reo 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



place where it is drawn in, and I can't see 

 why it wouldn't be easier to drive out the air 

 at some other place. 



Your three swarms are good argument so 

 far as they go. but others say differenlh'. If 

 I remember correctly, Rev. W. P. Faylor says 

 he has no swarms with his hives blocked up, 

 but does have them otherwise. 



You say that in extreme heat you had larger 

 clusters outside with the large than with the 

 small entrance. Yesterday, Sept. 2, was an 

 extremely hot day. At the Wilsou apiary, 

 part of the hives were raised on blocks, and 

 part had the bottom-boards reversed, with 

 more room under the hive, and a larger en- 

 trance, but the sides and back part closed. 

 My assistant called my attention to the fact 

 that those with the sides and back closed 

 were about the only ones hanging out, not- 

 withstanding they were less crowded for room 

 inside. Can it be that your bees and mine are 

 prejudiced by our own views? or do we both 

 look through colored glasses? I may say 

 that, when I tried having the sides and back 

 open and shut, the same colony showed little 

 difference in the matter of hanging out. 



You say the bees don't get outside because 

 it's cooler, but to get out of the way of the 

 fanners, "for in reality it is cooler inside." 

 That's a point there ought to be no difficulty 

 in settling with the thermometer. So far as 

 I have tried it, the temperature was always 

 five, ten, or more degrees higher in the hive 

 than outside. When it was 99° on top of the 

 brood-frames, it was only 91° outside. The 

 only case in which your statement could be 

 correct would be with the sun shining directly 

 on the outside cluster ; but I think you will 

 find that the outside air is always cooler than 

 the air in the hive. How could it be other- 

 wise? The fanners are always bringing in air 

 from the outside, and the activity of the bees 

 produces heat, not cold. So the air is made 

 hotter and not colder. If the outside air were 

 hotter, the fanners might stop thtir work, so 

 far as heat is concerned. 



You wonder if I ever heard of sections melt- 

 ing down where there was not sufficient ven- 

 tilation. Yes, I have; and if the outside air 

 were not cooler, ventilation would not help 

 the case any. I hope this whole question will 

 be so thoroughly ventilated that it will no 

 longer remain a question. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. MiLLER. 



[G. M. DooUttle replies.] 



Dr. Miller kindly sent me the above, and 

 thus I have a chance to say what I wish in 

 reply, and then this matter can be closed up 

 in one number. As my time is very limited 

 just now, what I say must be brief. About 

 that ' ' arena, ' ' I don 't like to ' ' fight, ' ' anyway, 

 and I thought that the best way to stop the 

 fight was to "smash the arena;" then if the 

 editor wants damages let him charge it up 

 to Doolittle, Miller & Co. But " I don't 

 know" that the smashing of the arena will 

 stop the fight, for I see that the peaceful doc- 

 tor can fight to fully as good advantage 

 "dangling from a fence "as he could in the 

 whole spacious arena. But Pin bound to stop 



the fight, and so with a few parting words 

 " I'll hie me away " from both the fence and 

 the spot where once stood the glorious (?) 

 arena. 



As to Nature's plan of brood-rearing, I shall 

 still hold that, where the queen will deposit 

 eggs every time, right in the center of the 

 cluster of bees, unless that center is occupied 

 with something else, that is Nature's plan for 

 egg-laying. Nature telling the queen "to 

 deposit her eggs where it is the most con- 

 ducive to their comfort ; and when it comes 

 about, by an expansion of the brood, that 

 just the right thing can not be done, then do 

 just as nearly right as circumstances will 

 allow." I think that even Dr. M. can see 

 this point, so I will not enlarge further upon 

 it. Allow me to add, however, that, when no 

 brood or honey is in the way, any queen 

 always lays her eggs in the center of the 

 cluster of bees, whether the queen is young or 

 old, or whether the season is early spring or 

 late summer, according to all of my observa- 

 tions. 



As to large entrances: Dr. M. says, "It 

 would have been more to the point if you had 

 tried the four blocks. Perhaps it would; but 

 why should I try them over again, when I 

 told you that was tried years ago and found 

 wanting ? Then there was the Weeks hive, 

 with its swinging bottom-board, which, by 

 means of a button, caused >he bottom of the 

 hive to be shut, all but an entrance }ihy o 

 inches, at all times but in summer, when, by 

 turning the button again, the bottom-board 

 was suspended b}' four wire hooks 2)^ inches 

 from the hive. This, and hives raised on 

 inch blocks at the four corners, were tried, 

 with hives having only //^-inch-deep entrances, 

 by the whole length of one side of the hive ; 

 and the summing-up of the season's work 

 proved neither of the former superior to the 

 latter as to amount of dollars and cents pro- 

 duced, or as to non-swarming success. Then 

 why should I go all over the ground again 

 that I might be " more to the point " ? 



About the " say-so " of the three colonies 

 which had large entrances, and swarmed 

 before any of the other seventeen tried to 

 prove which was better as a non-swarming 

 device, the Pettit system or the common en- 

 trance, allow me to say that it happened thus: 

 Before I expected any swarms at the out- 

 apiary, the man owning the ground on which 

 the bees stood informed me that the bees had 

 commenced swarming, three swarms having 

 issued. I had told him to mark the hives 

 which swarmed (the queens had their wings 

 clipped, so swarms could not go off), and 

 when I went to look after the matter the three 

 hives marked were of the ten with the large 

 entrances. I then went through the whole 

 twenty to stop all swarming, and found that 

 all of the other 17 had made preparations for 

 swarming, but the three whicli got the start of 

 all the rest were those with the lar^e en- 

 trances. I don't claim that large entrances 

 promote swarming, but I do claim that they 

 do not retard swarming, much less tend 

 toward non-szvarming, and this claim is, based 

 on years of experience with both. 



