304 
ENTRANCES TO HIVES 
honey-chambers being rendered too cool by 
so many entrances; but if this is the case, 
it is also too cool for honey-gathering, and 
the upper stories should be removed. If 
the colony is weak, upper entrances are 
unnecessary; and in that case, also, the 
honey-chambers should be removed, since 
such a colony can not gather a surplus in 
any event. 
Some of our well-known writers on bee 
culture heartily recommend upper en¬ 
trances—notably so Dr. C. C. Miller, C. P. 
Dadant, R. F. Holtermann, and, in early 
times, Adam Grimm, who, with the money 
he made with his bees, established a bank. 
Dr. C. C. Miller, in Gleanings in Bee 
Culture for June 1, 1907, writes: “Prof. 
Cook says, p. 312, that bees ventilate so 
effectively at the entrance that it is best 
to have only one opening to the hive, evi¬ 
dently meaning at all' times; and W. K. 
Morrison, page 686, asks if I subscribe to 
that doctrine. Emphatically, no. If run¬ 
ning for extracted honey I would generally 
have one more opening than the number of 
stories in use—the regular entrance and an 
opening at the top of each story. Each year 
for years I have had one or more piles thus 
ventilated, and none has ever swarmed. 
Many years ago I learned from Adam 
Grimm to have an opening for ventilation 
at the top of the brood-chamber at the back 
end when running for comb honey. I gave 
it up because it interfered with the finish¬ 
ing of the sections near such openings. But 
I have gone back to it again, believing that 
such disadvantage is overbalanced by the 
gain in ventilation. You can’t make me be¬ 
lieve that it is not easier for the bees to 
have one hole for the air to go out and an¬ 
other for it to come in than to make the air 
go both ways in the same hole.”* The 
practical beekeeper will soon discover for 
himself when and how to use a plurality of 
entrances, for much depends on the climate. 
Evidently it does not work so well with 
* It is a very interesting experiment to light a 
match and hold it in front of the entrance while 
the evaporation of nectar is going on in the hive. 
On one side the flame will he sucked into the en¬ 
trance and on the other side the flame will be 
blown away from it. So strong is the current that 
the match will be sucked in, in one case and blown 
out in the other. It shows that bees, like a series 
of little electric fans, are sucking fresh air in one 
side and forcing the air laden with moisture from 
evaporation on the other side. The direction of the 
air current can also he determined by th@ U§e of a 
little smoke. 
comb-honey production as it does with ex¬ 
tracted ; yet even this may be satisfactorily 
arranged. It looks now as if plural en¬ 
trances were a long step toward swarm 
prevention by causing the field workers to 
leave the brood and confine their energies 
to storing honey in the upper chambers. 
See Swarming. 
ENTRANCES FOR INDOOR WINTERING. 
Authorities differ as to the size of en¬ 
trance that should be used for indoor win¬ 
tering. Some argue that, the larger the 
openings, the better. A few go even so far 
as to urge that the bottom-boards be re¬ 
proved entirely, one hive piled upon two 
pthers, leaving an opening between the two 
lower hives of about one-third of the size of 
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□□ □□ □□ 
the entire bottom of the hive. Others ad¬ 
vise a regular bottom-board, but an en¬ 
trance two inches deep by the full width 
pf the hive; while others recommend no 
larger entrance than the bees have during 
the summer. 
The size of the entrances of the hives 
in a bee-cellar is dependent on two factors 
—the size and temperature of the cellar 
itself and the size of the colony. Large 
colonies should have larger entrances than 
weak ones. If the temperature inside of 
the cluster at any time drops below 57 de¬ 
grees Fahr., the bees will generate heat ar¬ 
tificially, expand the cluster, and .possibly 
start brood-rearing. . The cluster should be 
kept at a temperature as near 60 degrees 
as possible. This will insure the greatest 
degree of quiescence or sleep. Op the other 
hand, if the cellar is too warm, the tem¬ 
perature of the cluster will rise to a point 
of activity that will start brood-rearing. 
If it is too cold, or if the entrance is too 
large, the internal temperature of the clus¬ 
ter may fall below 57 degrees, with the re¬ 
sult that muscular activity will be started, 
and in either case it means a too large con¬ 
sumption of stores, and possibly brood¬ 
rearing. As it would be impracticable to 
take the temperature reading of every col¬ 
ony of bees in the cellar in order to deter¬ 
mine the size of the entrances, it is possi¬ 
ble to arrive at it by putting a thermometer 
thru the entrance, allowing it to rest on 
