1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



607 



for in that case he says the honey is not 

 "really good." Probably it is fair to con- 

 sider that the honey below the starter may 

 be considered really good; but as the upper 

 part, where the starter is, is not really good, 

 that condemns the whole section as being 

 not really good. 



So the half-depth starter must be rejected 

 and a shallow one used. But however shal- 

 low that starter may be, throughout its depth 

 the honey is just as bad as is any of the honey 

 in a section produced with a full' sheet of foun- 

 dation. That being the case, the logical in- 

 ference is that, to produce "really good" 

 comb honey, not even a small starter may be 

 used; and, to be consistent, none whatever 

 should be used. No use to object that even 

 a small starter is essential. Tons of comb 

 honey were produced before foundation was 

 known, and can be again. 



Admitting all the badness that may be 

 charged against foundation, if it be right to 

 use a starterj however small in size, and if it 

 be right to use it because it is for the advan- 

 tage of the producer, then I believe it is right 

 to use a larger starter, even to filling the sec- 

 tion, if the producer thereby has a larger 

 advantage that is not overbalanced by a 

 greater disadvantage to the consumer. 



My own belief is that using full sheets of 

 foundation is of such advantage to the pro- 

 ducer that it overbalances, several times, any 

 disadvantage to the consumer, and hence 

 full sheets of foundation may be used with- 

 out any violation of the golden rule. 



As to the matter of reputation, as already 

 intimated, if the continued sale in the same 

 market, for a quarter of a century, of sec- 

 tions with full sheets of foundation, has only 

 succeeded in establishing more firmly the 

 demand for them, there seems little ground 

 for anxiety as to the future. 



Marengo, 111. 



♦ ■ ^ ■ ♦ 



BEE-CELLAR BUILT IN A SIDE-HILL. 



BY J. D. HULL. 



I am sending several views of my bee-cel- 

 lar that I built last fall. It is built on a side- 

 hill, as you can see. The floor overhead is 

 covered with ten inches of sawdust. It 

 cost me a little less than §30.00, besides the 

 work. It is large enough to hold 200 col- 

 onies. I have 80 in it this winter; they seem 

 to be wintering very well. The tempera- 

 ture averages about 46. 



Honesdale, Pa., Jan. 15. 



CARPENTRY FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 



Hive-covers. 



BY F. DUNDAS TODD. 



Since I came west I have done more think- 

 ing about hive-covers than about any other 

 part of hive construction, because of the pe- 

 culiar climatic conditions of that part of the 

 Pacific coast with which I am familiar, the 

 most marked feature of which, at least to 



me, is the decided drop in temperature that 

 occurs the instant the sun disappears below 

 the western horizon. In Southern Oregon, 

 during the summer months, the thermome- 

 ter uniformly falls about 30° between 8 and 

 11 P.M., while in Victoria the drop is a little 

 less. In Medford I have seen 103° in Au- 

 gust, but the average afternoon temperature 

 ranges between 90 and 100°, with a midnight 

 reading of about 60°. In Victoria, in the 

 summer months the night temperature is 

 about 52°, the afternoon hovermg around 

 80°. 



In both localities, during the winter 

 months, in my experience, the night record 

 on the thermometer is round about freezing- 

 point. In Victoria, during February and 

 March, with wonderful constancy, day after 

 day we find 48° recorded as the maximum, 

 then in April the figures will run from 50° 

 to 60°. It is very interesting to watch the 

 bees and see how accurately they reflect the 

 thermic conditions. At 44° there is not a 

 sign of life at the hive entrances; at 45° a 

 few bees will venture out, increasing in 

 numbers with each degree of rise, until at 

 48° flight is very free. Of course, much de- 

 pends on the presence or absence of clouds, 

 for with the former there is little flight, even 

 at 50°. 



A little digression here maj^ not be alto- 

 gether out of place. While this article was 

 on the stocks a little discussion was going on 

 in this magazine as to whether or not bees 

 hear, and there was brought into the contro- 

 versy the fact that the bees fly home on the 

 approach of a heavy thunderstorm. Let me 

 tell of an experience I had in Illinois in July, 

 1907. About noon one very hot day I was 

 working among the flowers when there 

 came up one of these swift storms for which 

 Chicago is rather famous — one of the kind 

 where a cloud appears on the western hori- 

 zon, and in anywhere from twenty to thirty 

 minutes the storm is right overhead. This 

 particular one came up awhooping, and so I 

 at once got close to the hives to see what the 

 bees would do about it. Soon the thunder 

 was crashing in terrific peals, while the sun 

 shone as brightly as ever, and the bees nev- 

 er relaxed their flight for an instant. I made 

 up my mind I would probably lose many 

 thousands of the little insects in the next 

 few minutes; but just as the storm-cloud 

 reached the sun I saw one of the prettiest 

 sights that ever my eyes feasted on. About 

 30 feet in front of my hives stood two large 

 ash-trees over which many of the bees usu- 

 ally flew, and now I saw a broad dark band 

 reaching down from the top of these trees to 

 the hive-entrances, resembling to my mind a 

 six-foot-wide mill-belt. And then the won- 

 derful celerity in getting in out of the wet ! 

 I was simply astounded; for when the deluge 

 fell there was not a bee in sight. These bees 

 did not pay the slightest heed to the roar of 

 the thunder; but when the sun ceased shin- 

 ing, they simply scooted for home at a gait 

 that was a rusher. 



To return to my subject. Such cool con- 

 ditions as I have been describing, especially 



