656 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



of their liability to become chilled by too 

 much radiation. . 



In spite of what I have just said, and in 

 contradiction to the statement to be found 

 in the fourth paragraph of Mr. Greiner's 

 article, I offer the following fact: I bought 

 this fall seven colonies in box hives. Two 

 hives were white, two brown, one yellow, one 

 snuff-colored, and one not painted. The Inst 

 hive mentioned was weather-beaten to a 

 very dark tint, almost black. The past 

 summer had a spell of weather in which 

 combs melted down freely. Of these seven 

 hives the only one with melted-down combs 

 was one of the two white hives. These 

 hives were out in the full sunshine. 



In all of our considerations of this matter 

 we must keep in mind not only reflected 

 heat but radiated heat; not only the heat 

 from the sun, but other sources of heat; not 

 only the color of the hive, but where the 

 hive is to be placed. 



Mr. Greiner in his fifth paragraph makes 

 a most excellent point when he says: "Why 

 should we work in the opposite direction, 

 etc. ? " The matter of loss of heat from the 

 super has caused me much perturbation of 

 mind- so much, in fact, that last summer I 

 whitewashed several of my supers, making 

 them a snowy white. I must say, though, 

 that I detected no difference in results gain- 

 ed thereby. I use thin section-cases inside 

 of warmly arranged supers, so that the night 

 does not bring about a serious cooling of 

 the sections. . . ^, ^ , , , 



I am rather of the opinion that black 

 hives can be used in the open, provided the 

 covers are white, or, better still, covered 

 with a substance bright and polished. The 

 rays of the sun are so direct in the season 

 of melting- down of combs that the walls of 

 the hive can be of any color so far as ab- 

 sorption of heat is concerned. 



The melting down of combs, by the way, 

 is laid too largely to the rays of the sun. 

 Who ever heard of the combs of a weak col- 

 ony melting down? Has any one ever had 

 combs melt down except during a heavy 

 honey-flow? I don't know how it is else- 

 where, but here the chief cause of melting- 

 down of combs is the heat generated by the 

 bees in reducing great quantities of nectar, 

 at which time the combs are loaded with 

 honey and with bee^ heavy with honey. To 

 be sure, the melting down occurs usually 

 about two in the afternoon, when the heat 

 of the day is at its maximum; but that is a 

 case of "the last straw." 



In the first paragraph of his footnote the 

 editor makes an excellent suggestion to Mr. 

 Greiner, and then immediately shows that 

 he himsf'lf can profitably read parts of my 

 article again. Let him read from page 1313, 

 the paragraph in the second column, which 

 starts, "The last statement may seem to 

 contradict," and he may then thmk d ffer- 

 ently. To enter into a minute discussion of 

 all heat lost and gained by the cluster of 

 bees in winter would require most exhaus- 

 tive and painstakine: experiments in order 

 that definite deductions might be drawn. 



One can only geneialize; but gentrahzing is 

 an excellent thing when so well roped that 

 it keeps well within the premises. 



The hotter a body is, the more rapidly 

 will it lose heat; and, conversely, the colder 

 a body is, the more slowly will it radiate 

 heat. All bodies are always losing and gain- 

 ing heat. Warmer bodies lose more than 

 they gain; colder gain more than they lose. 

 Bodies of nearly the same temperature make 

 a pretty fair exchange. Bearing in mind 

 these and possibly omitted kindred facts, 

 let us think of the conditions surrounding 

 the cluster of bees in winter. In white 

 hives the cluster is bounded by a wall which 

 is always cold or colder; in black hives the 

 cluster is bounded by a wall which is well 

 warmed during suncy days, but gets cold 

 faster at night than the white wall. In 

 both cases there is between the bees and the 

 walls of the hives a layer of air. In the 

 white hive this layer is moist, cold, and will 

 conduct heat to the walls from the cluster; 

 in the black hive this air (if the entrance is 

 ample) is warm during the day; is dry com- 

 paratively, and does not conduct much heat 

 to the walls of the hive. In both hives the 

 clusters of bees will radiate heat alike and 

 equally. If the wall of the black hive is cold- 

 er than that of the white hive it will not radi- 

 ate as much heat to the cluster as will that 

 of the white hive. Now, just how much 

 warmer is the wall of the white hive than 

 that of the black hive during the winter 

 night? Mr. Editor, just sit an hour upon 

 each and report. To be sure, the black will 

 be cold in ten minutes after the sun goes 

 down, while the white will not be much 

 colder forty minutes after the sun goes 

 down; but, since the white was already cold 

 at the start, it will have to be caught up 

 with by the black before the black can get 

 colder than it. I am not sure that the black 

 ever catches the white; but I know it never 

 get3 far ahead in case it passes white. 



Permit me, Mr. Editor, to make one sug 

 gestion about snow-covered ground. Is it 

 not the porous character of the snow, mak- 

 ing thus of it a splendid non conductor of 

 heat, that accounts for its protecting power 

 rather than its color? If snow were black 

 it would do the same; and, in fact, it is 

 black at night when the most freezing takes 

 place. Being white it serves to cool off the 

 earth in that it reflects th*^ heat of the sun 

 during the day. Our mild winters are our 

 snowless winters; but if snow were black it 

 would melt dangerously quick, so that white 

 is the proper color. 



I am pleased to see that my article has 

 aroused the interest of so good an apiarist 

 as Mr. Greiner, and I can say with him that 

 I should like to see more expression of opin- 

 ion. Though I am not so .confident that 

 black is the all-desirable color in summer, I 

 know that it is the very finest in winter. I 

 think that no one can make a mistake in 

 having the walls of his hives black, but I 

 now believe that the covers should not be 

 black. I whitewash my covers (I have no 

 shade), but don't like the handling of the 



