80 DR. miller's 



A. Wire-cloth with three meshes to the inch is a good thing 

 at the entrance for winter, but not when bees are flying daily. 



Q. If a colony is extra large, how large should the hive- 

 entrance be ? 



A. Full width of the hive. 



Q. What do you think of having the entrance the long way of 

 the hive seven-eighths of an inch high during the honey flow? 

 Did you ever try it? 



A. If you mean to have the entrance the long way of the hive, 

 and that the only entrance, I shouldn't like it so well as to have 

 the entrance the usual way, because the latter allows freer en- 

 trance of air. In Europe it is quite common to have the entrance 

 as you describe. That's called the "warm arrangement," and the 

 frames running at right angles to the entrance (the common way 

 here) is called the "cold arrangement." I never tried the single 

 entrance at the side, but have practiced largely having the en- 

 trance on all four sides. I like it much, but now have only one 

 opening two inches deep, as being, in the long run, more con- 

 venient. 



Q. How about a separate entrance to supers? 



A. Some advise it, but generally it is not used. An opening 

 above for ventilation, in very hot weather, however, may be a 

 fine thing. 



Q. Does it make any difference if the hive-entrance faces the 

 north during the winter, and would it be a good plan to build a 

 sort of box around and close the entrance one-half its present 

 width? (Ohio.) 



A. So far south as southern Ohio it probably makes little dif- 

 ference how a hive faces. Yet a good many favor facing south, 

 and having no protection on the front. In this way the bees 

 more quickly get the effects of the sun on a warm day in winter. 



Equalizing Brood. — Q. Is it a good policy to equalize brood in 

 the spring? 



A. Yes, if rightly done, and no brood taken from any colony 

 unless it has more than four frames well filled with brood. 



Excluders. — Q. Do you use a queen-excluder on your hives to 

 keep the queen from laying in the sections? If not, how do you 

 prevent this? 



A. AVith full sheets of foundation in sections, and frames not 

 too shallow in the brood-chamber, the queen so seldom makes 

 trouble in the supers that I never use an excluder to keep her 

 down. 



