88 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Any one litiving any doubts on this 

 subject, can easily demonstrate the fact, 

 by inverting a tin box over the blanlvct 

 the size of tlie hive, and securing it that no 

 moisture can escape, and none enter from 

 without ; then examine it after the mer- 

 cury has remained for a few days and 

 nights several degrees below freezing, 

 and he will be surprised at the quantity of 

 moisture that has been condensed on the 

 cold metal in the form of frost, which if 

 it were allowed to accumulate during sev- 

 eral weeks or months, he would have an 

 approximate idea of the whole quantity 

 thus thrown otf and what the condition of 

 the hive and bees would be if this had 

 been retained. 



The idea that moisture in any consid- 

 erable quantity is generated by the bodies 

 and respiratory organs of bees, seems to 

 be ridiculed throughout the article, and 

 he takes human physiology to prove his 

 position, and says: "In human life there 

 is so little extra moisture, that it requires 

 accurate experiments to find it," while 

 the fact is that it amounts to several 

 pounds daily. 



Put ou gum boots without lining over 

 woolen stockings ; they will soon be 

 found wet with prespiratiou. 



The soldier finds the underside of his 

 gum blanket that he has slept under dur- 

 ing a cold night, lined with frost, from 

 comparatively small portion of the aque- 

 ous vapor exhaled from the body during 

 the night. 



The question is asked, "In what case of 

 animal life does the moisture emanating 

 from their bodies, condense to such an 

 extent as to dampen and mould their 

 beds ?" I would answer, whenever that 

 moisture is confined to the bed. Try a 

 rubber bed, with rubber coverings, at a 

 temperature low enough to condense mois- 

 ture ; confine closely all the vapor gener- 

 ated by the body and exhaled from the 

 lungs, and I imagine the bed in the morn- 

 ing will be found uncomfortably moist. 



For this very reason we use the kind 

 of clothing and bedding we do in cold 

 weather ; and try to apply the same prin- 

 ciples in the management of our bees. 

 One, while it is a non-conductor of the 

 animal heat generated by the body, is 

 sufliciently porous to convey the aqueous 

 vapor to the external atmosphere. "We 

 have ventitators in our houses ; our doors 

 and windows, with our fireplaces and 

 their flues, constantly changing the at- 

 mosphere around us and carrying ofi" the 

 surplus moisture. 



Each bee in the cluster is of itself a 

 ilittle chemical laboratory and furnace, with 

 chimney attached, receiving its supplies 

 of fuel from the atmosphere and the car- 



bonaceous materials in its food, which, 

 when combined in its system are con- 

 sumed, generating heat, the carbonic-acid 

 gas and water escaping as eftete material 

 or smoke. 



Now, one great object in every bee-hive, 

 should be to have some means by which 

 this effete matter can be carried off. It is 

 of no more use to them in the support of 

 animal life, than the smoke that escapes 

 from the chimney is fit for combustion ; 

 but on the contrary, the carbonic-acid is 

 as surely fatal to animal life, when in- 

 haled in large quantities, as water is to 

 quench fire. 



As we cannot very well use a single 

 large chimney for this purpose we resort 

 to a great number of small ones. We em- 

 ploy capillar y force; that force which 

 raises the oil in the wick, the sap in the 

 plant and tree, and in this we have thous- 

 ands of minute chimneys, as the medium, 

 transmitting these gases to the external 

 air, where it is diffused instead of being 

 condensed within the hive, to be vapor- 

 ised again and again as the temperature 

 changes. 



The writer further says; that, "In the 

 face of the fact that bees will stop air- 

 tight every crevice except their entrance," 

 bee-keepers will persist in putting blank- 

 ets and mats on their hives for the pur- 

 pose of ventilation." That they will 

 plaster up a thin piece of wire gauze, 

 there is no doubt; but we do deny, that 

 they in a state of nature, make or at- 

 tempt to make their homes air-tight ; a 

 fact which further along in the article is 

 practically admitted ; where he saj^s, 

 speaking of hollow trees : "The walls 

 are generally in a decaying condition, be- 

 ing spongy and porous, and full of air 

 cells." Just so; not "air-tight" then, but 

 just what is needed to absorb the mois- 

 ture, and just what we try to imitate with 

 our straw mats, quilts, boxes of charcoal 

 and chaff, straw and shavings ; in short, 

 something that is "spongy and full of air- 

 cells." 



Thus far we can imitate nature and no 

 farther. Here the parallel with the na- 

 tural home ends. 



With all our patent hives, with their 

 air-chambers, and absorbents we cannot 

 endow them with the vital force possessed 

 by the living tree with its millions of 

 capillary tubes, terminating on its hollow 

 surface, sucking up, as it were, every 

 particle of surplus moisture, and carrying 

 it to its remotest branches. 



It is a fact, I believe, which has been 

 generally admitted by bee-keepers, that 

 bees, other things equal, as regards 

 care and protection from severe changes 

 of temperature, winter better in the old 



