434 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



the' bees] are 

 in their ( win- 

 ter chister; 

 but usually 

 when a cush- 

 ion is used 

 during the 

 winter, with 

 more or less 

 openings, it 

 is left on dur- 

 ing the breed- 

 in g season, 

 and after the 

 bees h a \' e 

 broken their 

 cluster. At 

 this time an 

 upward ven- 

 tilation is a 

 drawback to 

 the colony, as 



Fig. 2. — Apiculture, short course. Ontai'io Aisrricultural C'ollege, May 

 groups of hives unpacked. 



it allows too much heat to escape, and also 

 takes from the colony the control of temper- 

 ature within the hive. On the other hand, 

 if the cover is sealed tight, and the temper- 

 ature rises too high within the hive, the bees 

 will drive a circulation of air through the 

 hive by fanning. 



How many times we have seen bees gnaw- 

 ing the hive at the entrance to make the 

 opening larger, that they might get more 

 air; but I have never known them to gnaw 

 the crevices of wood at the top of the hive. 

 Invariably they will glue them tight if the 

 opening is less than a bee-space. I think 

 this proves that bees do not require an up- 

 ward ventilation. 



The past four years I have had under ob- 

 servation the Aspinwall hive and its con- 



Kig. 'A. — Apiculture, sliort course, t inlario. l-ookiug lor luul br 



struction with its many bee-space dividers, 

 which also act as air-spaces, giving as much 

 area and air to the bees as the combs occu- 

 py during the honey season; and the result 

 is that no one queen can overstock this hive 

 with bees, and there is no time during the 

 hottest days of summer, with approximate- 

 ly 80,000 bees, that they show any signs of 

 a high temperature within the hive. These 

 many ventilating spaces make it a i)ractical 

 non-swarming hive by removing two factors 

 which are most conducive to the swarming 

 impulse — first, a crowded condition of the 

 hive by the bees, which closes the bee-spaces 

 between the combs anil shuts ofif the venti- 

 lation from the larviv and embryo bees. 

 Second, this crowded condition of the hive 

 raises the temperature of the brood-nest 

 above a normal tem- 

 perature, which forces 

 the bees to cluster out- 

 side of the hive in 

 idleness to prevent the 

 brood from suffocating. 

 Fig. 1 shows a colony 

 in an Aspinwall hive 

 that produced 120 

 pounds of comb honey 

 without o ff e r i n g to 

 swarm. All colonies 

 that are in prime con- 

 dition .June 1 should 

 have a large entrance; 

 and, if given in time, it 

 will reduce the swarm- 

 ing impulse to a min- 

 imum. There is no one 

 cause more conducive 

 to the swarming im- 

 pulse than a lack of 

 sufficient ventilation. 

 Fig. 2 shows a colony 

 actually suffering for 

 want of ventilation. 



Many times a swarm 

 will not stay in a new- 

 hive, especially if the 

 frames are filled with 

 full sheets of founda- 



