128 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Fkh. 15. 



meeting, botli the parent hive and the new hive 

 were opened by JMr. Axtell. It was then that 

 we both wondered how so pi'actical a man as 

 iMr. Axtell could advise tiie use of this hive. 



I have no desire to find fault with anybody's 

 hive or frame; but I can not help noticing that 

 even Mrs. Axtell acknowledges thatbees are kill- 

 ed in this hive, even" with care." It is certainly 

 more ditticult to avoid killing bees with this 

 hive than with the hanging-frame liive. But 

 we all have our pets, and there are probably a 

 hundred or more different styles of good hives 

 now in use; and each owner would pi'efer his to 

 any of the others, even if he saw them manipu- 

 lated with greater success. C. P. Dadant. 



Hamilton, 111. 



WILL BEES LIVE IN A GLASS BOTTLE T 



THE EXPERIMENT TKIED. 



Five years ago I procured a glass jar, some- 

 thing in the shape of a pear, 24 inches high, 

 largest diameter 12 in.; smallest, .5 in., and an 

 eight-inch opening at the neck. I made a stand 

 and box to cover it. and left an opening Xx?;'., 

 inches in the front. I have put a swarm in that 

 jar every year for the last five years. They did 

 very well until November or December, then 

 they just died. Why? Well, "I don't know." 

 There's the rub. At the time I first put a swarm 



A GLASS-150TTLE FOK WINTERING IJEKS. 



in, in 1887. I thought it would be beautiful to 

 see them working, which it was. and at that 

 time there was a great deal of talk about upper 

 and lovv(>r ventilation, so I thought this would 

 settle the question. 



I said I put a swarm in every year. Well, 

 tliere were never any bees living in it on the 1st 

 of January. Tiiey generally died a little after 

 the first cold spell, always leaving lots of honey, 

 none of the queens over two years old. 1 have 

 had blacks, hybrids, and Italians in it. but they 

 all died. About the 1st of December I took a 

 look at my bee-yard to see whether any tops 

 had blown off. I found the bees in this jar 

 dead, and combs very moldy. I cleaned it out 



and got four Mason quart jars of strained hon- 

 ey. Last fall this was one of the finest swarms. 

 It had a queen one year old. Nov. 1st 1 had llf> 

 swarms. They are all O. K. up to date. Jan. 9, 

 except the jar. Why is it '.' I give my hives no 

 protection whatever; but this jar was packed 

 in bran. Of course. I shall try again and keep 

 trying. In no year did the bees starve. They 

 always had plenty of honey. J. F. Long. 



Scott Center. Mo.. .Jan. '.i. 



[We are surpi'ised that the bees should have 

 died as soon as they did. and the experiment 

 was apparently a failure. It was J. A. Green, 

 who once wrote about wintering bees in a large 

 wide-mouth liottle, and here he gives some- 

 thing furthei' on the subject. 



UPWARD VENTILATION AND MOISTURE 

 ABSORBENTS IN WINTERING. 



interesting suggestions from J. A. (iUEEN. 



When I first wrote on this subject, nine years 

 ago, there seemed to be an almost universal 

 belief that, to winter bees successfully, there 

 must be a porous covering to the hive, with 

 absorbing material above. The object of this, 

 we were told, was to prevent the moisture gen- 

 erated by the bees from being deposited on the 

 combs and inside of the hive in the shape of 

 frost and ice. The current of air thus permitted 

 to circulate through the hive, passing out at 

 the top, carried with it the moisture. Under 

 some circumstances this vapor-laden aii' passed 

 out of the hive without depositing much of its 

 moisture, in which case little immediate harm 

 was done. Very often, though, the moisture 

 was condensed in the jiacking material, some- 

 times making it quite wet, which was injurious, 

 beyond doubt. The effects of this more or less 

 pronounced draft through the hive, together 

 with the wet packing, were most plainly seen 

 in the spring, if the colony survived until then. 

 The heat necessary for brood -rearing was kept 

 up with difficulty, and colonies built up slowly. 

 Strong colonies, of course, suffered least. 



Having observed these things. I decided that 

 the system of ventilation that had b(»en found 

 best for human residences was also best for bee- 

 hives; namely, that the air to be I'emoved 

 should be taken out at the bottom of the room 

 instead of at the top. I accordingly made my 

 hives as tight as possible at the top, and left 

 the entrance large enough so that the moisture- 

 laden air might easily find an exit there. The 

 I'esult justified my expectations, and since then 

 "upward ventilation" and "' absorbents" have 

 been things I have carefully avoided. 



.In a footnote to one of my earlier articles, the 

 experiment you refer toon page '.)53 was pro- 

 posed. Although I never wintered bees in a 

 glass bottle, I did winter several colonies in tin 

 cans and in other ways, by which I made sure 

 that no particle of moisture could escape from 

 the hives except at the entrance. These tests 

 were entirely satisfactory, as all the bees so 

 treated wintered excellently. They were never 

 reported, because, by the time they were con- 

 cluded, interest in the matter had largely died 

 out, and other things occupied the bee-keeping 

 mind. Since that time the current of opinion 

 has been slowly,;changing. until now I tliink 

 the majority of advanced bee-keepers would 

 say that it is better to have the top of the hive 

 sealed perfectly tight. Your experiments with 

 hives having sheets of glass sealed tight to the 

 top are interesting, because by them you can 

 see that hives tight at the top and properly 

 protected remain dry inside. I once had a 



