1S79 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



179 



with frost, and perhaps a heavy coat of ice, 

 by the circulation of currents of air as I have 

 explained. Now let us go back to the win- 

 dow, and place one of the chaff cushions I 

 have advised for wintering, close against the 

 window glass, on the outside. This will 

 stop the outside circulation, and the light of 

 glass will soon become warmed through to 

 such an extent, that no ice, or dew either, 

 will condense upon it. To make a further 

 protection, suppose we put glass or boards 

 on the outside of the cushion, or, in fact, 

 make two walls, with chaff between them as 

 in the chaff hive. A good colony of bees 

 would warm up the thin walls next to them, 

 sufficently to prevent either frost or mois- 

 ture from accumilating on them at all. 

 Now, if the walls all around the bees are 

 thus protected with chaff cushions, they can 

 not well get frosty on the outside, and thus 

 accumulated either moisture or dampness on 

 the inside. As a proof of this, I have win- 

 tered a colony nicely, with a covering of en- 

 ameled cloth over them, that was almost ab- 

 solutely impervious to air. To be su.xe, a 

 tick chaff cushion was over this enameled 

 cloth, or it would have been wet very quick- 

 ly with the condensed mossture; In fact sev- 

 eral colonies bedame puite wet, during fros- 

 ty nigsts in the fall, before the chaff cush- 

 ons were put on. Now, if the bees are to 

 keep these walls about them so warm that 

 moisture cannot condense on them, the walls 

 must be close to the cluster of bees, and cer- 

 tainly the material for them should be a 

 non-conducter of heat, and they should be 

 so thin, that they will readily warm through. 

 Although it may not absolutely necessary 

 that the walls and covering should be of 

 some porous material, which will absorb any 

 chance moisiure form the breath of the bees, 

 it will perhaps be better that they should be 

 so, and many experiments seem to indicate 

 that straw or chaff is the best material for 

 this purpose. For the reasons I have named 

 the old fashioned straw hive, which has for 

 ages been enblematical of the honey bee, 

 seems to be very nearly what is wanted to 

 protect them in the way they seem to de- 

 mand. The straw neut to them is warm and 

 therefore proof againt conensation; it is thin 

 and hence easily warmed; is a non-conduc- 

 tor of heat; and while it may permit the air 

 to pass thought the porous walls slowly, it 

 does not admit of a dralt of cold air through 

 the hive, as does a badly made wooden hive 

 or one that has cracks (r fissures. 



STRAW HIVES. 



Ever since the advantages of straw hives 



for wintering have been fully demonstrated, 

 attempts have been made to make hives of 

 straw, to hold the moveable frames iu com- 

 mon use. Such hives have answered the 

 purpose very well, but they are convient, un- 

 tidy expensive to make, and notduable after 

 they are made. As they cannot well be 

 painted, they are soon pestroyed by the 

 weather; and if we make an outer sheel to 

 proteci the straw, we have, virtually, a chaff 

 hive, such as I have described. It is true, 

 we might have straw next to the bees, but 

 straw does not presen, a clean, smooth sur- 

 face such as we wish to have next to have 

 them built true, and I cannot discover by ex- 

 periment, that the straw is any the less ef- 

 fective, with a thin board interposep be- 

 tween it and the bees. Straw mats for* cov- 

 ering the frames have beed in use for many 

 years, and with good results, but I have 

 found it a difficult matter to have them fit 

 so closly over the cluster as do the chaff 

 cushions, and they are not so neat and tidy. 

 The mats will always have more or less loose 

 straws pulling off. For the reasons I have 

 given, I do not think a hive with the straw 

 exposed either to the bees inside, or to the 

 weather outside, will ever come in vogue ex- 

 tensively. After having tried many differ- 

 ent plans of covering the frames for winter, 

 I have adopted the mat made of slats, as de- 

 scribed in hive making; but this covering 

 is intended only to keep the bees down, and 

 to keep them from soiling and biting the 

 cushions, and not to furnish protection from 

 the weather, unless it should be during the 

 warmest summer weather. Over this mat, 

 the chaff cushion is to be laid. 



Will bees work on comb foundation with Hat bot- 

 tomed cells as well as on the concave bottom? 



Hamilton, O., Apr., 9, 187!). S. L. Beeler. 



[Our bees do'not work the flat bottomed fdn. as 

 fast, nor is the finished comb made concave at the 

 base like the natural comb. It cannot, in my opin- 

 ion, be as good economy for the bees, although it 

 will, nevertheless, answer very well, and may be 

 used eventually, on account of its cheapness.] 



HIVE MAKING WITH THE 1SAHNES FOOT-POWER SAW. 



I think I have made an improvement on your way 

 of cutting' the bevels on the Simplicity hives. Fast- 

 en your beveling table to the sliding side of the saw 

 table, pat on the cross cut bar, and when proper- 

 ly adjusted, you are ready for business. With 

 the table as you described, I was troubled by the 

 lumber's crowding down against the saw, and pinch- 

 ing it. M. L. Hudson. 



Charle3 City, Iowa, Mar., '79. 



My bees have not behaved well. I enclose 10 cts., 

 for which please send me the March number of 

 "Gleanings"; perhaps it will tell me what occa- 

 sioned the trouble. 



Parkman, April 7, L879. L. M. Burt. 



[I am afraid yours are not the only bees that have 

 not behaved well, friend B., and I am also afraid 

 that neither the March No., nor any other, will be 

 able to tell you all about the "trouble".] 



