CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 19 



EVAPORATION 



One of the by-products given off by the bees in ripening 

 honey is water vapor. Sometimes more than one pound of water 

 is expelled from the honey in part of a night. This much water 

 vapor at average hive temperature of 90 deg. F. would fill to sat- 

 uration over 600 standard hive-bodies. Then if the air entering 

 the hive was absolutely dry, and that emerging from it at satur- 

 ation, and the hive air completely changed in one minute, this 

 amount of water vapor would pass out in about 10 hours. But 

 we never have absolutely dry air, nor do we have all the air in 

 the hive even near saturation, nor can the bees change all the 

 air in the hive, through an opening in the lower front, in one min- 

 ute. The bees could not get rid of a pound of water this way in 

 24 hours. 



One pound of water evaporated during the night, from the 

 nectar brought in during the day, would empty over 1600 cells. 

 These and the ones vacated by hatching bees would keep well 

 ahead of the queen. 



In handling bees we are bound to give recognition and 

 allowance for the storing and ripening of nectar between the 

 stores of ripened honey and the brood. If the hive be so pro- 

 tected that a good working temperature can easily be maintained, 

 the honey close around the brood-nest is either moved to some 

 outside comb, or consumed by the bees and brood, leaving empty 

 cells to store the nectar. 



Removal of the water from the nectar is something to which 

 the beekeeper has given little attention, because it could not be 

 seen, but nevertheless we have the water vapor given off when 

 the bee ripens a drop of honey in his mouth. We are as certain 

 of it as we are of the wax scales that the bees secrete. We see the 

 wax, but the water vapor not being visible, has claimed little of 

 our attention. The beekeeper, striving for good results, cannot 

 afford to overlook the great part that water vapor plays in the 

 hive. 



When the beekeeper opens the hive for inspection, does he 



