1907. AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



OBSERVATION HIVES. 



Details to be Observed in the Con- 

 struction of a Really Practical 

 Device for Studying the 

 Bees' Home Life. 



A. C. MILLER. 



THE OBSERVATION hives 

 comrnonly offered for sale 

 were apparently designed by 

 someone very ignorant of the habits 



is a strong draft into the room, as 

 may be seen by holding a lighted 

 match before the holes. If the wind 

 is from some other direction the draft 

 will be found to be the other way 

 even though the other windows and 

 doors of the room are closed, and 

 every time one of them is opened the 

 draft is increased. By the opening 

 of a door I have seen the bees near 

 the inside of the hive entrance blown 

 out through it as if shot out. Obvious- 

 ly it will be nearly if not quite im- 



Photo by Pearl C. Richardson. 

 WISWELL-RICHARDSON APIARY, WEST MEDFORD, MASS. 



and needs of bees. The putting of 

 "ventilation holes" in the top, each 

 end and bottom of one of these small 

 hives is an error fatal to the pros- 

 perity of the colony which occupies it. 

 Bees need warmth and freedom 

 from drafts, but in a hive made as 

 above and placed as these hives most 

 always are — in a window — there is a 

 strong draft through every one of 

 those holes at nearly all times. If 

 the wind is towards the hive there 



possible for the bees to maintain a 

 condition of prosperity or present a 

 normal state for the keeper's obser- 

 vation. Then the glass permits rapid 

 radiation which either causes rise or 

 fall of the temperature within despite 

 the bee's efforts to the contrary. To 

 overcome this very apparent trouble 

 and more nearly produce a supposed 

 essential (darkness) for the thrift of 

 the colony, users of the hives put 

 wooden shutters against the glass. 



