1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



557 



ventilation foi* the cellax", whereby the tem- 

 perature could be reduced, that worked so 

 satisfactorily that we were very hopeful of 

 good results, and so I'eported in our issue for 

 Slarch 1, page 308; but when we came to car- 

 ry our bees out this spring, the silent dead 

 told us another tale. 



The subjoined half-tones, Figs. 1 and 3, 

 from photos of the ventilating hive- bottoms. 

 picked up at random, I'epresent 

 the number of dead to each hive 

 since the middle of January. 



Fig. 1 shows some of the bot- 

 toms have fewer dead bees than 

 the others, while the two on the 

 left foreground seem to have more 

 dead than the average. An ex- 

 amination of the col6nies revealed 

 that this great amount of dead 

 bees just below the cluster and 

 in the hive was possibly a source 

 of infection to the live ones above. 

 The dead, swollen with dysen- 

 tery, were traveled over by the 

 healthy bees, with the apparent 

 result that the infection was carried to the 

 bees above, which in tui'n succumbed, add- 

 ing their number to those that had preceded. 



Fig. 2 shows a comparison that is somewhat 

 remarkable. The hive-stand on the right was 

 by accident put under the hive tipside down, 

 shutting out practically all ventilation while 

 the colony just next to it had the hive-stand 

 put under right side up. These two hive- 

 stands were placed side by side and photo- 

 graphed, the result showing in Fig. 3. Re- 

 markable as it may seem, the colony that had 

 no entrance and almost no ventilation had 

 very few dead bees. Indeed, the dead can be 

 counted, as will be seen by reference to the 

 hive-stand on the right in Fig. 2. Now the 

 colony next to it, as far as could be seen, and 



of the same strength, and with a lot of ven- 

 tilation, had a large number of dead bees. 

 How do we know the colonies were of the 

 same strength? By comparing the dead and 

 living of both colonies. The excess of dead 

 in one case seemed to show that ventilation 

 was responsible for the heavy mortality. 

 Taking into consideration the lai'ge number 

 of colonies in the cellar which had the same 



FIG. ,3. — THE NUMBER OF DEAL) BEES PEK HIVE-STAND 

 WHERE THE LOSS PER COLONY WAS THE GREATEST. 



losses, and others with too many dead for the 

 time of confinement, it would seem to show 

 that the Hershiser principle gave too much 

 ventilation for the weak colonies in our- cel- 

 lar. Better would it have been by far if they 

 had had the ordinary bottoms with summer 

 entrances through which the diseased bees 

 could have escaped, leaving the hive free 

 from the contamination of their dead carcass- 

 es. 



Right here an explanation should be made, 

 else it may be difficult for the readei's to har- 

 monize the diffei'enees in results secured by 

 ourselves, Mr. Hershiser, and Mr. Hand. 

 We cellar only weak colonies or nuclei, the 

 stronger ones being kept outdoors in double- 

 walled hives or winter cases. With strong 



colonies, such as 

 Mr. Hershiser 

 and Mr. Hand 

 have, such a 

 large amount of 

 ventilation pos- 

 sibly would do 

 no harm. We 

 s?ij 2^ossiblij, be- 

 cause we are not 

 sure whether or 

 not if it does no 

 hai'm it does any 

 good. 



In this con- 

 nection it may 

 be interesting to 

 cite the case of 

 Mr. H. R. Board- 

 man, of East 

 Townsend, Ohio, 

 who piles his 

 hives one on top 

 of the other 

 without any bot- 

 tom-boards, like 

 so much cord- 

 wood, but so 

 placed that 



FIG, 4. — METHOD OF CAUKVING i;EK.-5 OLT OF THE OELLAU AT THE HOME 

 OF THE HONEY-BEES. 



