l88G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



87 



tors, the time may come when you will i^ote the other 

 way." (Italics mine.) " l"f you can produce honey 

 without separators, so that it will suit yourself, 

 your commission mau, the consumer, and every- 

 Viody, all rig-ht; if you can not, then use thenl." 



hast May, in (ii,EANiNGS, pag-e Sii. was an article 

 entitled " Wide Frames and Separators." Mr. Hed- 

 don gives us all, upon this subject, that I have been 

 able to find from his pen in Oleanjncs for the 

 past four years. In that article thej' arc certainly 

 not denounced. Please allow me to quote: "I 

 would rather abandon separators than use them in 

 two-stoi-y supers. I do not think there is any sys- 

 tem of using' separators, equal to the wide frame, 

 when lifted one utory liigh. There are many advantag- 

 es in the use of separators, and many in the non- 

 use. 1 mean to continue the use of separators, and 

 am now perfecting- a different style of supers 

 which I think will aid us greatly in their quick and 

 easy manipulation, as well as their usefulness." 



Please turn to the article, and read the whole of 

 it. I can not find that Mr. Heddon has ever de- 

 mninced separators; he has claimed, and still 

 claims, that marketable combs can be secured 

 without them; he has alwayii admitted that there 

 were advantages in their use, especially when used 

 in connection with wide frames. He has always 

 opposed wide frames two ticr>i of sect ions higlt; but 

 he has freely admitted, that, when used one tier of 

 sections high, wide frames have decided advan- 

 tages, and has at times been at a loss to know which 

 to use, the frames or his case. Before he had 

 proved the advantage's of reversing the sections, he 

 had about decided in favor of the case. The advan- 

 tages of reversing the sections turned the balance 

 in. favor of wide frames and separators. Is there 

 any thing anmsinu about this? 



I should also like to say something aboui "inter- 

 posing two sticks and a '„-inch aii--space " in the 

 center of the broodnest, but must wait until next 

 time. W'.'A. Hctchtnso.v. 



Kogeisville, Mich. 



Friend II., I think from wliat yen say. 

 that perhaps I icas a little severe on friend 

 Ileddon in regard to the separator business. 

 I beg his pardon, and I thank you for cor- 

 recting me. Perhaps it was wide frames to 

 liold two tiers of sections that I had in mind. 

 J>ut I tliink yon will agiee to this: That 

 when he adopted his new arrangement of a 

 year ago or more, he decided to abandon 

 separators ; for it is almost out of the ques- 

 tion to think of nsing separators with a case 

 made in that way, and I believe the breth- 

 ren generally tniderstood that Ileddon, by 

 adopting that style of case, conclnded that 

 tlie advantage of separators was not sufli- 

 (;ient to think of retaining them. Now, 

 however, just as a good many of us are 

 thinking of abandoning our old arrange- 

 ments, and nsing the Ileddon case so much 

 talked abont, he has dropped it and sid)sti- 

 tuted a wide frame with separators. Of 

 course, the wide frames hold only one tier of 

 sections. J suggested that he had, very 

 likely, good reasons for the change ; but in 

 view of making such changes, would it not 

 be best for all of us to l>e a little slow in 

 declaring or even deciding we have got the 

 thing just right where it ought to be? 

 These changes in implements, hives, and 

 arrangements, are very demoralizing, and T 



don't blame a good many for saying, " I am 

 not going to change any more until I can 

 see some very good reason," and that this 

 very good reason shall continue for at least 

 a year or two. 



COULD A COLONY OF BEES WINTER 

 IN A GLASS BOTTLE? 



A HINT IN REGARD TO MORE VENTII.-iTION FROM 

 THE ENTR.A.NCE. 



XN your comments on my article in Gleanings of 

 j^f Jan. 15, you ask the above question. Theoreti- 

 ^l cally, if there is any truth in what I believe 

 "*■ and act upon, a globular bottle made of thin 

 glass, of a size only sufficient to contain a col- 

 ony and its stores, the neck pointing downward, 

 and about 2'/2 inches in diameter, with all except 

 the opening protected by some non-conducting ma- 

 terial, would be a perfect wintering hive. Of 

 course, in practice we can not use hives of this 

 shape, nor would I recommend glass as a good ma- 

 terial to mpke hives of. 



I do not mean to say that we could confine all the 

 animal heat in such a hive, nor do I think that this 

 can be done in any hive we can use, unless the out- 

 side air is of the same temperature as that on the 

 Inside. Two bodies of air of different temperatures 

 can not be prevented from intermingling as long as 

 there is a passage between. A good colony, packed 

 as I would have them, will send a constant current 

 of warm air out of the entrance. If openings are 

 permitted in the top of the hive, the amount of 

 heat thus lost will be vastly greater. 



I wonder how many of those who claim that bees 

 hibernate, or, in fact, of bee-keepers in general, 

 know how much heat a colony of bees gives off. 

 When the heat is allowed to pass thi'ough the top of 

 the hive into the open air, there is no way of deter- 

 mining this waste. When a hive is closely sealed 

 at the top, and well protected from the cold, almost 

 all escape of heat is by means of the entrance. 

 When this is covered with snow, something of an 

 inde.\ is afforded as to the amount of waste heat by 

 the melting of the snow. I am a firm believer In the 

 letting-alone policy during winter, and consequent- 

 ly my hives are frequently covered with snow for a 

 month or two. When covered in this way, the snow 

 soon begins to melt away from the entrance, and I 

 have often seen a wedge-shaped space thus melted, 

 the width of the hive, five or six inches thick at the 

 base, and almost as high as the hive. After this 

 (juantity is melted, the melting stops, as the snow 

 gets so far away from the entrance that the out- 

 coming air is cooled before reaching it. By careful 

 estimation and experiment I have found that five 

 pounds of snow are often melted by a colony in 

 this way. I am sorry to say that I do not know just 

 how long it takes them to do this. The present 

 winter has not been a good one for finding this out. 

 Speaking from memory, I should say that when 

 the weather continues not much below the free/iug- 

 point, this amount may be melted in less than a 

 month. 



Now, to melt five pounds of snow requires 400 heat 

 units (pound centigrade). This is an amount of 

 heat sufficient to raise four pounds of water from 

 the freezing to the boiling point, or enough to 

 warm nearly ten and a half pounds of ice water to 

 100°, the natural temperature of the bee-hive. Re- 



