27G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar 1 



up, notwithstanding our late expressed opin- 

 ion, may be better than a thin one which the 

 bees are required at some expense to their 

 vitality to reduce down to the body of ordi- 

 nary honey. — Ed.] 



When robbing occurs, the orthodox teach- 

 ing is to lessen the entrance, that the colony 

 may the better protect itself. That heretic, 

 Allen Latham, says in American Bee-keejyer, 

 35, that he stopped robbing by making the 

 entrance larger! He explains it by saying 

 that the odor of the honey is less concentrat- 

 ed with the larger entrance, attracting the 

 robbers less. Now comes very excellent au- 

 thority to his support in that last paragraph, 

 Gleanings, 227. [While it may be wise in 

 some cases to widen the entrances of strong 

 colonies we are sure that, in the case of nu- 

 clei, it would be folly after the honey-tlow 

 to use any thing but a small opening, the 

 smaller the better. We have tried this thing 

 too many times with nuclei to venture risk- 

 ing them again.— Ed.] 



"To HEAT a can of honey on an ordinary 

 stove-mat .... would be attended 

 with a great deal of risk," p. 233. Well, 

 then, take two or three mats. [Three mats 

 might be better; but is there not a possibility 

 that the fire might be so hot that the honey 

 would be injured over the three mats? It is 

 much easier to regulate the temperature of 

 the water heating the honey than that of the 

 mat. As we all know, this question of lique- 

 fying candied honey involves the danger of 

 getting the temperature too high while the 

 process is going on. If the honey be melted 

 on the mat, or two or three mats, how can 

 one determine whether or not the honey is 

 overheated? If, on the other hand, it be liq- 

 uefied in a vat of water, the temperature of 

 which does not go above 130, then you can 

 be sure that the honey has not been heated 

 above that point. But there is another ob- 

 jection: Honey when heated over a mat||nec- 

 essarily has the heat concentrated over a 

 comparatively small area, while the same 

 honey in a vessel immersed in water nearly 

 up to its top has the heat scattered over a 

 far larger area. In a given time, 125°Fahr., 

 when the vessel is in water, would probably 

 do the same work as 140° F. concentrated all 

 in one spot, with the advantage that the 125° 

 would preserve much better the delicate 

 aroma of the honey. — Ed.] 



A SPACE of i inch between bottom-bars is 

 objectionable in sectional hives because one 

 can not "look up between the combs when 

 the brood chamber is lifted up." I see; but 

 what good reason is there for having more 

 than ^-inch space between bottom-bars be- 

 tween Langstroth frames? [If wider spaces 

 between the top-bars are a decided advan- 

 tage in the case of a shallow brood- chamber, 

 there ought to be some advantage in a full- 

 depth chamber, though to a less extent. 

 Only yesterday, Feb. 14, we were inspecting 

 an apiary where the bees wintered outdoors. 

 The owner, in order to give me an idea of 

 what was going on, tilted one hive dff the 

 bottom in order that we might look under. 



The bottom-bars of this hive were | inch 

 wi'le, leaving a space of f inch between the 

 bars One could easily see quite a distance 

 up between the cumbs Now, suppose be- 

 tween the bars there had been a space of 

 only ^ inch; think you we could have obtain- 

 ed as satisfactory knowledge of the condition 

 of the colony? 



Some years ago when this question came 

 up we called for a show of hands from our 

 subscribei's. The general verdict favored a 

 bottom-bar | inch wide, for the very reason 

 here given. A bottom-bar | inch squai'e was 

 considered better still in one respect in that 

 it favored the building of comb clear up to 

 the bar; but too many times the combs were 

 built beyond and therefore ^ inch was re- 

 garded as the golden mean. 



It follows then that bees are more iuclined 

 to build comb down to a bar | inch than to 

 one IJ inches wide. But you say that is of no 

 consequence with you because you use full 

 sheets of foundation running clear to the 

 bottom-bar, stayed with wooden splints; but 

 the majority of bee-keepers do not use such 

 full sheets. 



Unless we are very much mistaken, doc- 

 tor, you are in a very small minority in us- 

 ing and recommending a bottom-bar as wide 

 as the end-bar, which, as we remember, is 1 i . 

 At all events, if you use If inch spacing 

 from center to center, this would make the 

 bottom-bars as well as end-bars IJ with a 

 spacing of J inch between.— Ed.] 



One man said at the National convention 

 that he put his bottles of honey in a water 

 bath warm enough so he could stand having 

 his hand in it — about 140 degrees. Another 

 man said that would take the skin off. I 

 thought I would find out. Took a dish of 

 water at 134 degrees, held my hand in it for 

 5 seconds; at 133 I held it 10 seconds; at 130, 

 15 seconds; at 125 I could let it remain per- 

 manently. Then I raised it to 140 degrees 

 and held my hand in it 5 seconds; but it was 

 pretty hot. All hands, however, are not 

 alike. [Why didn't you hold your hand in 

 water heated to a temperature of 140 longer 

 than five seconds? That is not holding your 

 hand, but dippi7ig it in water and taking it 

 out almost immediately. We still insist that 

 the average person — no, we will say the 

 average man — can not hold his hand in wa- 

 ter heated to 140 Fahrenheit, without having 

 the skin come off. There is a great differ- 

 ence, however, in persons. For instance, 

 Mrs. Root will hold her hand in water quite 

 a number of degrees hotter than your hum- 

 ble servant. How do we know? When suf- 

 fering from a severe headache she will wring 

 a cloth bandage out of water so hot (and do 

 .it with apparent comfort) that would remove 

 the skin from her husband's hand. The 

 same temperature will not affect her hands 

 in the least. 



Some years ago, when we were heating 

 water with a steam-pipe to scald out infect- 

 ed hives, we found we could not get it much 

 above 180, and consequently we gave up 

 that method of heating water to scald out 

 the hives; but during these experiments we 



