1886 



GLEAKIKGS IK BEE CULTUBE. 



SO I 



when well made and properly spaced, if you view 

 them only from the top; but to turn them over and 

 take a peep at the other side is discourag-lnjf, to say 

 the least. I always want to turn it back and try it 

 over again. 



As a complete invertiblc hive it has the disadvan- 

 tage that it may be wrong side up when the frames 

 need handling, and must bo righted before you can 

 take them out. The hive can also occupy but two 

 positions— right side up and the reverse. A com- 

 plet3 invertible hive possesses the most advantag- 

 es which can occupy four positions, either of which 

 can be given it in a moment, and without inconven- 

 ience to either the bees or their keeper. 



J. M. Shuck. 



Des Moines, Towa, March »'0, 1886. 



Friend S., you have hit it exactly, in say- 

 ing that the appearance of a Simplicity hive, 

 or any hanging-frame hive, is just awful 

 when turned over and you take a view of 

 the bottom-bars as they appear when turned 

 uppermost; and I felt just as you did, that 

 when I got it upside down I felt anxious to 

 turn it back again right side up. We, how- 

 ever, put some cinders and sticks between 

 the frames where they pressed together, and 

 with a little pains made it look tolerably pre- 

 sentable. 



^ I ^ 



TEMPERATURE OF BROOD-NEST. 



WERE DOOLITTLE'S EXPERIMENTS ON PAGE 19], 

 LAST YEAR, IN ASCERTAINING THE TEMPER- 

 ATURE OF A COLONY IN WINTER, FAULTY? 



fN page 43 we find, among others on the subject 

 of " upper absorbents," the assertion that 

 " moist air is heavier than dry, especially 

 when cool." I wintered about 25 colonies on 

 summer stands during the winter of 1883-"4 in 

 my Climatic chaff hive. They stood close together 

 in one row, faciag east, with a tight board fence on 

 the west, and stable on the north, with temporary 

 board roof. I had tight-fitting division-boards on 

 each side of the brood-nest, with a chaff box on top 

 instead of cushions. That part of my hive which 

 incloses the brood-nest (first story) is chaff packed, 

 each end being four inches thick, the end walls and 

 division-boards extending one inch above brocd- 

 frames. This gives my chaff box, or cushion, a 

 drop of one inch to act in conjunction with chatf 

 walls of hive in retaining heat. 



My boxes used that winter were made of inch 

 pine, bottom of burlap, and filled with about seven 

 inches of wheat and oat chaff, and the box set down 

 on the nine brood-frames ; the box fit close (as you can 

 make wood fit against wood) to the one-inch projec- 

 tion of end walls and division-boards, as above ex- 

 plained. The entrance I left open and kejit free 

 from snow; the cover, or cap, had a ]i.i-inch hole 

 covered with wire cloth in each end. Now comes 

 the test of the scientific assertion, that " cool moist 

 air is heavier than dry." In the si>ring, upon ex- 

 amining these hives 1 found the nuijority, if not 

 all, as nearly as I remember, of the chaff boxes with 

 an average of 2 inches of wet, moldy chaff on toii, 

 and the rest of the chaff, four and five inches down 

 to the bees, nice and dry; and in hives strong in 

 bees, the chaff was warm toward the bottom. I had 

 a clustering-space under the burlap bottom. I have 

 discarded the boxes, and use, instead, cushions, 

 pretty thick, with a Hill device sewed fast to the 



under side of cushion. The cushion and device can 

 be stored away each spring together, without sep- 

 aration. I use the cushion instead of the box, for 

 the reason that a cushion can be made to fit sjiiii/ all 

 around in the one-inch drop alluded to, where the 

 wooden boxes would allow heat to escape. 



Now, I believe, from my experience so far, that a 

 cushion about 8 inches thick, or thicker, made to 

 fit close, with a clustering chamber under it, and the 

 entrance left open, will allow of a slow draft, insuf- 

 ficient to carry off enough heat to be detrimental to 

 the bees, yet causing the excess of moisture to be 

 carried and deposited partly on the tipper surface 

 of the chaff, and part escape through the holes in 

 the cap. 



About my first experience with bees was some 

 eight years ago. T tried to winter a few in Ameri- 

 can hives, by covering them up so snug and thick on 

 the frames, with pieces of carpet and cloths, that 

 the moisture failed to escape, and two out of three, 

 I believe I had then, I found so wet that combs and 

 bees were in a kind of " mush," too dead to make 

 "wax." I do not understand why any one can ob- 

 ject to upper absorbents, if the cushion is arranged 

 to retain the heat to fit down close, and put on early 

 enough so the bees may wax it fast. 



I examined a number of colonies this week, tem- 

 perature about 10 above zero, and found, in every 

 one at which I peeped hastily, the bees clustered in 

 the chamber made for them under the cushion. 



I was thinking, a few days since, that if we could* 

 make a chamber large enough to hold a good col- 

 ony the shape of the shades found on our parlor 

 hanging-lamps, which aredome shaped, with a large 

 opening in the top, as in the shade, and cover the 

 whole with a <7ac/f chaff cushion, and let the mois- 

 ture escape through the opening into the chaff 

 cushion, it would insure almost to a certainty their 

 wintering, as the bees could be all in one cluster, 

 and the heat thus generated would defy our sever- 

 est winters. 



We can not winter bees successfully whei-e the 

 cluster is separated by one or more combs of honey, 

 as must be the case wtiere wintered in the brood- 

 nest; not enough bees can cluster between two 

 combs to stand our severe winters. If the above 

 " shade " chamber were made out of some light 

 material, like the wooden buttei'-plates found in 

 our groceries, and thickly perforated with about 

 'a-inch holes, then pour around it about 20 lbs. of 

 "Good" candy, leaving the center open as in the 

 shade, for the moisture to escape into the cushion, 

 which would completely cover the chamber, sugar 

 and all, it would, I believe, be an excellent house to 

 winter in; the walls of said house would be 

 " around and about them," and the bees could" just 

 sit around " and lick the sugar when and where 

 they might choose. 



THE NORMAL TEMPERATURE OF A COLONY IN 

 WINTER QUARTERS. 



On page 191, in your foot-notes you say that dis- 

 turbing the bees would cause the temperature to 

 rise rapidly, and that you do not quite see that Mr. 

 Doolittle had settled it; also, on page 91 our hiber- 

 nating friend Clarke says, " Mr. Doolittle's experi- 

 ments prove the extreme difticulty, if not utter im- 

 possibility, of ascertaining the normal temperature 

 of the interior of a bee-cluster; for the moment the 

 bees are disturbed and excited, the heat begins to 

 increase." Now, I think you and Mr. Clarke a little 

 premature in your decisions, as well as Mr. Doolit- 



