1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



623 



tice seems to show it, that the space between 

 the two contiguous combs is about '4 inch ; 

 that, so far from being under that distance, it 

 is more liable to be over than under. — Ed.] 



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ANSWERS TO / 



SEASONABLE 



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(QUESTIONS 



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"large vs. small entrances," etc. 

 If the reader will turn to page 166 of pres- 

 ent volume of Gleanings he will see how 

 our naughty, naughty editor planned for a 

 "fight" between "Dr. Miller and Doolittle. 

 Then by turning to pages 4:50 and 431 it can 

 be seen how ready Dr. Miller is to " pilch on " 

 when he has some one to rub his ears and 

 say, " Sick 'em!" But after he has arrived in 

 the "arena," and looks on the "troubled 

 waters," he evidently begins to "quake with 

 fear;" for hear him calling for help (before 

 Doolittle has even peered over at him ) in 

 these words: "Say, Ernest, 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." Then, true to 

 his manner of always being with the man who 

 can shout the loudest, the editor " sidles " up 

 to the trembling doctor and whispers these 

 cheering words in his ear: ' Joking aside, so 

 far it seems to me that Dr. Miller has the best 

 of the argument." And the good doctor feels 

 strengthened; for surely they two can "lay 

 out" any (Doo) -little man who would dare 

 assail their masterly arguments. 



Well, it was not best to enter that arena 

 where two such mighty warriors stood, with- 

 out weapons of some kind ; so I have quietly 

 waited till furnished with the same, and by 

 their use I expect not only to drive the sym- 

 pathizing pair out, but annihilate the " arena " 

 as well, so that there will be no further cause 

 for "bloody" battles in the future. And 

 what are the weapons I have found by waiting, 

 which I did not have before ? Simply truth 

 and facts ; and these are such keen weapons 

 that theory and error can not stand against 

 them. I took the matter right to the bees and 

 called on them for a decision — not the way 

 the good doctor did by raising all of his hives 

 on blocks, nor by "willingly taking a few 

 stings," as the editor thought he could, but 

 by fixing ten hives each way that were of as 

 nearly equal strength in every way as Doolittle 

 could determine ; but I used the Pettit plan 

 of enlarging entrances, rather than the blocks, 

 as the block plan had been tried before. 



Now, what did the bees decide in the matter 

 of swarming? Well, contrary to my expec- 

 tations, three of those with the enlarged 

 entrances swarmed before any with the com- 

 mon entrance did. I might say, by way of 

 explanation, that this trial was made at the 

 out-apiary where I use the ten-frame L. hive 

 vdth from 44 to 132 sections on each, so the 

 entrance to those used on the Pettit plan was 

 15 inches long by 1 ^ inches deep, while the 



others had the ordinary entrance which is 15 

 x>^. At this apiary the season has been fairly 

 good, some colonies fully completing the 132 

 sections, while here at home it has been very 

 poor, only two swarms issuing here ; while 

 there, all would have swarmed, only as kept 

 from it by manipulation. 



When I got that great big Pettit entrance 

 staring before me, there looked to be so much, 

 "openness" about it that I thought brood- 

 rearing would be retarded by it, hence swarm- 

 ing be late, or done away with entirely ; and 

 had it not been for the block experience of 

 the past I should have been still more sur- 

 prised with the result than I was. So the bees 

 decided that large entrances were no proof 

 against swarming. 



I next got down with my face right up close 

 to the entrance, to see the bees run up the 

 sides and back end of the hive, as Bro. P. 

 assured us they would do ; and as the bees 

 dropped in by the score and hundred they 

 nearly all did the very foolish thing of either 

 alighting directly on the cluster which hung 

 below the frames, or running till they came 

 to the cluster, when they would climb into it 

 and be lost from view. Thus they decided 

 that a part of the claim for Bro. Pettit's system 

 was a myth. And, lest I forget it, I want to, 

 say right here that a setting-apart of a certain 

 number of colonies /;/ the same apiary, one 

 half to be tried by any new plan, and the 

 other half by the old, is something that will 

 always tell us whether there is advantage in 

 the new or not; and by thus doing we shall 

 often be saved making some strong assertions, 

 which will not "hold water," and also be 

 kept from a loss that otherwise might occur. 



But, how about that clustering-out which is 

 such a great bugbear with our editor and 

 others? Well, simply this: If bees are not 

 crowded for room in which to store honey, all 

 the clustering-out they may do in no way 

 affects the amount of surplus they store, pro- 

 viding they have an entrance large enough so 

 they do not go to gnawing to enlarge it, thus 

 partially or wholly blocking the same, as they 

 will often do where a 3/s-deep (or less) en- 

 trance is used. 



My experience goes to prove that from /g to 

 Yi inch is the right depth of entrance, contract- 

 ing the other way where we wish a smaller 

 one. " But," I hear the doctor saying, at the 

 end of his nicely spun theory, "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." And now comes the 

 "locking horns" part, which pleases our 

 editor so much, for / say they will not have 

 nearly so good a chance to keep the interior 

 of the hive cool with that great big 60-inch 

 entrance as they will with the 15x)^-inch en- 

 trance. I wonder if our dear doctor ever sat 

 in a great big room with the doors and win- 

 dows all wide open, with the mercury at from 

 90° to 95° in the shade, at a time when " not 

 a leaf was stirring," when he thought he 

 would "roast." Oh, yes! I know he has, 

 and it did not seem that all of those doors and_ 

 windows kept that room cool a bit. Presently 



