OCTOBER 15, 1913 



General Correspondence 



WHITEWASHING IN PLACE OF PAINTING 

 HIVES 



Painted Wood Not as Porous, and Therefore Not 

 as Good for the Bees 



BY M. G. DERVISHEIJI 



The walls of beehives should be porous 

 on the same princ'ii:)le that human clothing 

 should be porous. The feathers of birds, 

 too, are arranged so that there are air- 

 spaces. Porous matter is not conductive of 

 heat and cold, just as the human clothing- 

 is not, and keeps its contents in natural 

 heat. Ice is wrapped in felt to prevent the 

 cold from escaping and the outside temper- 

 ature from penetrating. If one's clothing 

 were made of India rubber or of oilcloth 

 the bodj^ would be in an unclean and un- 

 healthy state. The hive is the clothing of 

 the colony of bees, and is intended to retain 

 the heat and to let the damp and gas pro- 

 duced by the breeding and breathing of the 

 bees escape. Wood, especially that of a 

 soft cjuality, is porous, and therefore it is 

 the best material for the hive. 



In olden times, most hives were made of 

 straw. Straw skeps, I believe, keep the 

 bees in a dry state and warm — the former 

 owing to the porousness, and the latter 

 owing to the dead air contained in the straw. 

 In the eastern parts of Europe and in Asia 

 Minor most hives are made of dome-shaped 

 baskets, and the outside of these is covered 

 (plastered), about one inch ■ thick, with 

 mud consisting of earth and cow's manui-e. 

 These hives keep the bees in a very com- 

 fortable state. 



Hives made of wood come second, but 

 owing to the great advantages derived from 

 modern improvements in apiculture there 

 is no doubt that wood is the best material 

 (especially soft and light wood) for the 

 construction of hives, provided it is not 

 rendered impermeable by the application of 

 oil paints, etc. 



In winter and spring the inside of a hive 

 occupied by a strong colony and covered 

 with any impermeable material, such as 

 oilcloth, gets wet owing to the vaporized 

 water from the breathing of the bees, to the 

 greater consumption of honey, and to the 

 insufficient porousness of the body of the 

 hive. Part of this vaporized water leaks 

 from the entrance in a condensed state, and 

 this shows the excessive amount of damp- 

 ness. No doubt such a state is harmful to 

 the bees within. 



I strongly recommend whitewashing witli 

 quicklime. It is the cheapest and easiest 



method. It is known to everybody that 

 white reflects the heat from the sun, and the 

 hives look nice and clean. 



Take six pounds of quicklime, sprinkle 

 on this by degrees about a gallon of water. 

 When it gets hot, and the quicklime swells 

 and cracks, sprinkle more water. A little 

 later pour on about four or five gallons of 

 fresh water and mix it with a rod and then 

 take about half a i^ound of alum, break it 

 into small pieces and melt it over a fire with 

 a little water. Or better, pound it and mix 

 it with the prepared lime for whitewashing. 

 This alum makes the whitewash stick well 

 to the wood and does not come o&. on one's 

 clothes or hands when handling the hives. 

 In the absence of alum ordinary cooking 

 salt can be used, but alum is preferable. 

 This whitewash can be applied quickly wdth 

 a broad whitewashing-brush. 

 . For the purjDOse of observation, for 12 

 years I have made use of several hives not 

 ])ainted and some whicli were painted. The 

 inside of the hives which were i^ainted be- 

 came as black as if lamp or chimney black 

 had been applied, while those which were 

 not i^ainted have remained light brown in 

 color, which is, of course, the color of pro- 

 polis or jiolish made by the bees. I recom- 

 mend that progressive apiarists try a few 

 unpainted or only whitewashed hives and 

 then compare them after one or two years 

 Avith the state of the painted ones. At the 

 same time I also recommend that in winter 

 and spring they use on the frames quilts of 

 porous material, for instance of cotton wool, 

 or bags filled with chaf¥ or sawdust. I make 

 use of empty merchandise cases which serve 

 for protecting the hives on all sides from 

 the direct rays of the sun. My way of cov- 

 ering the top of the brood-nest is with 

 boards % inch thick. In this semi-tropical 

 climate (35 latitude) this permits the damp- 

 ness to escape very slowly through the thin 

 strips laid over the top-bars of the frames, 

 gives very slow ventilation, and allows es- 

 cape of dampness in winter through the 

 joints. 



For higher latitudes I should think saw- 

 dust or chaff cushions over the frames would 

 be best for Avinter. A chaff sawdust, with 

 two or three sheets of rough brown paper 

 underneath, will keep the heat without pre- 

 venting the escape of dampness, and will 

 drive out the dampness. 



On p. 812, Dec. 15, 1912, Mr. J. E. Crane, 

 as foul-brood inspector, repoi'ts, " I found 

 the bees in box hives in decidedly better con- 

 dition, as a rule, in the spring, than those 

 in frame hives." He says further, *' One 



