THE BEE-KLEPERS' REVIEW, 



165 



which the bees will be clustered. The stores 

 will all be above the bees, in the most favor- 

 able position to be protected aud preserved 

 by the heat ascendiiif^j from the cluster." 

 This touches the true philosophy of winter- 

 ing. There is heat inside the cluster, but 

 three inches from it in any direction but 

 one, it is just as cold as it is in the fartherest 

 corner. Now, if the hive is tall and there is 

 an abundance of honey above the cluster, 

 just as soon as all the honey is consumed the 

 bees open up the top of the cluster and let 

 the heat rise, and then follow it up. 



The fact should not be lost sight of that a 

 cluster of bees does not radiate heat in all 

 directions as does a hot stove. The wall of 

 living bees on the outside is a non-conductor 

 of heat, and so confines all of the heat in- 

 side ; in fact, this is the reason the bees form 

 the cluster. They cannot warm the entire 

 hive, but they can keep a small portion of it 

 warm by using their own bodies to fence it 

 off ; so they do this and confine all of the 

 heat inside of this living wall. 



Mr. Boardman probably did not have this 

 idea in his mind, but he brings it out clearly 

 when he says, in speaking of the disadvan- 

 tage of a long, shallow hive, *' If the cold is 

 severe and continuous throughout the win- 

 ter, how could any tlioughtful bee-keeper 

 hope or expect the dormant cluster of bees 

 to advance upon this frozen and candied 

 mass of stores, and be able to appropriate 

 them for food, with much chance of survi- 

 val ?" He goes on to explain how the bee- 

 keepers have tried to overcome this difficulty 

 by packing, etc. I have long insisted that a 

 hive could not be kept warm by a few inches 

 of chaff or straw around it, and I will have 

 to see better evidence to the contrary than I 

 have yet run across before I will change my 

 mind. The packing does protect the cluster 

 somewhat from the effects of cold winds ac- 

 companied by sudden changes, but an out- 

 side case will do just as well for this pur- 

 pose, and it is much more convenient in 

 every way. 



This paper of Mr. Boardman's is full of 

 valuable suggestions and I think points in 

 the right direction to the solution of the 

 winter problem. The more I think and talk 

 about the matter the more I am convinced 

 that the hives in general use among the more 

 advanced bee-keepers of the present time 

 are not the proper shape for securing the 

 best conditions for winter. I was impressed 

 by a remark made to me this spring by a 



German friend. He said, " The patent hives 

 are no good ; I have about twenty colonies 

 in old box hives and they are all right, but 

 all of those in the patent hives went dead." 

 Such statements furnish food for thought, 

 to say the least. 

 St. Joseph, Mo. May 20, 18%. 



Notes From Foreign Journals. 



F. L. THOMPSON. 



REFERRING to Mr. Hasty's comment on 

 page 107, it should have been said that 

 extracted honey is 30 per cent, higher than 

 sugar in France. The figur^es are : Extract- 

 ed honey (average), 1 fr. 49 per kilo, or 

 about IB 1-5 cents a pound ; sugar, 1 fr. 15 

 per kilo, or about 10 1-5 cents a pound. 

 Sections are 1 fr. 50, 2 fr. and 2 fr. .50. I do 

 not know how much their sections hold, but 

 "American" sections are advertised in the 

 journals. 



The experiments made to account for for- 

 mic acid in honey, given on page 70, were 

 apparently only introductory to others which 

 are detailed in the article in the American 

 Bee Journal referred to, entitled " The Real 

 Source of Formic Acid in Honey," in which 

 will be found a third alternative besides the 

 two Mr. Hasty mentions ; namely, that all 

 the formic acid necessary exists in the saliva 

 of bees, along with the inverting ferment 

 which changes cane to grape sugar. 



Gravenhorst, commenting on the Aspin- 

 wall dummy combs for prevention of swarm- 

 ing (not in his journal) says that for years 

 he has prevented swarming on similar prin- 

 ciples, by alternating frames of foundation 

 or drawn combs with the combs of the brood 

 nest. The colony is thus put in the position 

 of a colony that has swarmed. But the op- 

 eration is not successful if queen cells with 

 eggs, and sealed drone brood, are already 

 present. He regards the Aspinwall method as 

 showing that the brood nest may be frequent- 

 ly inspected, in order to discover the earliest 

 indications of swarming, without going con- 

 trary to the principle of the most honey with 

 the least labor and expanse ; and, in order 

 to make frequent inspection easy, he main- 

 tains that no hive is superior to his own, in 

 which the condition of the brood nest is 

 ascertained, in the most satisfactory man 

 ner, by turning the hive over, without di 

 turbing the frames. 



