Vol. XI 



JANUARY, 1901 



No. 1 



UNPAINTED HIVES. 



BY ARTHUK C. MILLER. 



MR. DOOLITTLE has for a long 

 time championed nnpainted 

 hives, and has supported his cause 

 with much vigor and persistence. Both 

 on account of his having had so many 

 more years of experience than myself, 

 with many more colonies, and his gen- 

 erally thorough and careful observation, 

 I am somewhat loth to take a position 

 antagonistic to him. 



For three reasons I object to unpaint- 

 ed hives: First, appearance ; second, 

 economy; third, condition of bees. 



Generally speaking, unpainted hives 

 go with unpainted buildings, shabby 

 fences, farm implements etc., etc, and I 

 have almost Invariably found that 

 where the hives wei'e unpainted, that 

 man did but indifferently with his bees; 

 in a word, he was "slipshod" in all liis 

 work. (I do not imply that Mr. Doolittle 

 is). W(!ll-painted hives encourage an 

 orderly apiary and that helps to main- 

 tain a spirit of neatness and care in 

 everything pertaining to the business; 

 and if the constant insistence on this 

 by apicultural writers and honey- 

 dealers is any criterion by which to 

 judge, there is certainly need of wider 

 practice of these virtues. 



As to the economy, I maintain that a 

 coat of thin paint each fall is fas 

 cheaper than a new hive every little 

 while — I cannot say how often, for I 

 gave up the unpainted business before 



my hives had a chance to deteriorate 

 much. Beside the saving of the hive 

 there is the economy of stores and vital 

 force of the bees; and this brings us to 

 the third phase of the question. 



Mr. Doolittle's position is that by 

 leaving the pores of the wood open the 

 moisture from the bees will pass out 

 (with mine it <ill goes out the front door} 

 but he does not say where the rain and 

 water from melted snow will pass to 

 from these same pores when they be- 

 come filled with it. Let him put on an 

 overcoat and sit out in a good, cold rain 

 and see where the moisture goes and 

 how warm it is inside of it. Then let 

 him try a dry coat and a rubber coat 

 over it, and report. He will not feel 

 any moisture inside the rubber coat un- 

 less he is exercising rapidly. Had he 

 beneath that coat an automatic venti- 

 lating fan, such as the bees have, he 

 would find no moisture there even were 

 he perspiring freely. The bees are in 

 the condition of a human body at rest 

 and they give forth moisture very slowly 

 (though not literally perspiration, more 

 properly exhalation). If they are prop- 

 erly protected and have been in the 

 hive long enough to varnish the inner 

 surface of it so no moisture can get into 

 the pores of the wood from that side, 

 they will be found to have dry combs 

 and to be in a healthy condition in the 

 spring. The bees' domicile differs from 

 the rubber coat simile in that the moist- 

 ure cannot reach a chilled surface and 



