1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



309 



trance clog with dead bees, snow or 

 sleet, which almost every year cause 

 the loss of many colonies to those 

 who winter out of doors, and the 

 number of those who do is increas- 

 ing. The beginner, with a few colo- 

 nies of bees is practically forced to, 

 as he cannot afford a cellar, and 

 would not know how to use it if he 

 had one. 



My idea of a perfect entrance pro- 

 tector consists essentially of a box, 

 made of thin material, 14J4 inches 

 long, 2 inches from back to front, and 

 2 or more inches deep. The top slants 

 forward at an angle of about 20 de- 

 grees and projects past the front 

 half-an-inch or more. Just under it 

 is the entrance, and the edge of the 



I 



I 





y,.-^ 



Intranje W 



XnA \lttvr 



Bonney's winter entrance 



top is painted white to locate the en- 

 trance; the rest of the box is painted 

 black. There is a back to the box 

 with a three-quarter-inch opening to 

 correspond to the hive entrance, and 

 two lugs, each 2 inches long, one at 

 each end, to slip into the entrance to 

 hold it into place. A strip of wood 

 extends down from the front edge of 

 the cover to protect the entrance 

 from wind and snow. 



The advantages I claim for this 

 idea are as follows: It conserves 

 heat, as no wind can blow directly 

 into the hive; dead bees cannot ob- 

 struct the entrance, as the Y% inch 

 opening is wide open all winter; the 

 box being painted black and the 

 strip over the entrance white, the 

 bees easily find their way in ; the first 

 rays of the sun will be absorbed to 

 thaw ice and snow long before the 

 bees are warm enough to fly out ; the 

 boxes can be made cheaply, and they 

 will, if kept painted, last for years. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Beekeeping Around San Fran- 

 cisco Bay 



By E. D. Crowl 



WE started out this spring with 

 three nuclei in our back yard, 

 no one of which was large 

 enough to cover three frames. Brood- 

 rearing in two of them had not stop- 

 ped during the winter, which was un- 



usually mild, and in the third, which 

 was the smallest, had stopped about 

 November 1 and begun again De- 

 cember 27. They grew strong rather 

 slowly, probably due to the weak 

 condition of the colonies. The nights 

 are very cold early in the year (they 

 are never warm at any time here) 

 and this year the fruit bloom was 

 late, apricots not coming into bloom 

 until the middle of March, which no 

 doubt hindered the building up some- 

 what. 



On March 20 the strongest colony, 

 in an 8-frame hive, had brood in all 

 of the frames, and the bees were put- 

 ting honey into the brood-cells until 

 it interfered with the queen's laying, 

 and there were not as yet bees 

 enough to care for the brood and 

 work in the super also. We had the 

 same trouble with all three hives, fill- 

 ing everything with honey until it 

 interfered with the brood. March 30, 

 peach, early cherries and plums were 

 in bloom, and work began nicely in 

 the supers. 



Fruit bloom lasts a long time here, 

 almonds beginning usually in Febru- 

 ary and apples ending the season. 

 This year the apple bloom was over 

 about the middle of April, somewhat 

 later than ordinary. This certainly 

 gives the bees a good chance to build 

 up. About the first week in June the 

 flow diminishes, though there is some 

 all summer. Then in August the fall 

 flow begins and lasts till it gets too 

 wet and cold for the bees to fly. The 

 eucalyptus trees commence blooming 

 in the fall and furnish a good deal of 

 honey. The bloom from the different 

 varieties lasts all winter and until 

 late in the spring, but owing to the 

 generally cold and rainy weather the 

 bees cannot make the best use of it. 



White clover amounts to nothing 

 here, though there is a good deal of 

 it in the lawns. It seems to have no 

 nectar, as the bees are seldom seen 

 on it. There is a good deal of dande- 

 lion, which blooms all summer, but 

 the bees pay little attention to it. 

 The bloom of the diflerent varieties 

 of acacia cover many weeks, usually 

 beginning in early January, and the 

 bees seem fond of it; but coming so 

 early, the weather is usually too in- 

 clement for them to get the full bene- 

 fit of the bloom. The excretion which 

 they gather, in some varieties, at 

 least, is found, not in the blossoms, 

 but on the edges of the leaves. I 

 have not had an opportunity to ob- 

 serve whether this is so in all va- 

 rieties. 



During Jul}' and August a bright 

 red honey, in very small quantities, is 

 gathered from something, I have not 

 been able to ascertain what. It is a 

 very well flavored honey, but only an 

 occasional cell is filled with it. The 

 honey gathered here is amber in 

 color and of no particular flavor, be- 

 ing obtained from all sorts of sources 

 — just honey. The usual sources of 

 California honey, sage, orange, bean 

 and alfalfa, are not, of course, to be 

 had in a city. 



The weather around the bay cities 

 is, taken as a whole, too cold and 

 foggy, and there are too many days 



with high winds for good bee-keep- 

 ing. We have, however, had all the 

 honey we could use and a good deal 

 to sell, and have five additional hives, 

 formed on the nucleus plan, with 

 queens raised above an excluder over 

 the strongest hive we had. We could, 

 of course, have had more honey if we 

 had not used any of the bees for in- 

 crease. These new hives will prob- 

 ably be strong enough to gather 

 some surplus during the fall flow, as 

 one of them already has five frames 

 of brood in it and another three, al- 

 though they were formed late. Our 

 warm weather generally comes dur- 

 ing August and September — in fact, 

 it is about all the summer we have, 

 so I hope for considerable honey dur- 

 ing that time. 

 Berkeley, Calif. 



A Winter Entrance 



By C. W. Brimhall 



THE photo gives a good idea of 

 my special winter entrance and 

 how it is used. Beekeepers, 

 who winter outdoors in the north, 

 are familiar with the clogged en- 

 trances that often result from the 

 melted snow freezing in the entrance 



Winter entrance of C. W. Brimhall 



and filling it with ice. This special 

 cover protects the hive from direct 

 drafts of cold wind, as well as keep- 

 ing the snow from melting and clog- 

 ging the entrance with ice. The bees 

 can readily leave the hive when con- 

 ditions are favorable. A brick is 

 placed on top of this guard, to hold 

 it firmly in place. 

 Schaller, Iowa. 



The Temperature of the Bee's 

 Body 



By Dr. Brunnich 



IT is a well-known fact that bees 

 are able to produce warmth, that 

 they may, especially in winter- 

 time, keep the temperature within 

 the cluster at a point which sur- 

 mounts, by far, the temperature of 

 the outer air. Most of us have read 

 with great interest the experiments 



