302 
ENTRANCES TO HIVES 
where the bees are packed in quadruple 
winter cases, such as are described under 
head of “Wintering” at the close of this 
work. A number of prominent apiarists 
all over the country have used very small 
entrances like this with excellent results 
during winter, but such small entrances are 
not practicable unless there is at least 6 
inches of packing on the sides of the win¬ 
ter case, then 6 inches on top and 4 inches 
on the bottom. With that amount of pack¬ 
ing the interior of the brood-nest is so 
warm that bees can easily pick up the dead 
and poke them out of the entrance. When 
hives are only single-walled and outdoors, 
so small an entrance would probably be 
too much of a good thing, as the dead 
bees would accumulate so fast that the en¬ 
trance would clog up. 
In California it is getting more and 
more the practice, even with large colonies, 
to contract the entrance down to % inch 
wide, or a space where not more than two 
or three bees can pass at a time, but as the 
Hives owned by John Nippert, at Imperial. Calif. 
bees can fly nearly every day during the 
winter, they can easily carry out any dead 
that may accumulate. The object of the 
close contraction of the entrance in Cali¬ 
fornia is to obviate robbing and to hold 
the heat in the hives. 
The use of very closely contracted en¬ 
trances during the winter, as advocated by 
California beekeepers, can be practiced to 
excellent advantage in other semi-tropical 
countries during that part of the year 
when the days are warm and the nights 
cold. 
It is customary to have some sort of cleat 
to reduce a wide entrance to a small slot. 
This, when inserted slot side down, reduces 
the opening to the proper size for outdoor- 
wintered bees. In cleaning out the dead 
bees the entrance-stop should be removed 
entirely, making the entrance the full size. 
Any dead bees that may have accumulated 
should be raked out and the stop put back. 
If it is discovered that the colony is weak, 
the slot should be reduced to one inch or 
OLD STYL. E ENTRANCE BLOCK g 
NEW' STYLE BLOCK .3/8 'WOLES 
COMBINATION BLOCK-Vs- HOLES AND SLOT 
less in width. At the same time the frames 
should be contracted to the number that the 
bees can reasonably occupy or cover. If 
they are compelled to keep a large room 
warm, they may die from cold. 
The illustrations show very simple cleats 
which can be made at any planing mill, or 
can be cut at home, using nothing but a 
common handsaw and a chisel. These 
cleats give various-sized entrances accord¬ 
ing to the way they are attached. When 
the cleats are removed entirely the full 
opening of the hive is provided. 
If the block containing' %-inch holes is 
used, at least two of the holes may be 
closed during very cold weather. 
or one consisting of a series of holes, is 
used, it is very important that there be 
no doorstep or ledge to catch snow and 
ice in packing-cases. 
