1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



761 



Now, Dr. M., I don't know that I can prove 

 any such thing, consequent!)' am not going to 

 try ; but from the hours I have lain beside 

 hives with swinging bottom-boards and those 

 with large entrances, and seen the lack of 

 " fanners " at work, unless those fanners were 

 away up in the hive, I have formed the opin- 

 ion that the fanners could do more effectual 

 work at the half-inch entrance than they 

 could where they had all outdoors to send a 

 " current of air through." 



I am very glad indeed to get your tests with 

 the thermometer; and while they do not prove 

 ver}' much to sustain either your side or mine, 

 one thing they do prove, which is that at no 

 time did the heat inside of the hive get very 

 much above that which is very comfortable for 

 the bees. You ask how I know. Well, don't 

 you remember those experiments I tried, to 

 get at the right temperature for brood-rearing, 

 and how, on one morning, when there was 

 frost on the ground I found the temperature 

 in the brood-nest to be from 95 to 97°, and in 

 all of the tests made that the range in the 

 brood-nest was from 94 to 98° ? And here we 

 have been having a whole great big " arena " 

 fight, with the ground all covered with "fur 

 and blood," all for the sake of something 

 under which the bees are very comfortable, 

 and that which they maintain, even on a 

 morning when the frost is on the ground. 



And now, asking your pardon, doctor, for 

 any thing I have said or done which may 

 appear to any looker-on as ungentlemanly or 

 unseemly, I wish to say that, after spending 

 weeks, were the time all put together, and 

 perhaps months, in raising hi\ es and putting 

 them down again, and hours of thought on 

 this matter of more ventilation and larger 

 entrances, the bees have told me by the prod- 

 ucts they have made, that, over and above a 

 half-inch entrance the whole length of the 

 hive, not one pound more honey will be pro- 

 duced, for the average of honey taken with 

 such entrances has been fully equal to that 

 taken with any larger entrances. This being 

 so, I have come to the conclusion that you 

 and others may continue raising hives on tour 

 blocks, use the Pettit wedges, yea, suspend 

 your hives in "mid-heavens," for the fun of 

 it, or from any theory advanced ; but as for 

 Doolittle, he'd rather spend the time in some- 

 thing more profitable; for it has come to such 

 a pass with me that I care not whether the 

 bees hang out or whether they are all in the 

 hive, so long as I know that they have suffi- 

 cient room in the surplus arrangement to store 

 all the nectar that comes from the field ; for 

 as they do as well for me under these circum- 

 stances as under any other, why should I 

 waste any further time on questions that have 

 no important bearing on our pursuit ? There- 

 fore I leave the further discussion of these 

 subjects to 3'ou and others, and will turn my 

 attention to things which have more impor- 

 tance, as I consider them. 



Borodino, N. Y. G. M. DoOLlTTLE. 



[The recorded temperature in the hive, con- 

 trary to what we might expect, proves very 

 little either way ; but I will venture to say 



that, on a very hot day, the fanners will be 

 harder at work in front of a small entrance 

 than in front of a large one. Say the temper- 

 ature outside is 110, it takes energy to keep 

 the air inside of the hive circulating, and that 

 energy will be proportioned somewhat accord- 

 ing to the size of the entrance. Suppose, for 

 instance, instead of having a regulation -sized 

 entrance, it were reduced to a space sufficient 

 to admit one bee at a time. Does it not stand 

 to reason that the fanners would have to work 

 very much harder? Indeed, this small en- 

 trance v/ould set up a friction that would 

 result in raising the temperature of the hive 

 beyond a safe point for the combs. 



In setting up engines it is always necessary 

 to give a large and free exhaust. If the 

 exhaust-pipe is too small it pinches the ex- 

 haust and causes back pressure and friction. 

 If it is large and free, then the exhaust comes 

 as a mere breath. So with a hive of bees. 

 The entrance is Ihe exhaust-pipe; the bees are 

 the engine, or source of energy; and the cur- 

 rent of air from the fanners is the exhaust. 



With a large entrance, the volume of air 

 can be handled with less fanning and less 

 friction than with a small one ; and the very 

 fact that the bees will cluster out more with a 

 half-inch entrance than with one of one or 

 two inches, goes to show to my mind that a 

 hive with an ample opening can be kept cool- 

 er, and, consequently, the bees stay inside. 

 When a colony clusters out for several days in 

 succession, I generally expect a swarm. — Ed.] 



HOW I MANAGE MY APIARY. 



An Ideal Railway Apiary. 



BY F. e;. brown. 



To start with I will describe the home apia- 

 ry with its arrangements. We will first go out 

 and see the way the bees are arranged. We 

 find them all in one long double row, about 5 

 feet apart, and the bees placed upon scaffolds 

 which raise them about 12 inches from the 

 ground. The hives are spaced in the row 

 about 2 ft. apart, and the direction of the row 

 is from north to south, with a row of shade- 

 trees planted just in front of the west row of 

 the double one, thus forming a perfect shade 

 for the bees in the heat of the day, while in 

 the morning till about 10 o'clock they are ex- 

 posed to the sun. This, I find, is very benefi- 

 cial in this climate (where we have quite cool 

 nights), as it serves to get the little fellows out 

 to work earlier in the morning ; and when the 

 honey is quite plentiful it does me good to see 

 them work hard early and late. 



As there are some 200 colonies in this apia- 

 ry usually, placing them all in two rows makes 

 the ones that are furthest from the honey- 

 house some distance away ; and in order to 

 overcome this objection a track is put down 

 between the rows, and a car placed upon it ; 

 and as I am now going to commence to ex- 

 tract I will invite the reader to go with me to 

 the apiary. You may have a veil if you wish, 

 but it is not necessary, as the bees are not 



