354 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



alarming. But when 

 bees come out at the 

 entrance and stain 

 the front of a hive 

 with a very dark and 

 ill-smelling stuff, then 

 the condition of the 

 colony is dangerous 

 if not hopeless, espe- 

 cially if there is no 

 immediate prospect 

 of settled warm 

 weather within the 

 following month. 

 But, to return to 

 Fig. 1: 



I took a photo of 

 this particular hive 

 because it shows ad- 

 mirably just how the 

 bees were clustering 

 on all the hives in 

 which there were 

 strong colonies. The 

 bees on the cover had 

 taken a flight, had 

 voided their feces, 

 and now, apparently, 

 were taking a rest 

 preparatory to going 

 into the hive. Those 

 bees that lodged on 

 the snow were imme- 

 diately chilled; but 

 for some reason, 



fortunately, the great majority of the bees 

 lodged on some wooden object, especially on 

 the hives. At half-past one I had some fears 

 that they might not return; but as the atmos- 

 phere turned a little cooler, and the sun was 

 going down, all these bees took wing and re- 

 entered their hives, and at half-past two 

 there was scarcely a bee to be seen on any 

 wooden object; and the few that were in 

 sight were keeping around the storm-doors 

 about as shown in Fig. 2. 



Mr. A. J. Halter, having visited us a few 

 days previously, on looking at these lean-to 

 boards expressed the conviction that our lit- 

 tle notches on the front edge were altogether 

 too small — that the bees, many of them, 

 would not pass through them, and, failing 



FIG. 1. — HOW THE BEES TOOK AN AIRING ON A WARM DAY IN 

 FEBRUARY AT MEDINA. 



to discover the side passage, would become 

 chilled and die. But this certainly did not 

 prove so in our case. By reference to Fig. 1 

 it will be noticed how the bees were going 

 through the side passages, seeming to have 

 discovered that this was a more rapid way of 

 getting into the hive. While neither photo 

 shows it, I found in many instances where 

 the bees were crawling through the notches 

 on the front edge of the board. 



On the 14th I visited Mr. Halter at his 



apiary in Akron, and found that he had the 



same arrangement except that his notches 



were very much larger. He explained that, 



according to his experience, bees would 



not go through those small notches — that we 



would be losing many bees; that the large 



notches were almost a necessity, 



as otherwise the entrance would 



become clogged with the dead. 



On returning home I instruct- 

 ed our apiarist to examine the 

 entrances at random; but in no 

 single case could he find that 

 there had been any clogging; for 

 on the nice warm day spoken of 

 the inmates of the hive carried 

 out their dead, leaving the pass- 

 ageway clean. 



It is my own private opinion 

 that these storm-doors do not 

 prevent bees from flying out on 

 bright alluring days, but only 

 tend to discourage such coming 

 out; that, moreover, they do, to 

 a very great extent, prevent 



FIG. 2. — THE MODIFIED HALTER STORM-DOOR AS USED 

 ON THE OUTDOOR HIVES AT MEDINA. 



