January, 1914. 



American ?ae Journal 



super cover instead, while it may be 

 put into sacks and used year after 

 year. There are two holes in the cover, 

 in the ends, for "the escape of mois- 

 ture," but these I plug with corks, as 1 

 do not believe we can have an upward 

 escape of moisture without a corres- 

 ponding loss of heat. However, this 

 is not said to excite discussion. 



The Root hive has a thicker packed 

 space than the others, but has a thin 

 fi-inch outer wall and no handles, or 

 at least had none some months ago. 

 They use the chaff tray, and must, for 

 the cover telescopes over the tray and 

 brood-chamber. The great objection 

 to this hive was removed when, at my 

 suggestion, they made a loose bottom 

 for it. It may be well to state that the 

 Root people winter a thousand colo- 

 nies of bees in chaff hives in Medina; 

 they so wrote me a year ago. 

 2^The Falconer hive is very similar to 

 the others, but instead of lock or dove- 

 tail joints the walls are fastened to 

 four corner posts. ■ If given a choice 

 between dovetail hives for out-of-door 

 wintering and putting the bees in a 

 cellar, I'll take either of these hives, 

 because being warm the bees begin 

 breeding early, earlier than in the cel- 

 lar. Of course, some more stores may 

 be used, for you cannot have fire with- 

 out fuel, and it may be that up to the 

 first of June not much more feed will 

 be required in the chaff hive than in 

 the cellar, and not so much when re- 

 sults are considered. Remember there 

 is no setting bees out of a cozy, warm 

 cellar into the changing April weather 

 to dwindle away. Also, they are cooler 

 in summer without shading, and do 

 not require as much ventilation as the 

 dovetail, while I use an abundance, 

 olf evidence of the value of the chaff 

 hive were lacking, I had it and to spare 

 in the spring of 1913. I had in 1912 

 lost about all my bees from total lack 

 of clover and other pasture, combined 

 with a dreadful drouth, and the colo- 

 nies I had in the spring of 1913 were 

 mere handfuls of bees the first of May, 

 but these same colonies gave me an 

 average of 300 pounds to the colony. 

 This was due, of course, to the tre- 

 mendous flow of nectar, but under any 

 other conditions than the chaff hive 

 I would have had no bees to get it. 



All these chaff hives have, I believe, 

 entrances that are too small. More- 

 over they are apt to clog with dead 

 bees. If the entrance blocks were put 

 in upside down, it would give more 

 space for dead bees to accumulate, but 

 with (J inches of good, dry packing on 

 top the brood-chamber and the walls 

 packed, a |ix3-inch entrance is none 

 too large to ensure pure air in the hive. 

 Protect this entrance from mice with 

 wire-mesh if necessary, using the kind 

 the masons do to sift sand through. 



If, 40 years ago, the chaff hive had 

 been cheaper than the dovetail or box 

 hive, there would probably be no other 

 kind in use today, and while today the 

 cost of the protected hive is but little 

 more than the other, the slight addi- 

 tional cost will still induce buyers to 

 seek the cheaper line of goods, while 

 the saving of one good colony would, 

 in many cases, pay all the extra cost. 



I feel like telling prospective users 

 of the chalT hives something the nianiv 

 facturers do not, and that is that u.. 



joints in the hives should be laid in 

 thick white lead to make them as near 

 water tight as possible, then give the 

 hives a good painting with white lead 

 and linseed oil. I also advise the pur- 

 chase, in the Bat, of one of each of the 

 hives I have mentioned, so that you 

 will be able to judge. I think it almost 

 a waste of time and money to buy any- 

 thing smaller than the Kl-frame size in 

 either make. Use a metal-roofed cover, 

 and in the winter a couple crate staples 

 to hold the cover in place will prevent 

 some worry. 



Finally, the entrance of the chaff 

 hive ff;«,s7 be low enough to let all 

 storm water drain off the bottom-board 

 to the end that the hive remain dry. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



[We much prefer a long, shallow en- 

 trance, too shallow for the mice to 

 craw! through, to a 'i-jnch entrance 



with wire mesh small enough to keep 

 the mice out. Bees will carry out 

 almost anything that needs taking out 

 through a long entrance, but the wire 

 mesh is everlastingly in the way. A 5- 

 10th entrance, cut true, will keep out 

 mice. — Editor.] 



Odors and Queen Introduction 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



THE article by Dr. Bruennich, in 

 the American Bee Journal for 

 November, places considerable 

 emphasis on odor as of impor- 

 tance in behavior of bees one to 

 another. Until we have more definite 

 and accurate data on the behavior of 

 bees in the presence of known odors, 

 it is almost idle to seriously discuss 



Apiary of K. OUushima. in .Japan. 



MK. K. OkUSHIMA, Clh .lAi'AN. Al WuKK. 



