Aug. 16, 1906 



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American Ttee Journal 



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II 



No. 16— Dadant Methods of 

 Honey-Production 



BY C. P. DADANT 



The editorial on page 593 calls to my 

 mind the question of ventilation in refer- 

 ence to swarming. 



Ventilation of the bee-hive is a ques- 

 tion on which people differ almost as 

 much as they do on wintering, and for a 

 similar reason — the differeuce in loca- 

 tion. There are countries and localities 

 where ventilation is of much less impor- 

 tance, because of a milder temperature. 

 Between the location of Doolittle and 

 Holtermann, for instance, there is quite 

 a difference, and there is another differ- 

 ence between that of Doolittle and my 

 own. I have read statements from 

 European writers with which I could 

 not at all agree, because they were writ- 

 ing for countries where the thermometer 

 never ranges above 80 degrees Fahr. 



If there is a difference between one 

 locality and another, there is also a dif- 

 ference between one summer and an- 

 other. I will take the liberty of telling 

 some of my experiences to illustrate 

 how great these differences may be. 



During the summer of 1877 we had an 

 out-apiary of some 75 colonies 5 miles 

 north of our home. The owner of the 

 farm had left, and his house was occu- 

 pied by an old man with his wife and 2 

 or 3 young children. The hives were in 

 an orchard, partly shaded by apple- 

 trees, partly exposed to the sun. At 

 that time we had not begun using any 

 roofs over the hives, neither had we any 

 straw-mats, such as we now use over the 

 combs. During July the bees harvested 

 quite a crop of honey, and the weather 

 became very sultry. One day I received 

 information from the tenant that the 

 bees were in an uproar, which had 

 already lasted for 2 days. 1 hastened 

 to the apiary and found that the combs 

 had melted down in a number of hives ; 

 in some instances only one comb had 

 broken down, but in 6 or 8 cases every 

 comb had been melted by the heat, and 

 when I arrived those colonies were en- 

 tirely ruined. There were whole rows 

 of hives in which not a colony was safe 

 from this mishap. I valued "the loss at 

 over S100. The hives had entrances 

 about 8 inches long, hut evidently the 

 heat had compelled the bees to cluster 

 on the outside, and in some cases the 

 cluster had very probably hung partly 

 in front of the ventilating space. 



This taught me a lesson which I never 

 forgot. Hut those bees had gone 

 through the swarming month — June — 

 without suffering from the lack of venti- 

 lation, and without much swarming. 



After that, for a few years, we fell 

 into the opposite extreme. We formed 

 the habit of lifting the hives from the 



bottom-board 2 or 3 inches for hot 

 weather. In addition we moved the sur- 

 plus cases bade so as to give a bee-space 

 and an egress at the top of the brood- 

 combs as well as at the bottom. This 

 did very well in hot summers, but we 

 soon found out that in many summers so 

 much ventilation is injurious. In fact, 

 I found hives whose bees were closing 

 the upper ventilation by filling the space 

 with lumps of propolis. This was clear 

 evidence that the bees thought the mat- 

 ter was overdone. When the hives were 

 left too long with this upper ventilation, 

 the bees would remove both the honey 

 and the brood from the upper opening, 

 and a considerable space of the brood- 

 combs was practically abandoned by the 

 bees. 



Of late years we have allowed our- 

 selves to be guided entirely by the be- 

 havior of the bees. When they are 

 hanging on the outside — "making a 

 beard," as the French say — we conclude 

 that they are uncomfortable, and we at 

 once enlarge the entrance. If the en- 

 largement of the bottom entrance is not 

 sufficient, we make an opening at the 

 top of the brood-chamber by setting the 

 supers back a little, so as to leave an 

 open passage of a quarter inch on the 

 end of the frames. But this remains 

 only while the bees are hanging out 

 and while the harvest continues, for we 

 do not think it worth while to keep this 

 space open after the end of the clover 

 crop, the bees having but little to do and 

 being likely to cluster on the outside, 

 anyhow, if very numerous. In cool 

 summers, when the nights are not un- 

 pleasantly hot, we abstain from giving 

 upward ventilation. 



A very clear proof that ventilation 

 may be overdone when the nights are 

 comparatively cool, as they have been 

 this summer, is shown in the fact that 

 the bees keep the honey away from the 

 cool spots. We use an enamel cloth 

 and a straw-mat over the combs, and if 

 the enamel cloth happens to have a hole 

 in it this is sufficient to make a very 

 slight amount of ventilation through the 

 mat at that spot. In a cool summer the 

 bees remove their honey from such 

 spots, even though they may be over the 

 center of the brood combs. 



That makes it clear to me that they 

 consider even this small amount of ven- 

 tilation as objectionable, while a lower 

 ventilation does not seem to have any 

 bad effects at all. 



The reader will then see that this 

 matter of ventilation is of necessity to 

 be adjusted according to the greater or 

 less heat of the temperature. The ven- 

 tilation needed in our hot summers in 

 the Mississippi Valley would at all times 

 be superfluous in the mountainous coun- 

 tries like Switzerland, or in mild climates 

 like that of England. The amount of 



ventilation sufficient in Canada would, 

 on the contrary, be entirely inadequate 

 here. 



Now, as to ventilation for the preven- 

 tion of swarming. It is easily perceived 

 that if we have a hot season at the time 

 of swarming a condition that will re- 

 quire of the bees their clustering on the 

 outside during a part of the day — the 

 tendency to swarm will be very much 

 increased. On the other hand, we may 

 have very pleasant weather at the same 

 time as a good honey-flow, and without 

 warning our bees may swarm because of 

 want of empty combs, when all the ven- 

 tilation that could be judiciously given 

 would be of no avail. 



The best swarms are cast early in the 

 season, when an ordinary and sufficient 

 flight-opening is all that can be expected 

 among the requirements. I, therefore, 

 think that ventilation in plenty is not 

 the most important requirement. But 

 it is one of the requirements. 



It has been said that an upper open- 

 ing will prevent swarming. I believe it 

 will, if the amount of room for storing 

 the crop is sufficient. I do not believe 

 that it would of itself prevent swarming, 

 unless this ventilation was carried to 

 such extremes as to make the bees un- 

 comfortable, in which case there might 

 be great danger of having some of the 

 brood chilled. 



So I think we may lay down the rule 

 that additional ventilation and shade 

 must be given, as a preventive of swarm- 

 ing whenever the bees show that they 

 are' crowded, or are uncomfortable by 

 lying on the outside of the hive. This 

 clustering out is never an evidence that 

 the combs are filled, neither is it an evi- 

 dence that the hive is full of combs, but 

 only proof that the interior of the hive 

 is unpleasantly warm for its inhabitants; 

 and if we would avoid swarming, we 

 must make their home comfortable. 



Hamilton, 111. 



T Supers— Their Construc- 

 tion and Use 



BY .J. C. ARMSTRONG 



I believe I can describe the T super I 

 use by the cut of yours as given on page 

 642. I don't care whether any other 

 bee-keeper uses it or not, only that if 

 others use it the supply-dealers will 

 keep it in store. Whenever I want a 

 supply of them I have to send a sample 

 to the factory, which costs me 50 cents 

 every time besides the super, which I 

 never get back. 



Taking your model : The side from 

 you is 20 inches long, % inch thick, and 

 4', inches wide. Then it is sunk back 

 '4 of an inch at each edge. The side 

 next to you is the same width, made out 

 of 5^-inch stuff and divided in the mid- 

 dle. The upper half is loose, and is 

 fastened at the end by a button which 

 turns around the corner when put up. 

 Tie end pieces are 13 inches long and % 

 thick, and 4',, inches wide. It will then 

 be the same as the sides, omitting strips 

 as on the side. 



(in each end on the inside is nailed a 

 strip ' inch thick and 4^ inches wide. 



Instead of the supports for the tins as 

 shown in yours, a strip y' z of a lice-space 

 runs the whole length of the super, and 

 Is halved into the end pieces, and is % 



