52 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan 15 



themselves to the sides and back end of the 

 super. For a short time after raising the front 

 end of the hive, the bees, as they come from the 

 fields, will seem a little confused when they 

 find the bottom -bars out of reach; but they 

 will soon find a new way up, some going to the 

 right and some to the left, going up the sides of 

 the hive instead of the middle, as formerly. 

 The wedges close the openings and form con- 

 tinuous passages up, and some will march 

 right along toward the back end until tbey can 

 reach the bottom -bars. This places the bees 

 with their loads just where wanted. Now see 

 — this is all quite simple, and not at all objec- 

 tionable to the bees. 



Permit me to say I have carefully watched 

 the process of comb building and filling under 

 this system; and in some cases, though they 

 are the exceptions, I have found the outside 

 sections rather ahead of those near or at the 

 center— one very important point gained. 



But there is yet another new and valuable 

 feature to be described. First, however, allow 

 me to say that we have often, to our sorrow, 

 found that the outsides of the outside sections, 

 though fairly well filled, are, at least a good 

 many of them, but poorly capped. This has 

 often been a sore trial— so many poorly finished 

 sections after looking so repeatedly and wait- 

 ing so long. 



It always seemed to me that, if more room 

 could be furnished, more bees could be present, 

 and thus a more uniform and the necessary 

 heat kept up day and night at the outside of 

 the outside sections; then the bees would feel 

 and act like those farther inside, and would go 

 on and finish up the job "in a workmanlike 

 manner." But the difficulty would always 

 come up that, if more space was given, it would 

 only be filled with honey in poor shape. 



At length I conceived the idea of giving two 

 bee-spaces by putting in a divider to divide the 

 extra space into two bee-spaces. Following up 

 the idea I set myself at experimenting to test 

 what seemed to me so full of promise. After 

 experimenting with a good many different de- 

 vices with more or less success, I tried tbe one 

 which is here described, and it has given very 

 good satisfaction indeed. 



It is simply as follows: A piece of basswood 

 or pine, about a sixth of an inch thick, and just 

 the width and length of a separator, is bored 

 as full of j6g-inch holes as the wood will stand 

 and not split to pieces, and five M inch strips 

 are nailed across it. These are turned outside 

 against the wall of the super, thus forming two 

 bee-spaces instead of one. The bees cluster on 

 both sides of the divider, and pass freely both 

 ways through the holes, and the work goes 

 right along in good shape. 



I tried a few with ^^-inch holes, with satis- 

 factory results. 



.K^otes.- Nothing is gained by giving more 

 than two bee-spaces. 



Dividers made of slats i^ inch apart leave the 

 sections ridgy, reminding one of a miniature 

 washboard, and, besides that, some brace-combs 

 appear between the sections and divider. 



I coined the word " divider," or, rather, ap- 

 plied it to the new device. 1 hope it will do. 

 This system is applicable to all kinds of hives, 

 and the cost is a mere trifle only. I have no sup- 

 plies for sale, nor have I any interest in that 

 line of business. Free to all. 



Belmont, Ont., Dec. 26. 



[Mr. Francis Danzenbaker has for several 

 years advocated the use of deep entrances in 

 the production of comb honey, and accordingly 

 on all his hives he has what he calls his rever- 

 sible bottom-board, one side of which has raised 

 a rim making a 'V inch space, and on the other 

 side a deep rim, making a 1-inch space. In 

 hiving swarms, or in the production of comb 

 honey, he uses this deep space; but his argu- 

 ment has been that it forces the bees to get 

 their honey away from their entrances, where 

 it is cold, up into the top of the hive or super, 

 where it is warm. I believe he never claimed 

 for it, however, that it resulted in the equal 

 distribution of comb-building and comb-filling. 



As I understand it, your long wedges accom- 

 plish practically the same results as Mr. Dan- 

 zenbaker's reversible bottom-board, only that 

 he has a space of equal depth under the frames 

 from front to rear. I hope others will report 

 upon this during the coming season, and give 

 us the result of their findings.— Ed.] 



ANSWERS TO 



BY G.M.DOOLlTTLE.BonODlNO.N.Y. 



WINTERING BEES IN A BEE HOUSE. 



Question. — Would bees winter safely in a house 

 built for them, where the temperature might be 

 nearly as low inside the house as outside, pro- 

 viding it were so constructed that each colony 

 woula be inclosed in chaff packing, the same as 

 in a chaff hive, with arrangements to close the 

 outside entrances on the approach of cold wea- 

 ther, and give them ventilation from the inside, 

 where the wind can not blow in upon the bees? 



Answer.— It would be hard to tell for a cer- 

 tainty about this matter, without having tried 

 it for a term of years. Bees often winter well 

 with protection, and sometimes equally well 

 without it. They are lost, too, under precisely 

 the same circumstances. Low temperature is 

 the demon which slays our bees more surely 

 than any thing else in winter. If we had warm 

 weather all the year round, here at the North, 

 our wintering troubles would be at an end. 

 Whether protecting each hive separately would 

 overcome the trouble, which is almost sure to 

 result where bees are kept in a continued low 

 temperature, as they must be by such a plan as 

 is proposed, is somewhat doubtful. Theoretic- 

 ally it looks all right ; but so far as my knowl- 

 edge goes, and from what I have gathered from 

 others, such a mode of wintering has never been 



