1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



97 



was worth something to me, perhaps iiiy 

 testimony may not be out of place. 



I had carefully read Carey W. Reese's 

 plan in the January 15th issue for 1909, al- 

 so Mr. O. B. Metcalfe's, April 15, 1909, but 

 not until the appearance of the article by 

 the editor in the October 15th issue did I 

 find the simple method that, as I thought, 

 seemed to fit my case and requirements. 

 Of course, we all recognize that there is no 

 difficulty in it, in a cold climate wheie bees 

 are confined for weeks or months at a time 

 without a flight, and most of us have had 

 experience along that line "back in old 

 Michigan " or some other place. But here 

 where bees fly practically every day in the 

 year it is quite different. 



Having occasion to move 40 colonies a 

 distance of about 25 rods, and not wanting 

 to take a chance in waiting for a cold spell 

 of weather, which here might never come 

 during the winter, I followed the sugges- 

 tions of our editor. I closed the entrances 

 early in the morning before the bees were 

 flying; placed the hives in the spring wagon, 

 and took them to the new stands. This 

 was done before 4 p.m., and at about that 

 hour (which was about one hour before sun- 

 set) we began chnimminr/ them, and smok- 

 ing them alternately for nearly half an 

 hour, then we removed the entrance-closers 

 as speedily as possible and gave the bees a 

 few moments' flight before dark. 



The following day I made it my business 

 to visit the old stands several times and see 

 if it was necessary to place hives there for 

 the returning bees to save the loss, but it 

 was all quite unnecessary, for I think I 

 could have carried them all in a Benton 

 cage; and I have reason to believe that the 

 few that were remaining had slept out of 

 doors the night before they were moved. 



Tempe, Arizona. 



EMPTY CELLS OR SOLID COMBS OF STORES 

 FOR THE WINTER CLUSTER. 



The Problem Modified by Outdoor or Indoor 

 Wintering. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Before any blood is spilt I'd like to see if 

 Messrs. Byer and Root can not be induced 

 to come to some kind of understanding as 

 to having bees winter on solid combs of 

 honey. I suspect there is really little dif- 

 ference as to the actual belief of the two 

 men. If the matter were put before him in 

 the right way, I think Mr. Byer would be 

 willing to say, "The bees must have some 

 room for clustering that is not divided up 

 by solid slabs of honey," and I think Edi- 

 tor Root might make the concession, "It is 

 altogether possible for a colony to winter 

 well on combs filled full from top to bot- 

 tom-bar." 



When bees seal over the honey in two 

 contiguous combs they generally leave a 

 space of about % inch between the two op- 

 posing sealed surfaces. Now, Bro. Byer, 



suppose we have a set of combs sealed from 

 top to bottom, with bees on them, and that 

 the bees can go nowhere except between 

 these solid slabs of honey. We should have 

 the bees divided up into layers % inch thick, 

 with a thickness of 1>^ inches of solid hon- 

 ey between each two layers. You don't be- 

 lieve they would make a howling success of 

 wintering in that way, do you? There 

 would have to be a chance somewhere for 

 enough bees to get together so that there 

 would be more than a ^-inch layer of them. 

 I think you would agree to that. 



Suppose, on the other hand, Bro. Root, 

 that we have a winter nest arranged just to 

 your liking, with empty cells in the lower 

 part of the central combs in a somewhat 

 globular shape. Outside that space the 

 combs are solid with honey. Now I sup- 

 pose it would be just as well, possibly a 

 trifle better, if those empty cells were 

 gone entirely, leaving nothing at all in- 

 side the cluster of bees. Parts of bottom- 

 bars and empty combs inside a cluster can 

 hardly be of any benefit. If we count, then, 

 that there is nothing inside the cluster, then 

 we have the bees practically on solid combs, 

 don't we? 



In what shape is it best to have that clus- 

 ter of bees'? Undoubtedly the sphere. Your 

 two-fist arrangement, Bro. Root, is the 

 ideal, just as the sphere is the ideal form for 

 a hive. The nearer a hive comes to the 

 spherical form, the better /or <Ae bees. But 

 they will get along very well with a hive in 

 the form of a cube, with a hive that is tall, 

 that is shallow — in fact, in about any shape. 

 So the winter cluster may be in almost any 

 shape. In the case of your solidly filled 

 combs, Bro. Byer, it will be semi-globular, 

 under the bottom-bars, if there is space 

 enough for that, flattened more and more 

 as the space is smaller. With a two-inch 

 space between bottom-bars and bottom- 

 board I feel confident there wouldn't be the 

 slightest trouble. An inch space might 

 answer nearly as well, and how much less I 

 don't know. But if combs were filled solid 

 clear down to the bottom-bars, with only % 

 inch between bottom-bars and bottom- 

 board, I should expect the bees to succumb 

 to a long-continued freeze. 



But in actual practice, suppose we do 

 have combs solid with honey to the bottom- 

 bars, how long do they continue so? Mind 

 you, we don't put solid combs in the hive 

 in December. We're hardly talking about 

 later than September — at least that's the 

 McEvoy plan. Well, in some way the bees 

 have got hold of Bro. Root's idea that they 

 must have a two-fist sjiace emptied out, and 

 they begin at once to empty the cells inside 

 of that space, and by the time the weather 

 is very cold Bro. Byer's solid-comb bees will 

 have things arranged to the satisfaction of 

 Bro. Root. 



I suspect, however, that, if we have solid 

 combs, it may make some difference how 

 much space is under the bottom-bars. It is 

 just possible that Mr. Beauhre, p. 67, had a 

 very small space between bottom-bars and 



