1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1375 



■of the season. The last two seasons I have 

 removed all supers about the first of Sep- 

 tember, c-ompelling the bees to store all hon- 

 ey below. As this fall honey is dark, and 

 not nearly as salable as the light honey, yet 

 e(|ually good for wintering, I know it pays 

 Ijetter than to leave the supers on iintil frost, 

 and Ijuy sugar anil feed them. Then, too, hj 

 this method the danger of robbing is also 

 avoided. We do not get frost until the lat- 

 tei" part of Septemlier, so the bees have plenty 

 of time to till the hives with this dark honey, 

 thoroughly ripen and seal it, and place it 

 within easy reaeh during cold weather. 

 These hives on being raised to ascertain their 

 weight seem as heavy as immense stones. 

 We hear a great deal about colonies being 

 light in stores, Imt not much about their hav- 

 ing too much. Last spring 1 did not open 

 the hives until warm weather arriveil and 

 l)ees were flying freely: and, to my surprise. 

 I found the tuves fairly Ijoiling over with 

 l)ees with sealed l)rood galore, new white wax 

 at the tops of the frames, and plenty of seal- 

 ed honey in sight. I had honey sealed in 

 sections during apple-bloom — something I 

 never had liefore. These colonies have aver- 

 aged over one hundred pounds to the colo- 

 ny, anil not an iileal season either. 



Now. in conclusion it is well to remember 

 that bees will Imild up in spring just accord-- 

 ing to the amount of stores in sight: and if 

 plenty has been supplied the fall previous, 

 there will be no question about the hives be- 

 ing full of bees when wanted, without coax- 

 ing them with daily applications of syrup. 

 Tampering with hees in early spring results 

 in far more liarm than good. By all means 

 see that your bees have plenty of well-ripen- 

 ed stores for winter: pack them well with 

 good porous material, and leave them alone 

 until warm weather arrives: and if the colo- 

 nies are kept together, and anj' honey to 

 gather, thev will surelv get it. 



Nisbet, Pa. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN 

 WINTERING. 



CELLAR 



AVhy Air in 3Iotion in a Cellar Lowers 



the Teni])eratnre inside the Hives; the 



Limitations of a Thermometer. 



BY C. A. OLMSTEAD. 



About your bees in the cellar you say, p. 

 143, "We put a small electric fan in the door- 

 way and let it run for an hour or two, when, 

 presto I the temperature dropped, and the 

 bees stopped buzzing. ' ' Further. ' ' Of course 

 a blast of air does not change the tempera- 

 ture: but if the air in any part of the cellar 

 is lowered" (you prolmbly meant lower) "it 

 will tend to equalize the temperature." 

 Now, I suppose, the idea you meant to con- 

 vey is that, while the air in motion was no 

 lower in temperature, it caused a rapid cir- 

 culation of air from one compartment to the 

 other: that yours is a large cellar partitioned 

 off. one room within another, so to speak, 

 and that tha air in the bee-compartment 



stood at near 70° while that in the outer or 

 adjoining rooms or compartments stood at 

 60 or perh.aps lower: that the fan merely 

 forced the cooler air into the l)ee-room, and 

 the wai'm air out. very much as if one had 

 a gallon of boiling water from which he 

 took a quart and then put in its place a (piart 

 of cold water. 



Now, what I am getting at is this: In your 

 article you seem to want it understood that 

 it was the change of air that caused them to 

 quiet down, for you say, "Now, mind you, 

 the temperature had not changed one degree, 

 lint the air iras eliangcd. and Jreshened up.'" 

 Just above this statement you say (fourth 

 line), "jjrestol the temperature dropped" 

 (sixth line), "the temperature went down no 

 lower than 62°" (fifteenth line), "and re- 

 duced the temperature." This looks as if 

 you were willing to concede the fact that the 

 temperature lowered somewhat on this day 

 — pi'oljably eight degrees. 



On this day you may have thought it due 

 to the combineil influence of fresh air and a 

 lower temperature: but when Sunday came, 

 and the air outside, that which you forced in 

 with the fan. was no cooler than that in the 

 bee-cellar, you seem to have been convinced 

 beyond a iloulit that it was fresh air and 

 nothing else th;it quieted them. 



Now, while you are right in saying that 

 air in motion — or that in effect — is no colder 

 than the same air when (luiet, you must not 

 for a minute think that the effect is not ma- 

 terially different, for it is. You look at the 

 thermometer and draw your conclusions 

 from it: but in this case it is not to be relied 

 upon: in fact, it does not have a fair show. 

 It is not a question whether the blast of air 

 lowered the temperature of the cellar or not. 

 The question is, "Did it lower the tempera- 

 ture of the air inside of the hives'.'" or, per- 

 haps, more properly, did it cool off the bees? 

 / say it did. Don't understand me as think- 

 ing that the lilast was cooler than the same 

 air was before it was set in motion, for it was 

 not: liut it evaporated the moisture on and 

 around the bees: and it is a fundamental 

 principle that evaporation is attended by a 

 lowering of the temperature. 



I have asked many people why they used a 

 fan. They say it cools them, and in this they 

 are right: but when asked how or why it iloes 

 so, nearly every one says, "Ohl it makes 

 such a cool breeze;" or, "The wind from 

 the fan is cold," and similar explanations, 

 when it really is only the evaporation of the 

 moisture on their skin that is cooling. They 

 might fan a perfectly dry surface until the 

 cows come home, and the temperature would 

 be the same. How is it in July, when bees 

 by the thousand are fanning to keep up a cir- 

 culation of air? Is it for purifying the air 

 inside of the hive, or to i-ool it? 1 say it is 

 to keep the temperature down, which is ac- 

 complished, in many instances, only by evap- 

 oration. 



I am a great believer in ventilation, and 

 do not doubt that the pure air in your case 

 might have helped: but I believe if you hatl 

 had some other way of lowering the temper- 



