1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1015 



apiarist a cold chill), and bushels of dead 

 bees that died with dysentery, making the 

 only salvation for the apiarist a mid-winter 

 flight for his bees, which comes a good way 

 from being a cure, but the best thing, prob- 

 ably, that could be done in such a case. 



Bee-keepers in general are not aware of 

 the small amount of air that bees need when 

 in the cellar, if they were properly put in 

 and the mercury doesn't get above 48°. I 

 have known of this being done in cellars 

 where the temperature ran high for a few 

 days before the bees were set out in the 

 spring: suspend a cake of ice in the center 

 of the bee-cellar, and set a wash-tub under 

 to catch the drip. Of course, if the cellar 

 were very large it would not amount to 

 much. You have to supply ice and empty 

 tub as the ice melts. I was in my bee-cel- 

 lar yesterday, March 21, and could not see a 

 spot on a hive, and not dead bees enough to 

 half cover the floor one bee deep, 



Italy, N. Y,, March 22, 



[This article came so late last spring that 

 we deemed it best to hold it until the winter- 

 ing subject would be more seasonable, and 

 hence it is given now. The plan of piling 

 hives one on top of the other, or, rather, 

 one hive over the space between the two 

 bottom hives, is the one used by H. R. 

 Boardman, and which is in general use by 

 many bee-keepers who winter without bot- 

 tom-boards. It gives a large amount of 

 ventilation, and a chance for the bees to 

 drop out of the way, away from the cluster 

 or combs. 



But I believe our correspondent is wrong 

 when he advocates "tight bee-cellars with 

 no ventilation." While he maybe able to 

 get along with such a cellar, the great ma- 

 jority would meet with severe losses. If 

 the temperature can be controlled so it does 

 not go above 45 to 48, as Mr. Grow states, 

 nor below 40, one can get along with little or 

 no ventilation. I am aware that opinion is 

 divided on this point; but in nearly every 

 case where no ventilation is advocated, I 

 discover that the temperature is under con- 

 trol. -Ed.] 



PERTINENT NOTES ON IMPORTANT SUB- 

 JECTS, 



Why Hives Should Not be Ventilated at the 

 Top, 



BY E, S. MILLAR. 



Dr, Miller asks, p. 756, "What makes you 

 think bees don't like to see daylight through 

 the top of the hive?" Well, my belief is 

 based chiefly upon the behavior of the bees 

 themselves. I have observed, in the first 

 place, that both natural and "shook" 

 swarms frequently, if not generally, abscond 

 if placed in nives with large openings at the 

 top. In the second place, if the openings 

 are not so large as to prevent it the bees 

 will seal every thing up tight with propolis. 

 An opening above is apt to admit rain and 

 sunshine, laoth detrimental to the welfare of 



the colony. It is, however, not so much a 

 question of daylight as it is of maintaining 

 a certain nearly constant temperature nec- 

 essary for comb-building and for the rearing 

 of brood. This temperature within the 

 brood-nest, Mr. Doolittle tells us, p. 427, is 

 between 92 and 98°. The temperature out- 

 side, during the latter part of the night, is, 

 even in July, quite cold — colder than most 

 people are aware of, and the warm air with- 

 in the hive, being lighter, rises and passes 

 off more readily than in a hive open only at 

 the bottom. If open at both top and bottom, 

 it is still more difficult to maintain a constant 

 temperature, as there will be a draft through 

 the hive, increasing with the lowering of the 

 temperature outside, and decreasing in the 

 daytime as the temperature approaches that 

 within. 



HOW TO PREVENT BEES FROM ABSCONDING, 



In answer to this, I will enumerate the 

 following conditions which appear to me to 

 be among the most important: 



1, Shade. 



2. A hive body and cover with sufficient 

 thickness to prevent a too rapid escape of 

 heat. 



3. No large openings above. 



4, A reasonably clean hive; no fresh paint 

 or odors distasteful to the bees, 



5. A good-sized entrance — say i inch by 

 the width of the hive, 



6, I find that bees are less apt to leave if 

 hived on foundation starters than if given 

 either full sheets or drawn combs. If the 

 above conditions are observed, not one per 

 cent of "shook " swarms will try to escape, 

 provided the queen is in the hive. If one is 

 still afraid of their leaving, cut a piece of 

 queen-excluding zinc one inch vdde, and tack 

 it over the entrance, removing it in three 

 days, I believe that nine-tenths of the fail- 

 ures with ' ' shook ' ' swarms are due to the 

 fact that the queen is either killed, lost in 

 the grass, or removed with the brood. 

 Don't shake bees outside of the hive. Don't 

 set frames down behind or at the side of the 

 hive when loaded with bees unless you know 

 where the queen is. Don't remove brood 

 without shaking or brushing off all the bees. 



E. W, ALEXANDER'S PLAN OF CONTROLLING 

 SWARMING, 



This summer I have been testing Mr. 

 Alexander's plan of increase; and were I to 

 judge by this season's results alone I would 

 predict that this is the process that is des- 

 tined to come into general use among prac- 

 tical bee-keepers, replacing natural and 

 ' ' shook ' ' swarming. His article in the 

 April 15th number will be worth to me the 

 subscription price of Gleanings for a good 

 many years to come. I have tried the plan 

 with about thirty colonies alongside about 

 an equal number of shaken swarms and per- 

 haps twenty natural swarms. 



Those in which Mr. A.'s plan was used are 

 far ahead of the others, both in the amount 

 of honey stored, to the present time (July 

 20) and in the success attending manipula- 

 tion. The shaken swarms come next, and 



