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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAl 



Replies by Frominent Apiarists. 



[It is useless to ask for answers to 

 Queries in this Department in less time 

 than one month. They have to waittlieir 

 turn, be put in type, and sent in about a 

 dozen at a time to each of those who answer 

 them : g-et them returned, and then find 

 apace for them in the Jouknal. If you are 

 in a " hurry " for replies, do not ask for 

 them to be inserted here.— Ed.1 



VeiitilatM Hives in tlie Cellar. 



Query, No. 353 — What would be the 

 best way to winter Ih colonies in a f^ood, 

 dry. warm cellar, with or without outside 

 ventilation ? The most of them have woolen 

 blankets on top. Are they better than 

 honey-boards ?— N. S., Iowa. 



Witli outside ventilation. The 

 woolen blankets are good.— H. D. 

 Cutting. 



Without outside ventilation. Use 

 blankets. In using honey-boards I 

 would put the thickness of a nail un- 

 der the edges to allow ventilation. — 

 C. AV. Dayton. 



I do not know positively that ven- 

 tilation is important. I do not think 

 it harmful. 1 do not know that the 

 blankets are better or worse than a 

 board. I have tried both,— W. Z. 

 Hutchinson. 



If the temperature can be kept from 

 43'^ to 47c, the ventilation part makes 

 little difference, as I have proven l)y 

 closing all ventilators for a month at 

 a time. 1 should prefer the woolen 

 blankets to the honey-boards.- G. M. 



BOOLITTLE. 



They must have a fair amount of 

 ventilation, but a cellar generally has 

 enough. Blankets are better than 

 honey-boards. — Dadant & Son. 



I much prefer to have outside venti- 

 lation, that is, to have the cellar well 

 ventilated. It the honey-boards are 

 ouen I should prefer the woolen,- C, 

 C. Miller. 



Just keep the temperature from 40° 

 Fahr. to 4.S'J, and all will be well. I 

 do not think that the covers matter. 

 Keep the entrance well open. \Vere 

 it no trouble I sliould like hives raised 

 one or two inches from the bottom- 

 boards. Because of tlie trouble, I 

 tiHve only raised a few each winter.— 

 A. .J. Cook. 



I do not worry at all about ventila- 

 tion. Personally, I am very sensitive 

 to carbonic gas, and I have stepped 

 into a bee-repository that was almost 

 completely full of hives containing 

 bees, and had been tightly closed for 

 weeks, and the bees were still and in 

 excellent condition, and tlie air 

 breathed as if fresh from the heavens. 

 Blankets are as good as boards, if the 

 room is warm enough.— Jambs Hbd- 



DON. 



My cellar is large, but has no ven- 

 tilation, and hence there are no drafts 

 of air to interrupt the hibernating 

 state. The air seems to be good all 



the time. If there was a bad odor in 

 the cellar I would open the hatchway 

 every night when the temperature 

 outside was the same or above that in 

 the cellar. The woolen blankets on 

 top are good, but I think no better 

 than my thin, unpainted " under 

 covers,"— G. L. Tinker. 



Wiiltli of Brood-Frames, 



Query, No. 354.— What is the right 

 width of frames for brood, or to use in pro- 

 ducing- extracted honey ? Some say ', of 

 an inch ; some, just one inch ; and still 

 others, I's inches, for all purposes. Which 

 is right ?— W. 



My preference is for the %.— W. Z. 

 Hutchinson. 



I prefer }i, for all purposes.— II. D. 

 Cutting. 



I prefer 1 inch, the medium width. 

 — C. W. Dayton. 



I use 1 inch for all except the bot- 

 tom-bar, that being }^ inch.— G. M. 

 Doolittle. 



Any of those sizes will do. But be 

 uniform if only for the sake of looks. 

 — Dadant & Son. 



The top-bars of my brood-frames 

 are just one inch, wide. I doubt if I 

 could have a better width, although 

 I never have tried anything else.— C. 

 C. Miller. 



The distance from the centre of one 

 frame to the centre of the other 

 should be 1 7-16 inches. If the frames 

 hswe narrow top-bars like the Lang- 

 stroth, I prefer the Js of an inch wide. 

 If close fitting ends, 1 7-16 inches 

 wide,— J. P, II. Brown. 



I prefer % of an inch. If we desire 

 long or deep cells we can place the 

 frames a little further apart. Seven- 

 eighths is the best for all purposes, 

 and the same frame may be used for 

 brood or for honey. — A. J. Cook. 



I use, and most firmly and fully be- 

 lieve the frame should be, the width 

 of the thickness of the comb, viz : % 

 of an inch. By using frames of this 

 width, spacing can be made as close 

 or open as is desired, or desirable. — 

 J. E. Pond, Jr, 



So far as the amount of honey gath- 

 ered by the bees is concerned, the 

 width of the frame cuts no figure, so 

 far as I have experimented in this 

 direction. But I prefer the J^-inch 

 top-bar for several practical reasons, 

 chief among which are these : The 

 narrowness of the top-bars gives a_ 

 ready view of the tops of the combs' 

 when I want to see how the bees are 

 getting on. They are more readily 

 moved in the hive. They can be un- 

 capped more quickly when extracting, 

 as the wood is not in the way of the 

 knife, as is the case when broader 

 frames are used,— G. W. Demaree. 



After making very many experi- 

 ments I prefer }i of an inch all 

 around, except for my new hive, 

 wherein I make the top and bottom 

 bars 1-16 of an inch narrower, to bet- 

 ter enable me tocarry out the " shake- 

 out " function, I would not advise 

 any change in frames for extracting, 

 I have tried this, too. Let all be 



alike, and interchangeable.— James 

 IIeddon. 



My experience is that one inch is 

 the right width for brood-frames or 

 for extracting frames. If the frames 

 are 7g of an inch or less, brace-combs 

 will give more trouble, and the top- 

 bars be more apt to sag. If more 

 than one inch wide, the frames are 

 difficult to handle, and if the frames 

 are spaced only \y^ inches from centre 

 to centre, as they should be, the space 

 for the bees to come up will be too 

 narrow.— G. L. Tinker. 



Round Perforations in Zinc. 



Query, No. 355.— What would be the 

 right size or diameter of round holes in a 

 zinc honey-board that would exclude the 

 queen, and also dislodge the pollen from the 

 workers' legs, to keep the pollen out of the 

 surplus arrangement ?—Ont. 



Not having made accurate meas- 

 urements, I should judge around hole 

 of about 7-82 of an inch in diameter 

 would be nearly right.— J. P. H. 

 Brown. 



It is practically impossible to con- 

 struct the arrangement. Unless the 

 pollen is very dry or carelessly put 

 on the legs of the bees, it does not 

 dislodge so readily. I can speak from 

 experiment on this question.— C. W. 

 Dayton. 



I do not know, and do not believe I 

 care to know. I am afraid anything 

 small enough to dislodge pollen would 

 hinder the bees in working. — C. C. 

 Miller. 



I do not know. If a bee can easily 

 pass through a round hole .5-32 of an 

 inch in diameter, that would be the 

 size. I should have no use for such 

 an arrangement. — W. Z. Hutchik- 

 •son. 



I do not think that such a honey- 

 board can be made practical, for bees 

 would not crowd through such small 

 holes to work to advantage. — G. il. . 

 Doolittle. 



It would depend upon the size of 

 the bees, some bees are considerably 

 larger than others. Perhaps .5-32 of 

 an inch would admit the body of the 

 bee till she was hung on the balls of 

 pollen ; but I know by actual observa- 

 tion that any sort of perforations that 

 are so small as to dislodge the pollen 

 when the workers are passing through 

 them, are seriously objectionable to 

 the bees, and, I think, impracticable. 

 — G. W. Demaree. 



The right size is 11-64 of an inch. 

 Beautiful comb honey in sections 

 without a particle of bee-bread in ■ 

 them has been obtained between such 

 boards in the centre of the brood -nest. 

 In a slight flow of nectar if comb 

 honey is wanted very badly, such a 

 practice might be resorted to.— G. L. 

 Tinker. 



In my non-swarming attachment 

 (described on page 21 of the Bee 

 Journal for 1884, and also in my 

 book), I used round holes for exclud- 

 ing drones and queens. They meas- 

 ured scant 3-16 of an inch. They were 

 seldom used by the bees when passing 



