78 



spending money for something worse than 

 useless. 



Mr. Miller says that "bees in the thin 

 hive get more rapid change of temperature, 

 but no greater extremes.'" I agree to the 

 first clause of the statement unreservedly, 

 but dispute the second just as strongly. 

 During very cold days in the latter end of 

 .January and early in February, whenever 

 the sun would shine brightly for a few hours 

 the bees in the paper-covered hives would be 

 warmed up to such an extent that the clus- 

 ters would be broken more or less, and the 

 bees become quite uneasy. This condition 

 repeated at various times was a factor that 

 worked havoc to the bees in these thin hives, 

 while such short periods of sunshine did not 

 affect the bees in the packed hives, for they 

 wintered in splendid condition. 



THERMOMETER READINGS SHOW AVERAGE 



DIFFERENCE OF 35° BETWEEN OUTSIDE 



AND INSIDE. 



.Jan. 5 gave signs of a real cold wave visit- 

 ing us, so a hive was selected for an experi- 

 ment. The hive is a very large one — 12 

 frames, L. length, and somewhat deeper 

 than the .Jumbo style — what some would 

 call a veritable barn. It is a regular packed 

 hive with a double bottom, two inches of 

 sawdust being between the case and hive 

 proper. The outside case is of half-inch 

 stuff. The entrance is >^xrlO inches, lined 

 inside with paper, and then there is a filling 

 of four inches of dry sawdust between the 

 case and inner hive of inch material. Over 

 the frames is a porous quilt, and on top of 

 that two sacks; without, ten inches deep of 

 sawdust and chaff mixed. Over that is a 

 roof of galvanized iron, and between roof 

 and packing is an air-space of ten or twelve 

 inches. The hive has ten frames and a di- 

 vision-board, which leaves a space of one 

 frame at the side of the hive unoccupied. 

 The division-board was shifted to the out- 

 side, and the thermometer suspended be- 

 tween it and the outside comb. The colony 

 is strong, and occupied seven spaces when 

 the weather was at zero, no bees being next 

 to the comb beside the thermometer; but 

 the fringe of the cluster reached to the next 

 space. All that was necessary to do to see 

 the thermometer was to lift off the gable 

 cover quietly, turn back the corner of the 

 sack with the packing, and lift the corner 

 of the quilt. Friday afternoon the tempera- 

 ture had reached zero, and was on the down 

 grade. The thermometer was put in the 

 hive at 4 p.m. The following are the read- 

 ings for three days in succession. 



Saturday, 8 a.m.— Very clear and quiet; 

 15 below zero outdoors; inside the hive, 34 

 above. Saturday, 5 p.m.— Zero outside; 40 

 mside hive; sun had shone brightly all day 

 Sunday, 8 a.m.— Zero, cloudy all day; in- 

 side hive, 35. Sunday, 5 p.m.— 1 below zero 

 outside; 30 above, inside. Monday, 8 a.m.— 

 Stormy; cold wind blowing right in the en- 

 trance all day; 4 above zero; inside hive, 34 

 above. Monday, 5 p.m.— 16 above, outside, 

 and 36 above in the hive. 



Mt. Joy, Ont., Can. 



Gleaningrs in Bee Culture 



[With a large entrance'on one side of the 

 cluster, a single-walled hive, and only one 

 thickness of tarred paper around the hive, 

 we should hardly expect the temperature 

 inside to be very much diflerent from that 

 on the outside. In order to determine the 

 conditions in and outside of a double-waited 

 packed hive, with 7 inches of packing on 

 top and 2]/% between the walls, we took a 

 number of temperature readings at our 

 home yard. A series of colonies in such 

 hives were selected at random. A ther- 

 mometer was placed in different parts of 

 the brood-nest, and in one case in particu- 

 lar it was let through a hole in the super- 

 cover, the upper portion sticking up into 

 the packing, so that a reading could be tak- 

 en without opening the brood-nest Here 

 are some of the readings we took off where 

 the cover and packing was removed and the 

 thermometer examined before the mercury 

 could possibly change: 



Jan. 3, outside, 22 F.; inside temperature 

 of first hive, 60; second hive, same day, 58; 

 third hive, same day, 50; fourth hive, 50; 

 fifth hive, 63. In explanation of these va- 

 riations we would say that the temperature 

 would have been the same in all the hives 

 within one or two degrees if the thermome- 

 ter had been placed the same distance from 

 the cluster. In hives 1 and 2 the bulb of 

 the thermometer was placed within two 

 inches of the cluster, and hence the higher 

 reading. On Jan. 5, with a temperature of 

 7 above, we bored a hole through a super 

 cover, placing the bulb of a tested dairy ther- 

 mometer clear to the back end of the hive 

 as far away from the cluster as possible. 

 Here are the readings: In the afternoon," 

 about five hours after the thermometer was 

 inserted in the hole, a reading was taken 

 that showed 7 above outside, and 26 inside. 

 Jan. 6, 7 A. M., the outside temperature was 

 5 below; inside temperature, 20 above. On 

 the same day, at 2:20, the outside tempera- 

 ture was 10 above; inside temperature, 28. 

 Jan. 8, outside temperature 29 above;' in- 

 side, 28, But on that day the temperature 

 outside rose rapidly from zero in the morn- 

 ing to 29 above. It is, therefore, plain why 

 the inside should have been 28. But right 

 here our experience teaches us that rapid 

 changes of temperature inside of the hive 

 for this locality are detrimental, because 

 they break up the cluster, causing excite- 

 ment when the bees should be kept quiet. 

 Again, Jan. 8, the outside temperature was 

 4 above; inside, 28 above. As we are locat- 

 ed in a warmer climate than Mr. Byer we 

 do not use as heavy a packing. Perhaps it 

 would be better if we did, for we notice that 

 his inside temperatures are relatively high- 

 er. Rhode Island has a milder climate, 

 and much more moisture than most north- 

 ern localities near the great lakes, and it is 

 no doubt true that it is an advantage to 

 have large entrances; but we can not get 

 away from the conclusion that more pack- 

 ing would save a considerable amount of 

 stores. See further comments on this ques- 

 tion in the Editorial department.— Ed.] 



