96 



EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



Dr. Miller: Most certainly there 

 would be a difference, and there is 

 much less chance of it, and Mr. Da- 

 dant has given the answer. After your 

 combs are built and you have nothing 

 but fully drawn out combs, while 

 they are building those combs. I 

 should be afraid there would be a 

 little crowding there. At any rate, 

 . I would not insist upon it that Mr. 

 Baxter must use it if he does not need 

 to. But for those that want that 

 space, I suggest you can have the ad- 

 vantage of that full two-inch space 

 without having any building down. 



Mr. Baxter: I can see it would be 

 necessary in the Dangstroth hive, but 

 in the Quinby hive I have never seen 

 any building below. 



Dr. Miller: If Mr. Baxter has 

 worked the Quinby hive long enough, 

 working for comb honey, aiHd has 

 found year after year that they don't 

 build down, I will accept his word; 

 but I suspect that no matter how deep 

 the frame, if they are crowded enough 

 to work in sections, they will prefer 

 building down under a part of the 

 time. 



Mr. Whitney: Have you observed, 

 Dr Miller, that the bees build down 

 the comb in the brood-chamber to the 

 bottom-bar any better with that rack 

 under than before? 



Dr. Miller: Theoretically they do, 

 but practically I don't know. 



Mr. Whitney: We all know who 

 have observed the work of the bees. 



Dr. Miller: I have not the chance to 

 know because I am not sure I have 

 had a comb built down since I have 

 used that. 



Mr. Whitney: We know that bees do 

 not always build down to the bottom- 

 bars in the brood-chamber, especially 

 in the center, because there is a cool 

 current of air under the bottom-bars 

 so that the bees cannot well work 

 the wax where the bottom -bars come 

 so near the bottom-board. I know 

 that in my observation of my own 

 cellar, if I put those combs to one 

 side, and on the line of the entrance 

 where the air comes in, they will 

 build down to the bottom-bars. 



Dr. Miller: I might say that my 



opinion would be that they would 



build down better with this than with 



I . the ordinary shallow space, because 



' ' the rule is that this inch space under 



the bottom-bars is filled entirely with 



bees. There is a cluster of bees down, 

 and bees under this, and that being 

 the case, I should think they would 

 build down better. 



Mr. Wilcox: Would you rather have 

 those bees under than to have them 

 up on the combs? 



Dr. Miller: No; but if they want to 

 go there, I would not object. 



Mr. Wilcox: I have used a chaff 

 hive, which has a bottom-board with 

 a space one and one-fourth inches 

 at the front end and only a quarter 

 of an inch at the rear end, and I like 

 the hive very niuch on that account — 

 it is easier for the bees to keep it 

 cleaned out. 



Mr. Holbrook: Isn't that more help- 

 ful in preventing swarming than any 

 other device ? 



Dr. Miller: I think that is an impor- 

 tant part of ijt, because the giving 'of ■[ 

 abundance of space underneath helps 

 to keep the bees cool, and that does 

 just that much toward preventing 

 swarming. I think it helps very much 

 in that way. 



Mr. Holbrook: In your case, that is 

 what you use it largely for, is it not? ' 



Dr. Miller: I use this to keep the 

 bees from building down. I use the 

 large space to give them air, and that 

 helps to keep down swarming. Per- 

 haps I had better go a little further 

 and say that I can have the large 

 space without this, but if I should at- 

 tempt to run that two-inch space 

 through the summer I would only 

 have threg-eighths of an inch space, 

 because they would commence build- 

 ing down, and if they commence they 

 don't stop at an inch from the floor, 

 but go down so that there will be only 

 a three-eighths space, but if there is 

 only an inch to start with they won't 

 begin building in that space. I may 

 get caught some time and find they 

 will build a little in that inch space. 



Mr. Baldridge: Is it not a fact that 

 if they do build below the bottom- 

 bars in the brood-frames they will 

 build drone-comb mainly, or to a great 

 extent? 



Dr. Miller: They will to a great ex- 

 tent. I have had a good deal of that. 

 I would not like to make a brag that 

 I have had building down; but I have 

 had a good deal where I have not had 

 anything under, and I think there has 

 been quite a little more of drone- 

 comb than of worker-comb. 



