328 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



admitting- walls also permit its rapid 

 radiation on the passing- of the sun, the 

 benefit from the heat is more than off- 

 set, because the bees are liable to be 

 chilled before they can again form a 

 cluster. 



If the walls of the hive do not permit 

 the ready heating of the interior by the 

 sun, we have conditions as bad in an- 

 other way as those in the previous case. 

 To move about, the bees have to pro- 

 duce heat themselves, and, do their 

 best, they heat the interior of their hive 

 only a very few degrees above the out- 

 side atmosphere. The cluster in such 

 a hive is comparable to a man in the 

 room of an unheated house in winter. 

 We all know how the chill of such a 

 room penetrates us, and how slightly 

 the presence of a person can raise the 

 temperature. There is this difference, 

 however, the bees have fresh air while 

 that in the closed room is not. A chaff 

 packed hive is virtually an ice house to 

 the bees, they cannot warm it nor can 

 the sun help them in the few hours it 

 is up in the winter. Its advantages 

 in winter are in preventing sudden 

 changes within the hive chamber and 

 lessening the condensation of the walls 

 of the hive. But it also prevents the 

 sun from aidiiig- in the drying- out of 

 the hive. 



The warm and moisture laden air 

 which slowly escapes from the cluster 

 of the bees rises, spreads out, cools, 

 settles and flows from the entrance, if 

 the latter is larg-e enoug-h for g-ood cir- 

 culation. In the unprotected hive this 

 warm and moist air deposits much of 

 its moisture on the cold walls of the 

 hive, and on the combs and frames, but 

 the first sunshiny and mild day dispels 

 most of it. In a single-walled hive 

 wrapped in material which is wind 

 and water-proof, black in color, and a 

 poor conductor of heat, we have a 

 domicile for the bees which will absorb 

 heat in goodly volume, with consider- 

 able rapidity, and give it up slowly. 

 It embodies the good points of both the 



sing-le-walled and the chaff hive, and 

 avoids their bad ones. 



Tarred building paper possesses the 

 desired properties for a hive wrapping 

 to a higher degree than anj'thing else I 

 know of, but it is rather dirty to handle 

 and is of small value for a second 

 season's use. A sheet of this laid on 

 the top of a hive and folded down 

 about the sides as one would wrap a 

 bundle, the lower edges of the paper 

 coming below the edge of the bottom 

 board, except at the entrance, and 

 these lower edges fastened down with 

 strips of wood, will make a hive im- 

 pervious to wind or moisture. Because 

 of its black color it readily absorbs the 

 heat of the sun's rays, thus warming 

 the hive and its contents. Because of 

 its poor conductivity (by contact), and 

 because it does not lie closely against 

 the hive, it prevents the rapid radiation 

 of heat. Hence, a hive so protected, 

 when the sun shines on it, heats 

 rapidly, and when the sun is gone 

 cools slowly, paradoxical as that may 

 seem. 



The substance of the foregoing para- 

 graph should be carefully noted, other 

 wise the conclusion may be jumped at 

 that the virtue of the system lies either 

 in the color, or the fact that some sort 

 of paper is used. 



There is a hive made by the \V. T. 

 Falconer Mfg. Co. that approaches the 

 conditions of a hive wrapped as above 

 more nearly than any other I know of, 

 and if it were painted black would be 

 almost identical, but possessing the 

 advantage of permanency and dura- 

 bilit3' though the initial cost is more. If 

 the dark hive were in a shady location 

 in tlie summer no objection could be 

 had against the color. The hive I 

 refer to is known as the Air Spaced 

 hive. It has, two Yz inch walls sepa- 

 rated by an inch space, and the space 

 face of each wall is covered with a 

 sheet of heavy building paper. 



One factor I have left until the last 

 because of its importance. The en- 



