1903 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



135 



work the cube is the nearest approach 

 to it. But is such a form ac'tuallv the 

 best? The best in brood rearing, in 

 honey production and in wintering? 

 For honey production the rectangular 

 hive which is slighth- shallower than 

 it is long or broad oJ)lains widest use 

 and variations from that form mav be 

 traced most frequently to one cause, 

 namely: belief in the securing of better 

 wintering- Such belief is based on the 

 claim that under natural conditions 

 bees always put their stores at the top 

 of .the cavity they occupy and cluster 

 below it- As most natural cavities 

 in which such tendencies are seen are 

 tree cavities, there is little other place 

 for the bees to put sufficient honey for 

 winter needs. Such being the most 

 frequently observed method the infer- 

 ence was that above and not at sides, 

 back or front was the natural way- 



When bees are in cavities longer and 

 wider than high, what do they do? 

 They put the honey at tha't part of 

 the cavity farthest from the entrance 

 and form their winter cluster between 

 the honey and the entrance. 



Having first noticed these peculiari- 

 ties in colonies which I have taken 

 from buildings I began experimenting 

 to discover what the law or habit of 

 the bees was, and to avoid wearisome 

 details I will omit a description of 

 them and give the results only. 



Broadly speaking, a hive as long as 

 wide should be twice as high to give 

 'the most ideal conditions for winter- 

 ing with stores above the bees, but the 

 breadth and length have definite lim- 

 itations. For a "shallow" hive the 

 width and height should be only great 

 enough to T>ermit the cluster which 

 forms near the entrance to touch the 

 sides, top and bottom, and long 

 enough from front to rear to allow for 

 needed stores. Or stated differently, 

 the "shallow" hive to give ideal condi- 

 tions should be twice as long from 

 front to rear as it is high or wide, but 

 its height should not be great enough 

 for the storing of much honey above 

 the cluster. 



With the flat solid combs v/e use in 

 order to create ide^l conditions, it is 

 necessary in the shallov/ hive that the 

 combs run from front to back. In a 

 natural state bees leave so many pas- 

 sages that they can and do work back 

 on the stores without breaking cluster, 

 even when all combs are not so built. 



Please note that the foregoing ap- 

 plies particularly to out of door condi- 

 tions. Bees wintered in a cellar are 

 not under normal conditions- They 

 can break their cluster or change its 

 position within the hive readily with- 

 out loss of much heat or endangering 

 their lives. 



A colony's winter cluster is a fairly 

 compact and nearly spherical body and 

 largely confines within it, the heat 

 generated. It draws to one side or 

 the top of a chamber not to get against 

 a warm (?) wall or cushion but to 

 avoid drafts around it. There is no 

 warmth in a cushion. There is no- 

 thing warm about it or a chafT wall 

 to cause bees to draw against it- Where 

 a hive chamber is relatively too large 

 for the contained cluster they move 

 to that part of it where they least 

 feel the wind and cold- Put a plain 

 cover on and let it be well sealed 

 and if the chamber is too large for the 

 cluster they will be found against the 

 cover, not against any chaff cushion 

 at side or bottom. If one wall was 

 chaff-packed and the other was not, 

 the bees might be found nearer the 

 packed side than the other because 

 the down draft of chilled air was less. 

 But as a matter of fact, they almost 

 always have a comb b.gtween their clus- 

 ter and the hive side. 



In considering the foregoing let the 

 reader distinctly understand and re- 

 member that the cluster of bees does 

 not keep the whole hive chamber warm 

 in winter, but only the cluster and the 

 air immediately in contact with it- The 

 slow movement of this slightly warmed 

 air does in a very slight degree mod- 

 ify the temperature within the chamber 

 but it is so slight as not to be worth 

 considering in connection with the 

 problem of hive shapes- 



From the ideal type we may vary 

 considerably and still seture good re- 

 sults but the more nearly we keep to 

 the proportions I have stated, the bet- 

 ter. A divisible brood chamber hive 

 enables us to have a shallow brood 

 chamber for the honey crop and a deep 

 one for wintering. It is the most 

 easily elastic hive yet devised and 

 slowly the bee-keepers are coming to 

 see the value of what Mr- Heddon so 

 earnestly, so long and so persistenly 

 championed. 



Providence. R- I., April 30, 1903. 



