1«90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



491 



should need no bees at all, but could fill out our 

 hives solid with combs of brood with only a few 

 bees and the queen around the outside, which 

 would so cheapen honey that the most of us would 

 have to go out of the business, leaving- the doctor 

 and Bro. Heddon in possession of the field alone. 

 Well, now, doctor, I will tell you just what is the 

 right distance from center to center to space brood- 

 combs. It is exactly l)i inches; no more and no 

 less, where all worker combs are used, and 1% inch- 

 es where drone comb is used. You said you did 

 not know why !?» is better than lH or 1)4, but I will 

 tell you why \}i is the right distance, and how I 

 know it to be so. You know, doctor, that I am 

 great for following nature, even if Bro. Root does 

 say that in queen-rearing I am the furthest from 

 nature that any one can conceive of. Nature told 

 me that 154 inches is right when I made my first 

 hives, more than 30 years ago. At that time I 

 could not find in any of the books on bees that I 

 then had, how far apart the frames should be plac- 

 ed ; so, in order to ascertain, I went into the loft of 

 the barn where were stored all the old box hives 

 from lather's old apiary, to the number of some 30 

 or more, and, upon measuring the inside of the 

 tops of the hives where the combs had been cut 

 from, I found that all of the central combs were 

 just IX inches apart, while some of the combs near 

 the sides of the hive were from I's to 2 inches 

 apart; those being the furthest apart where the 

 combs run in the hive so the last one comes in the 

 corner. Since then, whenever I have come across 

 a box hive where the bees were out of it, I have 

 measured the distance of the combs apart where 

 they were attached to the top of the hive, and I 

 have found them invariably the same, to an exact- 

 ness approaching the thirty-second of an inch. Is 

 it to be supposed that the bees do not know what Is 

 right in this matter, when they have to furnish 

 food, fuel, and the whole business? In order to 

 keep up the necessary warmth for brood-rearing in 

 early spring, the bees form a living wall around the 

 brood, thus keeping the heat from escaping the 

 cluster; and to do this it takes the depth or thick- 

 ness of two or three bees all the way around, as I 

 have often ascertained by tipping up the hives at 

 that time of year. Did you never tip up a hive 

 carefully some frosty morning in April, doctor, 

 and closely examine the bees between the ranges 

 of combs? If you never have, it will be an inter- 

 esting thing to you, if you are any thing like me. 

 How nicely they are packed, all with their abdo- 

 mens pointing away from the center of the cluster! 

 This is the hive proper; and inside these bees, 

 brood-rearing is going on nicely, while some un- 

 lucky bee on the outside is so cold that it can hard- 

 ly walk or move. But, enough on this point, as I 

 wish to look at some other of the doctor's calcula- 

 tions. 



He says, " If I am not mistaken, worker comb, 

 when first made, is \ thick." In this he is very 

 nearly if not quite right, for that is as I find it to 

 be; but when he comes to figure this same li in his 

 calculation of distances, even did the combs never 

 grow any thicker, he is making a great mistake, 

 for there is one facte r which he does not take into 

 consideration, which is, the capping of the brood. 

 When the brood is capped in this % comb. Dr. M. 

 will find that, from outside of cappings to the op- 

 posite outside, is exactly one inch; and where the 

 combs are so eld that they are one inch thick, with 



no brood in them, they will be lis thick after the 

 brood is capped. Dr. M. will see that this does 

 away with all the calculations in his article, and 

 ■leaves him at "open sea "full more than he was 

 when he commenced. I ' had measured worker 

 brood many times ; but to be sure I was right I have 

 just come from measuring many combs, and can 

 find none— no, not one— with capped brood, that 

 nieasures less than one inch, although I have 

 measured some having brood in for the first time. 

 The way I measured was as follows: I took a small 

 steel wire, which had been painted black, and filed 

 one end to a sharp point; then beginning at % I 

 made a nice rule by marking J', of an inch on it up 

 to m inches. I now went to the hives, took out 

 combs from different ones, and pushed this wire 

 through the sealed brood till the point began to 

 make an impression on the sealing on the opposite 

 side, when the ruled side gave me the depth, and in 

 no case was it less than one inch; while the older 

 combs were all the way from that up to l^s- 



Another thing: As the bees rambled by on the 

 comb alongside of this rule, I found that they 

 stood on the comb so that they were all the way 

 from f'a to H inch high; and as I claim that the 

 combs should be far enough apart so that the bees 

 can stand back to back if they wish to, this would 

 say that the combs should never be nearer together 

 than Wi inches. I might go on and tell how I had 

 tried friend Pond's close spacing, and various oth- 

 er experiments which I have made, which were not 

 satisfactory, till I now space all combs for worker 

 brood Di inches apart; but it would make this arti- 

 cle too long, so I will say adieu where I am. 



Borodino, N. Y., June 19. G. M. Doolittle. 



I have always told correspondents in 

 Gleanings that If was the proper spacing ; 

 but when I read your article through I was 

 up in arms, ready to take issue with you on 

 the thickness of capped brood. But before 

 replying to you I thought I would go out in- 

 to the apiary and see how (mt bees did. I 

 first went to one of the kegs containing one- 

 inch wire nails ; selected two or three that 

 were exactly that length by a rule. I then 

 measured old and new brood comb, and into 

 each I pushed the nail up to its head. I 

 found in every case that the point of the 

 nail stuck out i inch. These combs were 

 some that we had stored away in the house- 

 apiary. Some had been used seven or eight 

 years, and some only two years. Some was 

 natural comb, but the most was built from 

 foundation. We (Mr. Spafford and I) then 

 went out into the apiary, selected at random 

 combs of sealed brood, pushed the wire nail 

 through so the head was just level with the 

 capping. The point of the nail just pierced 

 the capping on the other side. AVe measur- 

 ed old and new combs of sealed brood, and 

 found them all exactly an inch thick. I had 

 expected to find some thicker, but did not. 

 Well, now, if capped brood is as a rule one 

 inch thick from capping to capping, on If 

 spacing, we shall have just f inch between 

 the surfaces of capped brood. We usually 

 consider that I is a large bee-space, i small, 

 and i'gjnst right. Now, if I measure bees 

 rightly I caii not make them in our apiary 

 average over f„ high on sealed brood. On 

 unsealed brood they stand a little lower be- 

 cause their feet extend a little into the cells. 



