_Factoryville, Pa._, Aug. 10, 1870.
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[For the American Bee Journal.]
Form of Hive, and Feeding Bees.
I object to a low and flat shape of hive, for reasons which I shall
assign. I will first state, however, that a hive of bees without
provision for the retention of animal heat, is as helpless as a new born
babe without raiment. Take, as an example, a hive twelve inches square,
containing an oblong square perpendicular, and the frames to suit in
size and shape. Your combs say eighteen inches in depth perpendicular,
and twelve inches wide. The bees, in order to hatch brood, as the
weather becomes warm in the spring, will cluster at the larva end of
said combs, and keep up the temperature from bottom to top, because of
two combined reasons, the combs being the long way perpendicular, and
the natural tendency of heat being to rise, it ascends throughout the
entire length of the combs, and thus the proper temperature is attained
throughout the hive. It is a settled principle too, that a given
quantity or number of bees can produce animal heat only sufficient in
amount to rarify the air in a given space to a given temperature. Take,
for example, a low flat hive, with combs say eighteen inches long
horizontal, and nine inches deep, the hive being twelve inches wide, the
same as the other. Now remember the principle just before stated. The
bees will collect at the front end of the comb, and the animal heat, as
generated, will ascend the same as along the combs in the other hive,
which are eighteen inches deep; whereas these are only twelve inches
deep. Is it not obvious that here one-third of every comb towards its
rear end is entirely lost to the bees, so far as the early production of
brood is concerned, because of the shape of the combs and the natural
tendency of the heat generated to ascend? If the bees (being the same in
number in both hives,) were spread out at the bottom of the combs in the
last mentioned hive, the full size of the hive, the cluster would be
twelve inches wide and eighteen inches horizontal. Then, on the
principle that a given number of bees can generate only a certain degree
of heat in a given space, they would fail to bring about the proper
temperature in any part of the hive; and the result would be that they
could not produce any brood. But allow them (as they will) to contract
the size of their cluster, and you find that there is nearly one-third
of each comb not used by them in the production of brood. Hence we find
in the communications of bee-keepers such remarks as these--“My bees
swarmed out of my common box and log gums earlier than they did out of
my patent hives.” But universally we find in such cases that their
patent hives are low and flat in shape. We have used such hives, and
know by experience the truth whereof we speak; and, fearless of
successful contradiction, we proclaim that the time is not far distant
when the practical bee-keepers will adopt the shape of from a square to
an oblong perpendicular, the oblong being preferable. We once were of
those who thought there could be no difference in the mere shape of a
hive, but justice to the true principles of bee-keeping compelled a
change of opinion.
There is still another reason why bees should have a hive long up and
down. In cases of long continued extreme cold weather, the bees cannot
move in a lateral direction to obtain food. But the warmth of the bees
will aid them in obtaining it from above, from the fact that their
warmth will ascend and keep the frost melted at a greater distance from
the bees above them, than on the sides. And, further, when spring came,
or in the month of April, my bees almost always became nearly extinct in
the low flat form of hive.
Now, in conclusion, let me add some remarks on _feeding_. There is a
principle in the feeding of bees that is truly astonishing in its
effects. They may be fed in sufficient quantity to cause them to fill
all the empty cells and thereby work a complete destruction of the
colony, if the owner fails to remove some of the honey out of their way.
Or they may be fed in such proportions that the prosperity and increase
of the hive will be somewhat like the rolling of a snow-ball--the longer
and further it rolls, the greater its magnitude becomes. The queen has
the ability to deposit from 2,000 to 3,000 eggs every day in the height
of the breeding season; and if bees are then excited by finding liberal
supplies of honey in the flowers, yet not in such abundance as to cause
them to fill the hive to overflowing, brooding and rearing young bees
will proceed most rapidly. But if there is little honey or none yielded
by the flowers, and the bees remain idle for some length of time, the
queen will cease depositing eggs; while on the other hand, if the bees
rapidly fill nearly all the cells with honey, the queen must necessarily
cease laying, for want of room to deposit eggs.
Bees seem to have three periods of probation. The first twenty-one days
of their existence are passed in the cell; the next eighteen or twenty
one days they spend in the hive mainly, nursing brood exclusively,
except when engaged at times in building or repairing comb; the next
period is devoted to assiduous outdoor labor, and varies from forty to
fifty days, in the busy season of the year.
Early and continued stimulation to activity, by feeding the bees, causes
the colony to become strong in numbers. If therefore we wish for
handsome profits from the labors of the bees, we must have them in great
numbers, at all times in the hive. If we expect great quantities of
honey from weak colonies, we are doomed to disappointment. In almost
every locality there is a time, during the spring or summer, when bees
cannot gather nectar from the flowers. Such spells are sometimes
prolonged for months; and in some years, in Iowa, in the month of June,
the writer has known colonies to starve to death. In such times of
scarcity, the bee-keeper should always be on the alert, and begin
feeding only in sufficient quantity to produce activity in the hive. It
frequently occurs that bees use up all the unsealed honey in the hive,
and almost stop brooding. They appear to be reluctant to open their
sealed honey. It seems that there is a principle at this point which we
have not been able to grasp yet. I think that as a rule, if bees run out
of unsealed honey in the spring months, the keeper should, from time to
time, shave off the capping of some of the full cells. This, I think,
would answer the same purpose as feeding, by exciting the bees to
activity. It should be practiced in all cases where there is plenty of
sealed honey in the hive, in the forepart of the season; and feeding
only to a limited and small extent, when the bees have used up their
unsealed supply. In fact, feeding should never be resorted to, while the
hive contains plenty of sealed honey. Better uncap some of it.
It is not by any means desirable to have a hive in the height of the
breeding season, with the cells so stored with honey that the queen is
unable to deposit eggs to the full extent of her powers. Better extract
some honey, even if you have to return it again by feeding as the season
advances, thus keeping up the activity of the colony.
There are many attempts to systematize bee-keeping. Some ideas
communicated through the Journal prove highly serviceable. Others drop
without effect, perhaps, except that they set bee-keepers to thinking,
and sometimes to experimenting, which is useful, too, if it be not
indulged in at too great cost.