1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



431 



gering suspicions that colonies were not so 

 wholly given up to swarming in those days as 

 they are in some apiaries to-day. Don't you 

 remember that the goodness or badness of the 

 season was to a considerable extent measured 

 by the amount of swarming ? It was a good 

 season if there was much swarming, a bad 

 season if little. If swarming had been as 

 common as now, that distinction could hardly 

 have been made. But every one knows that 

 lack of room is one of the chief causes of 

 swarming. What matter, then, if a hive was 

 raised an inch, and still too little room left? 

 for in many (probably in most) cases, the 

 queen was crowded in spite of the raising. 

 Surplus room in abundance was not given 

 then as now. Even after surplus room began 

 to be given above, it was limited, and only a 

 small passage from the brood-chamber allow- 

 ed, that passage perhaps not being opened till 

 swarming had been decided upon by the bees. 



Mr. Dooliltle would just as soon have the 

 bees cluster on the outside of the hive as to 

 have the same cluster hanging idly under the 

 bottom-bars in a space made by blocking up 

 the hive. How about it, though, Bro. Doo- 

 liltle, if the cluster hanging on the outside of 

 the hive is two or three times as large as could 

 hang uuder the bottom-bars when the hive is 

 raised? Did you never see a thing of that 

 kind? I think I've seen clusters hanging on 

 the outside three or four times as large as 

 could hang uuder bottom-bars an inch above 

 the floor. 



Suppose, however, that the amount of bees is 

 the same in each case. Take two colonies alike 

 in every respect, in hives exactly alike, eight- 

 franiers, for instance. When weather gets hot 

 or,e of them is raised, so there's an opening an 

 inch high all around. The other is left with an 

 entrance 12x3/^ — a little more than three 

 quarts extra room under the raised hive. 

 Now, when it gets hot enough for three quarts 

 of bees to hang outside the hive with the 

 small entrance I don't believe there will be 

 any three quarls under the bottom-bars in the 

 other hive — not hot enoiigh in there. 



But suppose the cluster the same in each 

 case, just as many bees under the bottom-bars 

 of one hive as outside in the other, and that 

 the bees extend clear across from bottom -bar 

 to floor. Do you pretend to tell me that it 

 will be just as cool in one hive as in the other ? 

 Now look here, Doolittle, I'd stand a good 

 deal from you, but I must draw the line some- 

 where, and I just ivonH stand that. 



In the one case there's an opening 12x^. 

 You surely will not say the bees could keep 

 as cool if you should shut up half of that, 

 leaving it 6x3-^. And, by the same token, 

 there ought to be more chance for cooling off 

 if you make another entrance at the back end 

 or at either of the sides of the same size, 12x 

 y%\ for the fanners at the new entrance could 

 carry on business at their own stand, inde- 

 pendently of what was done before. And so, 

 as fast as you give greater room you give 

 chance for more ventilation. Let's compare. 

 In the one case the 12x^ entrance forms an 

 opening of 4)^ square inches. The hive 

 blocked up an inch has an opening of perhaps 



(')0 square inches, about 13 times as much as 

 the other. Now, I don't say the bees will 

 have 13 times the chance to keep cool they do 

 in the other case, but I do say the chance will 

 be more — a good deal more — a great deal more. 



Now, Mr. Editor, if I have understood you 

 correctly you want to keep the sides closed, 

 having an entrance at back and front. That 

 back and front gives you an opening of 24 

 square inches. Don't you think it will be an 

 improvement to more than double that 24 

 inches, making it (iO, by opening up the sides ? 

 Say, truest, get down off the fence and stand 

 with me before Doolittle has time to get back 

 at me and show that my arguments are all 

 sophistries. 



When it comes to actual practice, I confess 

 it isn't pleasant to have a hive tumbling down 

 off its blocks now and then, neither is it a 

 nice thing to give the bees so fine a chance 

 for attack upon your ankles by having the 

 sides open. But it's very much the lesser of 

 two evils. You can protect your ankles, and 

 I've thought the chance for tumbling down 

 would be greatly lessened if the blocks had 

 nails driven clear through them so the points 

 would stick through, say % inch, one point 

 running into the hive, the other into the bot- 

 tom-board. vSuppose the floor has a pitch of 

 34 inch. Then put )4-inch blocks at the back 

 end, and 1 '4 -inch blocks at front end. That 

 leaves your hive a dead level while your sec- 

 tions are on, but the floor slants all the time. 



Marengo, 111., March 7. 



[I have been rather holding back this lock- 

 ing of horns on the part of Doolittle and Mil- 

 ler until such time as we could clear the 

 arena, and here goes the second round. 



Joking aside, so far it seems to me that Dr. 

 Miller has the best of the argument. With 

 the ordinary entrance, our bees around Medi- 

 na, if the colony is strong enough to work in 

 supers, will very often cluster out in front by 

 the peck measureful; and sometimes they will 

 hang over the entrance so thickly that it is 

 impossible to see where the ent^-ance is. This, 

 of course, makes the hive a veritable oven in- 

 side, and no wonder about all the bees are 

 out in front as I have found them to be many 

 and many a time when I have opened up the 

 hive to see what the matter was. All this led 

 me to believe that our entrances were too 

 small, and that they ought to be larger. A 

 large entrance can be contracted; but a small 

 one can not be enlarged except by the awk- 

 ward plan of setting the hive up on four 

 blocks; and if the bottom is fast, why, then 

 we are " up the stump." And now Dr. Miller 

 wants to know if I do not think that 60 inches 

 square of space all around the hive is better 

 than 24 square inches open front and rear. I 

 do not know that I know what I know on 

 this point. Before we adopted the inch- deep 

 entrance we felt that we had struck the me- 

 dium between the very narrow entrance, y%, 

 and the widest; but you need not tell any- 

 body, doctor; but I believe I v^nll raise some 

 of our strong colonies up on four blocks, even 

 if they do have an inch-deep entrance to start 

 on. What care I if they do topple over a lit- 



