1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



477 



lbs. of stores. This would be from the first 

 of November to the middle of April, in our 

 locality, or five mouths and a half. There 

 are then six months and a half left. In our 

 locality, IS lbs. of stores would take care 

 of the bees and the necessary brood-rearing- 

 up to the beginniiagf of the honey-flow, or 

 June IS. This would be two months. Dur- 

 ing this time the bees might gather a very 

 little nectar and only a very little. Dur- 

 ing the honey-flow they might consume pos- 

 sibly a little more for a given number of 

 days. If before the honey-flow we allow 

 the bees 10 lbs. per month (counting the 

 little they would gather), and during the 

 honey-flow we allow them 15 lbs., that 

 would be only 35 lbs. Now, if we add the 

 amount consumed during five months and a 

 half, or 12 lbs., we have for the eight 

 months and a half 47 lbs. of stores. In our 

 locality, after the honey-flow the Italians, 

 at least, do very little brood-rearing from 

 July 15 till about the first of September; 

 and the consumption of stores would be 

 correspondingly lighter. I should say the 

 amount consumed per month could not ex- 

 ceed 8 lbs. per colony. Let us give them, 

 though, 10 lbs., to be liberal. That would 

 make, up to Sept. 1, 15 lbs. more, or 67 

 lbs. all told up to Sept. 1. We have two 

 months left; and even if .we allowed them 

 10 lbs. per month for the rest of the month, 

 which would be very large, we should have 

 only 87 lbs. But let us go still further, and 

 give the bees the benefit of another .13 lbs., 

 to allow for the wasting activity of the 

 honey-flow when the fielders might be 

 heavy feeders, and call it 100 lbs. I believe 

 I have figured liberally, for our locality at 

 least; and yet we have only //a//" the amount 

 that you allow. 



In Tennessee and other Southern States, 

 as well as some of the Western, where the 

 bees can gather some nectar from six to 

 seven mouths in a year, the bees certainly 

 would consume more stores, because brood- 

 rearing would continue on much of the 

 time; and it is a fact, too, that, during the 

 winter months in the warm States, where 

 the weather is mild, and bees can fly al- 

 most every day, the consumption of stores is 

 very much greater than in the North, where 

 the bees go into a quiescent sleep. It is 

 possible, therefore, that 150 or 200 lbs. 

 inight be the correct figure for the amount 

 of honey actually consumed by a colony of 

 bees in a year for the warm or Southern 

 States. I believe I am safe in saying that 

 the consumption will be much greater south 

 than north, so this question that is before 

 us is largely one of locality. 



I should be glad to have my figures re- 

 viewed by any one else in any locality in 

 the belt lines of the North and South, any- 

 where from Minnesota to New York. In 

 the buckwheat State of New York we must, 

 of course, allow for a large consumption of 

 stores; for buckwheat follows clover and 

 basswood, and the activity of the bees is 

 kept up to a much higher point. 



This is an important question, and it 



may be well for the experiment stations to 

 take hold of it. It is important and prac- 

 tical, because, as Mr. Getaz has pointed 

 out in a former article, if a colony of bees 

 can increase its aggregate gatherings by a 

 very small percentage, it means a much 

 larger percentage of gain in the actual 

 amount of surplus taken off for market. — 

 Ed.] 



the miller reversible bottom-board ; 

 large entrances. 

 If Dr. Miller would be so kind as to ans- 

 wer the following questions he would con- 

 fer a great favor on the writer: 



1. Do you still make and use the Miller 

 bottom-board — i. e., two inches on one side 

 and one inch on the other? 



2. If so, would not the two-inch entrance 

 for summer be as good as if not better than 



the Root %-inch entrance? 



3. Do you think the ^-inch (Root) en- 

 tranceyo;- winter just as good as your two- 

 inch? 



I am making some bottoms, hence would 

 like to know if, in your opinion, the two- 

 inch entrance for winter is necessary, or if 

 the %-iuch entrance is just as good. 



I use the Miller bottom-board, and like it 

 much for ivintering. A. McGregor. 



Inglewood, Ont., May 8. 



[Dr. Miller replies:] 



1. I never made the bottom-board with 

 one side one inch deep. It was two inches 

 deep on one side and yi or ^A on the other. 

 I still make one side two inches deep, but 

 have no depth on the other. That is for the 

 purpose of avoiding the time and labor of 

 reversing. When it comes time in the 

 spring for a space less than two inches un- 

 der the bottom-bars, instead of reversing, 

 the space is partly filled up by shoving in 

 a false bottom made of thin stuff much like 

 the bottom-board, onl}' on a smaller scale. 

 In a pinch, one or more dummies or pieces 

 of board may be shoved in to fill up the 

 space. 



2. Yes, I like the two-inch entrance for 

 summer, if you can call it a two-inch en- 

 trance; for when the false bottom is shoved 

 in, a good part of the entrance is closed. 

 When, however, the hive is raised on four 

 blocks during hot weather, that increases 

 the size of the entrance. 



3. Very far from it. With a two-inch 

 space under the bottom-bars the cluster of 

 bees of a strong colony often comes down 

 upon the floor in winter, and of course a 

 shallower space would not allow so free ac- 

 cess of air, and I suspect the veilue of that 

 is not yet fully appreciated. 



I am just a little afraid that you are 

 thinking of allowing the two-inch space un- 

 der the frames during the summer. That 

 wouldn't do at all. The bees will be sure 

 to build down within a bee-space of the 

 floor when the two-inch space is left, and 

 what they build will be mainly drone 

 comb. This year some of my colonies that 

 had the two-inch space left during fruit- 



