferring to 

 stay outside the hive rather than to try to go 

 through the same. By most bee-keepers ^^ of 

 an inch, or the merest trifle less, is considered 

 to be the right size of perforation to use for all 

 queen-excluding purposes; but quite a few say 

 they find ^g of an inch to work better with them 

 than a narrower space, as it practically excludes 

 all queens, with rare exceptions, while it does 

 not bother the workers to any perceptible ex- 

 tent. Some seem to think that a laying queen 

 can not pass through a space which will allow 

 a virgin queen to go through quite comfortably; 

 but I think this a mistake, as all of my experi- 

 ence goes to prove that any laying queen can 

 pass through the same space when being fertile 

 that she could pass before she became fertile; 

 for it is the thorax which tests the ability of the 

 queen to pass through a certain space, not the 

 abdomen, as some suppose. The abdomen of 

 any bee is soft and yielding, while the thorax 

 will not give a particle from any pressure the 

 subject itself can bring to bear upon it; and as 

 the thorax does not change in size any, through 

 the queen becoming a layer of eggs, it makes no 

 difference whether the queen is laying or not as 

 to the size of perforation she can actually pass 

 through. I say actually pass through, because 

 there is a great difference between the determi- 

 nation of a queen to squeeze through certain 

 places, as a queen when laying any thing like 



her maximum number of eggs rarely tries to 

 leave the brood-chamber proper; and if she 

 does so try it is only in a feeble way. But let 

 any queen which has been laying one, two, or 

 three years get into such a state of excitement 

 that she will go to piping and running about in 

 a way similar to that of a virgin queen, and she 

 will make as determined efforts to pass through 

 any small space as she ever did in her life. To 

 sum up: My experience has been that a proper- 

 ly developed virgin queen will very rarely get 

 through fV of an inch. Worker- bees can crowd 

 through -r^2 of an inch; but if any thing short of 

 that it becomes such hard work that the ex- 

 cluder is a nuisance to themselves and to their 

 keeper. A space of H of an inch will allow 

 most workers to pass with simply brushing the 

 hairs on their backs, while it practically ex- 

 cludes all queens, and certainly all drones; 

 hence this latter size is my choice for a queen - 

 excluder. Many of us would be pleased to hear 

 from the managers of Gleanings on this point. 



SUB-EARTH VENTILATION. 



Question. — How can I secure sub-earth venti- 

 lation in my cellar, which is on a level lot? 

 This cellar in which I wish to winter my bees 

 the coming winter is very damp, and the build- 

 ing-site is on a very level piece of land. Can I 

 get a current of air to enter the cellar by laying 

 the six-inch tile on a down-hill plan, and sink a 

 hole four feet square at the outlet of this tiling? 



Answer.— The only difficulty I see with the 

 plan given is lack of drainage. What will there 

 be to hinder water coming into the hole you re- 

 fer to whenever it rains during winter, or when 

 it becomes warm enough to thaw the snow? 

 Unless some means is provided to do away with 

 this water it will be apt to come into the hole 

 so as to cover up the endLof the tiling just at a 

 time or the times when your sub-earth ventila- 

 tor would be of the most necessity for the wel- 

 fare of your bees? Then there is another thing 

 which perhaps you have not thought of: A sub- 

 earth ventilator will do no good unless you have 

 some means for the warm air to escape from the 

 top of the cellar or room containing the bees. 

 And even with a pipe at the top to let the warm 

 air out. air will not circulate to any extent dur- 

 ing a time when the temperature outside is the 

 same as or warmer than that inside; and such 

 times as these are just when you need fresh air 

 the most in your cellar, if fresh air is really 

 necessary, by special means, in a cellar for bees. 

 If you can so arrange that a three-inch pipe 

 can go from near the bottom of your cellar up 

 into the pipe from the stove which you have a 

 fire in every day, then you can be sure of a 

 draft which will change the air in your cellar 

 any day during winter, no matter how warm or 

 how cold. In this three-inch pipe you should 

 have some means for regulating the amount of 

 air that is to pass through, from the full amount 

 to none at all, as you and the bees desire. Your 



