668 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Topics of Interest. 



Entrances, Ventilation, Etc, 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent asks me some ques- 

 tions, and says, " Please answer through 

 the American Bee Journal." He first 

 wishes to know if two or more entrances 

 are not needed in a hive during the 

 Summer months : "One for the main 

 or front entrance, and one at the rear 

 for ventilation, to be opened during hot 

 weather." 



Regarding ventilation, I would say, 

 that I much perfer to make the main 

 entrance large enough to give all the 

 needed ventilation in times of extreme 

 heat, and have it so arranged that it can 

 be easily contracted to meet the require- 

 ments of even the smallest colony, when 

 desired. 



My reasons for so preferring are, that 

 unless the rear entrance is closed during 

 cool nights, it makes the hive so cool, 

 by the draft of air, that the bees cannot 

 work to advantage at brood-rearing, 

 comb-building, drawing out comb-foun- 

 dation, or evaporating nectar ; while to 

 open and close any entrance or ventila- 

 tor every night, or every time the 

 weather changes, is out of the question, 

 except by a person who has the "bee- 

 fever " bad, or a very few colonies. If a 

 person tries such a thing when they first 

 start out in bee-keeping, it soon becomes 

 an old story, when the extra entrances 

 are neglected, and often causes robbing 

 in times of scarcity, if all are left open. 



But the worst part of all is that the 

 bees get in the habit of using the back 

 ventilator as an entrance where it is left 

 open all the while, as it usually is during 

 the latter part of Summer, so that when 

 it is finally closed, the bees which have 

 been accustomed to use this as an en- 

 trance to the hive, go out of the regular 

 entrance, but return to the old place, 

 only to find it closed, thus causing their 

 loss, as they know no other place of get- 

 ting into their home, having so marked 

 on their first flight. 



He next wishes to know if it is not 

 necessary to have an entrance near the 

 top of the hive, which is to be left open 

 all the while when the bees are storing 

 surplus honey, "so that the bees need not 

 have to travel so far, as they must of 

 necessity do where they have to carry 

 the honey all the way from the bottom 



entrance to the top of a two or three- 

 story hive." 



It is evident that our friend is laboring 

 under a mistaken impression, and by 

 arguing that such an entrance is a 

 necessity, admits his lack of a thorough 

 knowledge of the inside workings of the 

 hive. The bees which gather the honey 

 are not the ones that deposit it in the 

 cells, as I have several times proven by 

 taking away a queen of one variety of 

 bees and introducing a queen of another 

 variety. For instance, I once took away 

 a queen of a black colony during the 

 month of June, and noted the time the 

 last black bee hatched, and also when 

 the first Italian emerged from her cell. 



As young bees do not gather honey 

 until they are 16 days old, when the 

 colony is in a normal condition, if we 

 watch that colony on the fifteenth day 

 in the forenoon, before the young bees 

 go out to play (counting from the time 

 the first Italian hatched), no Italians 

 should be seen going in and out at the 

 entrance, but all should be black bees. 



In looking at the entrance on the 

 day named, I found only black bees at 

 work, as I had expected, but an exami- 

 nation of the sections, in which the bees 

 were briskly at work, showed scarcely a 

 black bee in them, but all were Italians, 

 which were busily employed building 

 comb and depositing honey. Now, if, 

 as our friend supposes, the field bees 

 carry their loads of nectar and deposit 

 them in the cells, why were not some of 

 those black bees seen doing this, as there 

 were multitudes of these coming in from 

 the field all the while with large loads of * 

 nectar. 



Again, for several years I used an ob- 

 servatory hive, containing but one comb, 

 and many were the hours I spent in 

 watching this to see what I could find 

 out about our pets — what they usually 

 did " in the dark." During one of my 

 experiments with this, I had black bees 

 as field bees, and young Italians for the 

 inside work. 



By watching the entrance through 

 the glass, I could see the loaded black 

 bees come in, and when one came on the 

 side next to me, I could easily see what 

 it did with the load of honey it had. The 

 bee would pass along on the comb until 

 it came to a young bee, when it would 

 put out its tongue or proboscis toward 

 this young bee. If this young bee had 

 no load, it would take the load, when it 

 was given up to it. 



If the light was just right I could see 

 the nectar sparkle as it passed from one 

 to the other, on or through their tongues. 

 The field bee then rested a little while. 



