1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



813 



HIVE ENTRANCES. 



Would it Not be Better to Have the Entrance 

 Between the Brood-chamber and Super? 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



Perhaps I might as well, for this time at 

 least, simply give the facts and let the read- 

 ers draw their own conclusions. 



Some years ago a preacher in Amsterdam, 

 Mr. Richards, took a notion to have a hive, 

 though he lived in the midst of a large city. 

 There was no place for the hive except in 

 the attic of the house, and this was in such 

 shape that, to give the bees an opening out- 

 side, it was necessary to have the entrance 

 on the top of the hive, or, rather, the brood- 

 nest. The following year he made arrange- 

 ments to keep his bees in the country- 

 moved his colony there, and bought another 

 one. The entrance of the first one remained 

 at the top— that is, between the brood-nest 

 and the supers. During the three following 

 years the colony with the entrance at the 

 top gave large yields of honey (one year as 

 much as five supers), and never swarmed, 

 while the other never gave more than one 

 super. All this was extracted honey. 



The next item published was from Mr. 

 Bourgeois, in Algeria, who stated that, with 

 the entrance between supers and brood- 

 nest, the yield is considerably greater and 

 the swarming suppressed. 



By that time the bee-papers of France, 

 Belgium, and Germany took hold of the 

 matter. A number of bee-keepers tried the 

 plan, and all reported it a success. One 

 estimated the amount of surplus obtained as 

 five times greater than by the usual meth- 

 od, and in one case six times. The discus- 

 sion brought out the fact that, in some por- 

 tions of Eastern Europe, the straw hives 

 used by the peasants are quite tall, and have 

 the entrance (a big round hole) at the middle 

 instead of at the bottom. The practice fol- 

 lowed for perhaps centuries by the peasants 

 of the Gatinais was also recalled. At the 

 beginning of the honey-flow the Gatinais 

 peasants turn the hives upside down. On 

 the upturned hive (or, rather, straw skep, 

 to use the English term) another is placed, 

 leaving thus the entrance in the middle be- 

 tween the two. If the top one is already 

 filled with combs, so much the better. If 

 not, it is "baited" by fastening a small 

 pif'ce of comb at the top. 



The surplus flow in the Gatinais is very 

 heavy, but lasts only three or four weeks. 

 The honey is decidedly superior, and is taken 

 entirely by the Paris market at an advanced 

 price. 



Could we not do the same, or at least try 

 it on a few colonies? A few conditions must 

 be considered. The European apiarists work 

 exclusively for extracted honey. But that 

 dues nut always mean a full set of extract- 

 ing-combs. Usually the apiarist distributes 

 his combs among his colonies as far as they 

 will go, and completes with foundation or 

 even only starters. It is yet among them an 



open question whether it is not better to 

 melt every year a portion of the combs and 

 let the bees build new ones. This is in view 

 of the fact that the difference in price be- 

 tween wax and honey is considerably great- 

 er there than here. 



Another feature may have a bearing on 

 the question. All the frames used in Eu- 

 rope are deeper than ours, some only two or 

 three inches deeper, others considerably more. 



The last articles published on this ques- 

 tion state that it is best to close the lower 

 entrances. Some tried to leave both en- 

 trances open. That a considerable increase 

 of surplus is obtained by that method is now 

 an establislished fact. The application to 

 section honey might offer some difficulty. It 

 is necessary for satisfactory comb-building 

 that the supers be warm and without air- 

 drafts. I have just rigged up a few hives 

 for the purpose ; but the entrance, instead of 

 opening directly outside, opens in a passage- 

 way which extends from there to the alight- 

 ing-board, thus avoiding direct draft. I'll 

 try, any way, and report. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



[Friend G., placing the entrance higher up 

 than the bottom-board is not new by any 

 means; but the idea that a much larger 

 amount of honey would be secured or has 

 been secured is new. The first hive I ever 

 used was King's American hive, that had 

 two entrance-holes near the top, to be open- 

 ed in warm weather. As the bees rather 

 preferred this shorter cut it would seem 

 that they might gather a little more honey 

 because of the saving of time in unloading; 

 and for any tall hive or tall frame I should 

 think very likely this would be an advan- 

 tage. The Langstroth hive, however, is so 

 shallow, especially when there are no supers 

 on, that little is gained in having the en- 

 trance higher up. During exceedingly warm 

 weather I have often thought I secured 

 more honey by giving the bees ventilation 

 between the upper and lower stories — of 

 course, leaving the lower entrance open: 

 and as the bees soon begin to use this upper 

 entrance for carrying in honey, it seems as 

 if it might be some advantage. It hardly 

 seems possible, however, that the increased 

 yield is as much greater as you state it, and 

 no one has yet found it out, because upper 

 entrances are quite common in many apia- 

 ries, especially during the hot periods. —A. 

 I. R.] 



THE ONE-POUND SECTION A MISTAKE. 



The Laxity of the Pure-food Laws. 



BY G. BOHRER. 



On page 596 Mr. Virgil Weaver states 

 that there is no big demand for comb honey 

 so long as it is put on the market in one- 

 pound packages. Had he called them "so- 

 called" one pound packages he would have 

 covered more ground; for the truth about 



