CONSTRUCTIVE
BEEKEEPING

BY

ED H. CLARK

Nw

Fe: Copyright, 1918, by

ED. H. CLARK.

A WORD TO THE BEEKEEPERS.

For this system or theory of housing bees I am making no
extravagant claims, and had no thought of giving the public
the result of my study and experiments until I had given them
a test of a few more years, but the present necessity for increased
production makes it the first duty of every person to stimulate
in every way that he can this production; and if this system
proves to be that will-of-the-wisp that the beekeepers have been
chasing, a conclusion will be reached sooner than could be by
my individual effort.

—ED. H. CLARK.

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

Commercial beekeeping has for its object the production of
the maximum quantity of well ripened honey at a minimum of
cost. Swarming adds greatly to the cost of producing honey.
Most methods of swarm-prevention have in them the element
of destructiveness. Ventilating, removing the queen, shaking
the bees, removing the brood, exchanging brood-bodies, loosening
the cover, all destroying something that the bees have done, or
adding to the work to be done in the hive.

Let me state here that you are not going to be told that ab-
_ solute swarm-prevention is a possibility, nor will you be told that
honey can be produced by absent treatment. What you will get
from a good understanding of the following pages is that the bee-
keeper who takes advantage of the laws relating to condensation
of vapor, and follows where the bees have been leading will have
edvanced one step nearer the swarmless bee.

_ Instead of going to the hive and telling the bees (by manip-
ulations) ‘‘don’t-.do this’; say to them “keep all your brood, keep
your queen, keep the cold damp air out of the hive and I will
make your hive so perfect a condenser of water vapor that the
work of evaporating water from the nectar will be done quickly.”
We will bring team-work into play, and each get the benefit of
every advantage gained.

Constructive beekeeping helps by getting the honey ripened
quickly each night and stored out of the way of the queen. The
hive will then be maintained in such a condition that the bees
have the greatest amount of comfort in relation to the results
produced.

EFFICIENCY

Familiarity with the bees makes a person wonder where the
mule got his reputation for stubborness. We must, when we work
with bees, follow where they lead if we want satisfactory results.

\

6 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

They generally know what they want and fight to do it in their
cwn way.

The bee is an economical “fellow.” Efficiency is his last
name. For ages before our time he has been working at the
- game task that he has brought to such perfection. The bees that
have excited the amazement and wonder of the world as build-
ers of geometric comb, with all its economy and strength, the
bees that make from the nectar of the flowers the honey, that is
the superlative of all things sweet and good; have not stopped
with these two achievements, but have maintained a marvel with-
in their home, which, when understood, will amaze us more
than ever. |

The bees collect propolis (despised by the beekeeper) and '

with infinite work and a knowledge of the laws of condensation
cf moisture, have varnished the inside, sealed all openings that
would give upper ventilation, making out of their home a perfect

condenser for the water vapor that has filled the hive air by ,

evaporation from the nectar. This moisture they collect from the
inside surface of the hive, works right in with their idea of econ-
omy, saving the carrying of water from the stream or spring.

CO-OPERATION

One great discovery in beekeeping was the beespace. When
this space was within the limits that conform to what instinct
told them was best, peace between the beekeeper and his bees
was established along this line.

A similar misunderstanding is on at the present time about
the best way to get rid of the moisture in the hive. The bees,
from the habits and customs, carried down for ages, contending
that condensation is the system best adapted to their mode of life,
while the beekeeper is trying to force them to use the ventilating
system. I think that the beekeepr, being a most sensible person,
will see the error of his way and eventually follow where the bee
leads. The bees but show their contempt for ventilation when
it is at its best.

eae. oe

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING ff

_ URGE

Swarming is the breaking in two of a populous colony of bees
for the reproduction of the colony. Other swarming need not
be considered here. :

The confusion of conceptions which arises in the mind
when the term swarm-prevention is mentioned, has to a great
extent, been a hindrance to logical reasoning on this subject.’
At mention of the word swarm, there is conjured up from the
background of our minds, the exciting and spectacular scenes
we have seen enacted around the aipary. What we want to
prevent not the birth but the conception. We must go even
prior to this and prevent the primal urge. To avoid confusion
and give reason and logic an opportunity to work, unhampered
by visions conjured up at mention of the word swarm, the word
urge will be used here to refer to the initial starting point. of
the swarming impulse. —

, Theurge is the direct result of the actual or apparent failure
of the queen. | Oe

With the exception of a young queen in the hive, all other
methods of urge prevention. have to do with room for the queen
to lay. Give the queen plenty of room to lay and swarms are
reduced. Give the colony plenty of ventilation and you have
fewer swarms. Young queen, and shade in the afternoons,
reduce swarming. Room, ventilation, shade in the afternoon,
and young queen have given the best results so far obtained.

CONDITIONS.

What has puzzled the beekeeper is that results obtained by
the same treatment year after year have not been the same. Nor
have the same results been obtained by similar treatments in dif-
ferent localities. Bees always respond to similar treatment under
like conditions by giving uniform results. The beekeepers’ trou-
ble is that he makes his treatments uniform but not his condi-
tions. Conditions include all of the following things:

‘1. Temperature.
2. Direction and velocity of the wind.

8 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEHPING

3. Moisture in the air.

4. Depth of evaporation.

5. Sunshine.

6. Altitude.

7. Number of bees.

8. Fertility and vigor of the queen.

9. Number of worker cells in the hive.

10. Size of entrance.

11. Construction of hive.

12. Fit of hive parts and cover.

18. Radiating surface on inside walls of the hive.
14. Number of honey and pollen-producing plants.
15. The amount of water in the nectar.

To show how much harder bees would have to fan at the en-
trance to ripen honey in some localities than in others, if they
ripened it altogether by ventilation, the depth of evaporation in

inches, taken from a map of the Weather Bureau, is here given:

25 inches, Ontario, Canada.

85 inches, Massachusetts.

30 inches, Ohio, Northern part.

50 inches, Illinois, Southern part.

50 inches, Texas, Central part.

60 to 100 inches, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and most

of California. |

From this will readily be seen the different conditions under
which the bees do their work in different localities, due to only
one of the conditions previously mentioned. It is apparent that
similar treatments, as regards ventilation, cannot give uniform
results in all these places. .

To make the treatments as near uniform as possible and get
like results under these different atmospheric conditions, we
must follow the way of the bees and make the hive a condenser
instead of a ventilator.

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 9
ROOM

To look at the question of room and apply constructive treat-
ment is our aim. If the hive room is large, good results do not
2elways follow. So much thought has been put into the experi-
ments carried out with different sizes of hives, that the majority
of beekeepers have settled on a standard size, which is best un-
der most conditions. Some. advocate one a little larger, some a
little smaller, but neither deviate much from the recognized stan-
dard. So we must conclude that the bees and their keeper do not
disagree greatly on the size of the hive.

During the urge period the attention of the beekeeper has
mostly been given to brood rearing. To get best results he must
have the hive filled with bees at the beginning of the honey flow.
He knows that swarming results when the hive is full of brood,
nectar, honey and bees, so he increases the size of the hive.

As the lack of room is not the result of one condition, but
of many, the added room may be more than the bees can heat.
Our aim then must be to determine that nice balance between too
much and too little room, ventilation and shade. On the correct
determination of this balance our success depends.

To have in our minds a conception of brood conditions in the
hive prior to and at the time of the urge, will give us a clearer
understanding of the principal cause of the urge. By a study of
the following hypothetical tabulation, the conditions of a hive can
be seen. A ten-frame hive of Langstroth dimentions has, when
the frames are filled with worker cells, about 66,000 of these cells.
Deduct 12,000 for the ones occupied by pollen and capped honey
and there is left 54,000 cells for brood and nectar.

This is about the condition of brood in a strong colony at
Fargo, North Dakota on the given dates. On June 23 there would
be in this colony 25,000 bees under 10 days and 44,440 over 10
days old.

It can readily be seen that, when the hive is filled with
brood honey and pollen, when sunshine and flowers are tempting

10 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

APRIL EGGS BROOD EGGS BROOD
1 100 13 1500 24100
2 LOO is: 14 1200 24900
3 110 15 1000 25400
4 110 16 1600 26450 ©
5) 115 17 1600 | 27400
6 115 (aioe 1800 28500
fi 120 19 1500 29200
8 1205 20 1600 - 29900
9 120 be Gra ves 1300 30700

10 140 22 2200 ~ 31800
it 140 23 2400 33000
12 140 24 500 34800
13. 180 25 2800 36360
14 180 26 2400 37300
15 200 27 2600 38500
16 200 28 5000 40060
17 210 29 2500 41000
18 215 30 2400 41900
19 220 uel 2000 42300
20 240 a ONE.

21 300 3075 1 2400 43000
22 300 3575 Z 5000 44300
23 400 3875 3 3400 46200
24 500 A265 4 3000 48000 2
25 550 A705 D 3200 > §0200
26 650 5240 Gia 3100 51700
27 700 5825 of - 8000 53100
28 800 6505 8 2400 53700
29 900 7285 9 53000 55200
30 1000 8165 10 3200 56800

May 11 5000 58000
1 1100 9125 .> 12 2500 58300
2 1200 LOSS ES 2400 58300
3 1200 11245 14 5000 58300
4 1300 12365 15 2800 58300
D 1400 18585 16 2400 58300
6 1400 14785 817 2600 58300
t 1500 16085" 7 18 5000 58300
8 1500 MS TSe 719 2500 58300
9 1500 18660 20 2400 58300

10 1600 20040 821 2000 58300
5 1700 21500 822 2400 58300
12 1700 22900 23 3000 58300

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING Ek

the bees to work almost to madness, the honey coming in de-
posited in cells and interfering with the laying of the queen,
their system of housekeeping is disorganized. Their instinct
tells them that now is the time to get things in shape for
swarming. 3

Another condition of hive that gives like results is when
the cells are filled with nectar, and the conditions of atmosphere
and hive such that little or no evaporation takes place.

WAX.

Also, when from whatever cause, the bees have a lot of
sealed honey around the brood-nest, and because the empty out-
side combs are too cold for work, they will not remove the
honey to these to enable the queen to lay. This is the condition
of colony where spreading the brood makes more room, also
that makes a colony in a sixteen-frame hive take on the urge.

To understand this condition a knowledge of the relation
of temperature to wax-working is necessary. To work and build
with wax requires a temperature nearly as high as that main-
tained in the brood-nest, and when any part of the hive is colder
than is consistent for easy work with wax; the bees, if they
work on wax at all, do it in the warmer part of the hive.

It must be borne in mind that the bees, like all other crea-
tures, do things mostly in the line of least resistance. It is
easier to work wax where it is warm than where it is cold.
Hence we find the bees starting on the center combs in the
second super, before finishing the outside ones in the first. The
beekeeper who puts boards, with slits on either side for the
bees to enter the super from the brood-chamber, produces a
condition that sends the warm air from the brood-chamber up
through the slits; thereby giving the bees a good temperature
to work on outside combs. | |

Beekeepers who produce heather honey in England, because
of the cold nights, put a covering over and around the supers
to keep them warm. Otherwise poor results follow. It has
been demonstrated that combs can be built down to the bottom-

12 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

bar in a super better than in a brood-chamber with an opening
at the bottom front, and here again temperature plays its part.
Knowing the relation of temperature to working in wax, it
can readily be seen how a colony, with plenty of hive room may
be crowded for brood-room and acquire the urge.
Caging the queen gives more room, but brings on the urge
and may result in swarming. Removal of the brood and sub-
stituting foundation or drawn comb gives laying room to the
queen. These are good examples of destrutive beekeeping. Haw
much better the colony could get ahead had they hives so con-
structed and protected from outside weather conditions that
they could evaporate the water from their honey and store it
away from the brood-nest.
Shaking the bees gives ample room, but that is artifical
swarming. 5
Removing the water from the nectar and giving the bees an
opportunity to store this ripened nectar in fewer cells makes

more room, and when this can be accomplished soon after the >

bees’ last trip to the field, it shortens their hours of work, adds
to their comfort and perhaps lengthening their lives.

It is just as necessary for the economy of their domestic
arrangement that they have room sufficient and warm enough
to ripen the honey, as for storage of ripened honey and brood.

BROOD - FRAMES

Brood-frames cannot be ignored in constructive beekeeping,
because they have so close a relation to room in the hive. The
nearer the number of worker cells in all the frames approach
the maximum, the more room the hive contains. Frames not
filled to the bottom-bar and frames containing drone comb; will,
together with other conditions, make just enough difference in
hive room to bring on the urge. The ten-frame hive, under
_ these conditions, has but little more room than eight full frames.

The size of a hive, no matter what its dimensions, is expressed
in the number of worker cells it contains. A hive with but from
40,000 to 50,000 worker cells must not be thought of as a
standard hive, even though it has ten standard frames.

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 13

Empty spaces inside the frames make an extra expense to
the beekeeper, and an added burden on the bees. They have
fully one-fourth more space to keep warm in a hive with beespace
and frames, than they have in a box hive of the same dimensions.

Another way a constructive principle can be applied to the
frame is to reduce the top-bar to the same thickness as the
bottom-bar. Beekeepers are convinced that ten frames are not
enough for a good laying queen, therefore some advocate giving .
more room above, by adding another hive-body, others giving
more room on the side, using a wider hive-body, while some make
the hive higher, wider and longer. The larger hive-body, it is
claimed, gives better results when used in producing extracted
honey, but it can never become a standard hive, because a great
number of beekeepers produce comb honey.

The ten frame or standard hive being the best for most pur-
poses, it remains for the beekeeper, when he gives more room,
to give the bees a brood-nest with as little space between comb
and comb, where the brood-bodies meet, as possible. Considering
that all the combs in the hive body given above are built down to
the bottom-bar, we have at the junction of the two hive bodies,
a space between comb and comb of top-bar, beespace and bottom
bar, or about one and one-half inches. From experiments it has
been observed that a thick top-bar is a fairly good queen excluder. —
Hence it is apparent that more or less of an effort is required to
pass over this space. When this is reduced by a thin top-bar an
easier passage for the queen and bees is made, and better results
will follow. In smoothing out little difficulties like these we are
always amply repaid.

For the same reason all comb should be built down to
the bottom-bar, then with cells overlapping top and bottom bars
of the respective hive-bodies, the beespace is all that separates
comb from comb. The thin top-bar adds more cells to the hive,
so adding its mite to the economy of the hive, and giving the
_ bees nearly continuous comb from top to bottom of the hive.

14 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING
VENTILATION

One of the axioms of beekeeping is ventilate. No matter
what other manipulations the beekeeper recommends to prevent
swarming, he always adds “VENTILATE”. Why do the bees
require so much fresh air in May and June when they have double
the capacity of air space, within the hive, that they have in
October and November

The air in the hive serves a two-fold purpose. It supplies

the bees with oxygen and influences the amount of water vapor
the hive can contain. This water vapor is given off in the
ripening of honey and the breathing of the bees. It is either
removed from the hive by ventilation or carried to the walls and
ceiling, where it is condensed and used by the bees for domestic
purposes. .
Ventilation is constructive in principle when the nights are
warm and the atmosphere comparatively dry, but is destructive

_ when the nights are cold and the atmospheré nearly saturated

with moisture. Only the best beekeepers can, by ventilation,
maintain that nice balance that accords with temperature and
strength of the colony.

During the season when the bees are most likely to acquire
the urge the nights are colder and the humidity of the air greater
than later in the season. At such times a cold current of air
throught the hive interferes with the rearing of brood and does
not help much in the ripening of honey. Each day of good
honey gathering bringing the colony nearer to a crowded
condition.

_ No beekeeper finds it practicable to change the ventilation
as the temperature changes, but must rely on his judgment of
the amount that gives best results.

The manipulations of divisible brood chambers can be con-
sidered under the head of ventilation. When the two sections
of the brood chamber have been broken apart or exchanged, the
percentage of colonies that acquire the urge has been reduced.
This can readily be explained by showing how it makes for ven-
tilation. If it is done prior to the urge it will have a tendency to

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4
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*

\

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEHEPING 15

reduce swarming. All tearing apart of hive-bodies from each
other or from covers or bottom-boards leaves a rough surface _
to the adjoining parts, the result of dirt, grass or bees adhering
to the propolis. When the hive is again put together the adjoin-
ing surfaces are not tight and ventilation is the result.

The result of ventilation is room. Because ventilation has
given more room we have all believed in it. Room can be given
by ventilation but at the expense of a warm. hive.

The velocity of the wind and shape and size of the entrance
must be studied in their relations to one another when consider-
ing ventilation. The ill effects from winds, even with reduced en-
trances, is Sometimes apparent. A bunch of grass or a shrub,
sometimes two or three feet away from the entrance may deflect’
and send a current of air right into the hive, or it may produce
a calm at the entrance. The only possible way to have uniform
ventilation is to have a good wind break. If the hives are so
situated as to be in a calm at all times then what ventilation there
is is regular, but hives so situated are troubled with excessive
swarming. .

With any wind at all blowing, no two hives in a row, nor in dif-
ferent rows, even though they have the same size openings, will
have the same ventilation. To any one who has tried to follow
the course of air movements along the surface and a few feet
above the earth, winding in and out among obstructions, some-
times flying off at a tangent, sometimes circling all around,
sometimes upward or downward, bounding and rebounding from
Such obstructions, it is apparent that air currents among the
hives in an aipary are so complex as to be past our understanding.
This but shows with what little certainty ventilation can be made
anyway uniform. Hence the different results at different times

_ from apparently similar treatments.

Shade in the afternoon has been proven to be somewhat of a

preventive of the urge. This is clearly explained by the laws

governing condensation of water vapor, and will be treated in the
chapter under that head.

Ventilation and shade each make more room in the hive,

_

16 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

which leads me to remark that ventilation is constructive at the
proper time, and under right atmospheric conditions, but is de-
structive in spring and early summer, because of the low tem-
perature and moisture-laden atmosphere. Air that is already full
of moisture will be of little use in drying the air of the hive. To
demonstrate this a wet cloth can be hung by the hive on a night
of high relative humidity, and in the morning it will be far from
cry. It will require no great reasoning on the part of anyone to
see that the water vapor of the hive is not all carried away by
ventilation.

SWARMING

During a heavy flow of honey the-queen gradually and some-
times sharply reduces the number of eggs laid per day. We know
that had the same thing happened during the spring building-up
of the colony it would have brought on the urge. Some one will
point to the above statement as a contradiction of the one that -
the urge is the direct result of the actual or apparent failure
of the queen. We know, from observation, that they are almost
sure to swarm in spring or early summer when this condition.
exists. In summer, with an abundant honey flow and plenty of
room, they rarely swarm. In the fall they quietly supercede
the queen. eet

It is obvious that the aim or object for which they strive
in each of the three periods mentioned is not the same, and that
the aim or object attained as the collective result of these three
periods, is that for which all bees are striving, the survival of
the colony. |

During the spring period the one purpose for which they
strive is numbers. Every atom of concerted energy of the colony
is working to increase the unit strength of the colony. When we
consider the advantages that numbers give for offense and de-
fense and general welfare, we know that they are urged on by
the law of the survival of the fitest.

After this carnival of brood-rearing, when weather and field
conditions prompt their instinct to a realization that winter is

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 17

ahead, and only the colonies that are fitest survive; we have the
energy of the colony directed as a unit to gathering stores.
The brood-rearing at this period is a secondary consideration, and
about keeps pace with the bees that fall from the ranks.

The next period has brood-rearing and general preparation
for the winter on its schedule. This brood-rearing does not take
on: the riotous nature of the spring period.

There is no definite line or date dividing these periods. They
dovetail into one another and only by close observance and much
bee-wisdom is a person able to detect the change of colony
_procedure as the bees pass from the spring to the summer period.
Because of the inability of the ordinary beekeeper to sense this,
he has not been uniformly successful in the production of comb
honey.

In passing from one period to the other the colony work
fades from rearing hrood to gathering honey, then back again to
rearing brood. This change depends as much or more on strength
and good condition of the colony as on weather and field con-
ditions.- The beekeeper, not being able to tell the exact time that
each particular colony is prepared to take on the work of the next
period, assumes that they take on the urge in the summer period
when contraction of the brood takes place.

The rearing of queens by the colony cannot be considered
an acquired habit. We have to admit that it is both for the
reproduction of the colony and the species, and goes back to the
very origin of life.

The strongest disire or urge in all! life is to reproduce its
kind. If this disire is destroyed in a species that species becomes
extinct. It issan impossibility to breed a swarmless bee. If it
could be done all ambition, vim and energy would disappear, and
as much could be accomplished with so many inanimate units.‘
‘The main thing in life is reproduction. All other things are done
for the better bringing it about. Increase and multiply is the
urge of all things living, so that each generation is greater in
numbers and wisdom than the preceding.

As generation after generation succeeds one another, the

18 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

acquirements of one when they are advantageous to the next,
puts that next generation a stride forward in the battle for ex4
istance . The colonies in which this acquired habit took hold suc-
ceeded best, and when we realize that this development has been
going on for countless years, by slow evolution, we can believe
that the bees have acquired habits that are of advantage to them
in their mode of life. Swarming is one of these habits, and
should we be able to breed it out, they would be thrown back. to
their way of life or social development that existed in the colony
before they acquired this habit.

A colony of bees cannot be considered in the scheme of re-.
production the same as individuals. Individuals are being born
regularly in th ecolony, but through an acquired habit the colony
carries on what may be called limited birth control, by ‘prevent-
ing the perfect development of the female. CONDITIONS that
induce the colony to start queen-cells, or allow perfect
development, is what we must control to prevent the urge.

The bees in their wild state seldom had a home that did not

at some time become filled to its capacity. They developed a
habit, as we know, of putting off reproduction of the colony
while conditions in the home were such, that the strength of the
colony could be increased; but letting it take place normally
when home conditions were getting crowded. Sometimes the
home was of such size that this did not occur for several seasons,
but eventually the home became crowded, from accumulated
honey, and swarming resulted.

The smaller the hive the sooner the urge. The smaller col-
onies that came from the smaller homes did not survive as often
as the stronger ones, that had more time and room to prepare;
hence we have bees with the habit of putting off swarming as
long as hive conditions permit.

The act of swarming must be considered a protest against
a condition in the hive. Could we keep a colony of bees with a
good queen, and plenty of necessary room, we would have no
swarms. It has been done, so it is not impossible.

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 fone 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

20) CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

ever observe the room available for the storage of a generous
amount of nectar. He looks for queen-cells, the amount of brood
and sealed honey, and in this way he is conscious of what he calls
plenty of room. While there is yet space between brood and
honey, he concludes that the bees swarm before they are crowded
for room. Did they have room to carry on all the work of the
hive?

Consider a farmer, who has ample granary room to store his
wheat, and who tried to put it in the granary before it was
thrashed. It can readily be seen that the granary would not hold
it. The bees must have temporary storage cells just as the
farmer must have sufficient room to stack his grain before it is
thrashed. This is the room that the beekeeper has sensed, rather
than to have observed it as room necessary for the domestic work
of the bees. As the farmer must put aside the straw, so must
the bees evaporate the water to get the finished honey that can
be stored economically.

How do the bees dispose of the great amount of water
carried into the hive in the nectar? You say: “they jevaporate
it and it is carried off by the air.” But is it? Try, drying the
family wash in a room of dimensions, as regards water to be.
evaporated, temperature and opening at the floor, proportionate °
to the beehive, and see how fast your wash dries. Be sure you
have no windows in the room to condense the water vapor. Try
it when temperature outside is 60 deg. F and the atmosphere one-
half saturated, (one-half saturated in the evening is about as
dry as we find the air in May and June where there is ample rain
fall). Then try it when the atmosphere is 9-10 saturated, and
after this experience you will be more is ca than ever at the
bees’ efficiency.

Still you are skeptical and remember that you should have
put an electric fan at the opening, because the bees are seen
to fan at the entrance. Let us not delude ourselves about the
bees moving all the water vapor, given off in nna honey,
out of the hive by fanning.

Records of temperature and humidity taken from the U. S.

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 21

Weather Station at Moorhead, Minnesota, for three days at 7
P. M. are as follows:

~ 1916 | Temperature Humidity
Ly Sener tae Sora ee 45.5 93
meter rn ten Pl eee hd 28 Me 42.5 100
emmys (Oleie eee r ee hl ee te 37.5 96

To remove from the hive one grain of water vapor by fan-
ning on May 13, the volume of air that would have to be moved
would be five or six times the air capacity of the hive. To re-
move one pound of water would require the removal of a volume
of air equal to the capacity of from 30,000 to 40,000 hive-bodies.
On May 14 the outside air being saturated, no water vapor could
be removed by a change of air, and on May 15 the result would be

— eabout the same.

From this it can readily be seen that littie evaporation from
the nectar could take place by ventilation, and we are led to be-
lieve that on’such days as these the urge takes hold, ata:
swarms the last week of May.

No contention will be raised when the statement is made
that the water is evaporated from the honey before we have
ripened honey. It has been taken for granted that as soon as the
water passes off by evaporation the bees were done with it.
They would be if this evaporation took place the same as from
the family wash hung on a line in open air. But if instead of hav-
ing the great volume of mooving outside air, we have in a stan-
dard hive body a little less than one cubic foot of air, where is all
this water vapor going to go? Saturate this small volume of air
at hive temperature and the water vapor in it would be from
1-600 to 1-5000 of what the bees evaporate in a night during a
good honey flow. If they saturated this air in the hive and then
forced it out at the entrance, they would cause rain in the hive
near the entrance.

When hive conditions are as they should be we must con-
clude that all the air in the hive is never near saturation. There
is no known way of accurately measuring the humidity of the air
inside the hive, but we can safely estimate that, except for a thin

22 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

layer under the cover, it is never more than 3-4 saturated. We
have then air entering the hive at a temperature of 50’F. and 1-2
satuation which would, when heated to hive temperature, be
about 1-4 saturated. This air then when heated to hive temper-
ature, being 1-4 saturated, is capable of taking up moisture until
it is 3-4 saturated. The amount of moisture taken up by this air
is 3-4 minus 1-4 or 1-2 of its capacity at saturation. This amount
of water vapor would be less than 1-1000 of a pound for one cubic
foot of air. 3

~ Now follow the course of this,90 degree air in passing from
the hive by way of the entrance. As it approaches the entrance
the temperature is reduced and it would give up some of its
water at the entrance. Could they force all the air out of the
hive at a temperature of 90 and fully saturated, each time the air
in the hive is changed 1-600 of a pound of water would be re-
moved. A pound of water could be expelled from the hive in 10
hours if the bees could change all the air of the hive once a
rainute.

When an analysis of the evaporation inside the hive is under-
taken we are confronted with many conditions that increase or
retard it. Water vapor and warm air being lighter than air at the
entrance, pass naturally to the top of the hive, and remain there
unless some mechanical force compels them to move toward the
entrance. This force is noticable when the hive contains smoke.
Under normal conditions we do not find this fanning going on, all
through the hive.

So far only the evaporation which takes place when the air
and water are at the same temperature has been considered.
Water can readily be turned into steam by boiling. This steam
begins to rise from the surface of the water long before the water
comes to the boiling point. ‘““The surface of any watery liquid,
whose temperature is 20 degrees warmer than any superincum-
bent air, rapidly gives off true steam,’’* applies to the eyapora-
tion in the hive. We know the temperature of the bee’s body,

*Wells’ Natural Philosophy. |

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 23

and it naturally follows that the temperature of the nectar in the
bee’s stomach is the same. Observation tells us that the bees
ripen the honey drop by drop, bringing it from the storuach and
pulsating each drop in the mouth for about ten minutes.t The
drop during this process is exposed to the air at the particular
- temperature of that part of the hive where the bee is doing this
work. When this temperature is 20 degrees colder than the drop
of nectar true steam is given off. This evaporation takes place,
no matter how much water vapor is in the air, and varies with
the difference of the temperature of the air surrounding the drop
of nectar. This is forced evaporation. We find conditions fa-
vorable to forced evaporation in cool. night temperatures and a
hive with a generous around of room.

To clearly comprehend the great amount of water that must
be evaporated to get a pound of ripened honey, let us assume
that 12 pounds is the weight of one gallon of honey, and 48
pounds the weight of 6 gallons of water. 6 gallons of water mix-
ed with 1 gallon of honey gives 60 pounds of water and. honey.
20% of ripened honey is water. 20% of 12 pounds or 1 gallon of.
honey is 2.4 pounds. 48 pounds plus 2.4 pounds is 50.4 pounds,
which is the weight of water in this mixture. 50.4 pounds is
84 % of 60 pounds. 84% is a conservative estimate of the amount
of water in nectar. To get 1 gallon of honey 48 pounds of water
must be separated from the nectar. To get 1 pound 1-12 of 48
pounds of water must be separated, or 4 pounds. Let us grant
that 2 pounds of this water is disposed of before the bees enter
the hive. They will still have 2 pounds of water to evaporate
before they produce 1 pound of ripened honey. When the honey
increase of a hive is 4 pounds a day, 8 pounds of water must be
evaporated. The nectar carried into the hive that day would re-
quire about three frames for temporary storage. When condi-
tions are such as to hamper evaporation for two or three days
of successful honey gathering, it can readily be seen that a
- crowed condition could exist.

—-

+A. C. Miller.

24 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING
NECTAR IN THE FLOWERS

Another way that evaporation influences the work of the
bees is that which takes place from the surface of the nectar
while it is yet in the flower. Very little is known of the exact
percentage of water in nectar. It has been weighed and found
range from 60% to 98%. Scientists can never give uS much in-
formation on this, unless they take into account the evaporation
which takes place from the surface of the nectar in the open
flowers. Nectar in the same blossom may contain 90% of water
at 9 A. M. and 60% at 2 P. M., because’ of the movements of the ©
air, sunshine and low relative humidity. Because of this varie-
tion of the volume of water in nectar, we can understand what

a differance there would be in hive conditions, as the nectar is
gathered at a time when there is little or much evaporation ae
ing place in the field.

Consider the gathering of nectar from buckwheat. There
are aistricts where the bees work wholly on buckwheat during
its blooming season, and peculiarities of the flow of this nectar
have been commented on by many beekeepers. Some have noted
that the nectar has ali disappeared about 2 P. M. They have not
gone so far as to prove this by an examination of the flowers,
but have assumed it to be so, because the bees did not work on
the flowers after this hour. This reasoning is right as to the ab-
sence of nectar after this hour.

Other things commented on, are that the bees gather honey
from buckwheat only during sunshine periods, and that they
gather more on a still day than a windy one. ;

Let us now assume that all the blossoms that receive the
direct rays of the sun secrete nectar suitable for the bees. We
have no reason to doubt that flowers on the same plant, surroun-

ded by like conditions viz; sunshine and air, secrete nectar that
the bees can gather. The bees can not gather all the nectar from
every flower which contains it, before 2 P. M. It is not reason-
able to beleive that the flower absorbs what the bees don’t gather
by this time, and yet we know that it has disappeared. The only
way to explain this absence of nectar after this hour is that it

/

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 25

has evaporated. Note the statement that the wind reduces the -
amount of honey gathered. Wind increases evaporation.

Unless some close observer along this line can prove other-
wise, we must reason that the flower containing nectar in the
morning, and if this nectar has not been removed by any insect,
would still contain nectar in the afternoon, so that the bees, could
gather it, if evaporation had not reduced it to such consistancy
as to be useless to the bees.

ABSORBTION OF WATER BY HONEY

It would be impossible for’ the bees, except under the most
favorable conditions, as regards humidity of the air, to produce
well ripened honey wholly by evaporation and depending on v:sn-
tilation alone to carry off the water vapor. Honey put up in bar-
rels that are not dry, absorb water from the wood, shrinking it
enough to cause leakage. One of the causes of watery cappings
is that the honey has absorbed water from the moisture-laden

Even if the bees ripened all the honey by some process with-
in themselves, as some have suggested, (this would have to allow
for only worker-bees doing the ripening and throwing off the
water in the flight from the hive), the moisture-laden air, would
soon undo the work of the bees. Hence to produce well ripened
honey we have to let the bees condense the moisture of the hive
on the inside walls and ceilings. An exception of this would be
in localities having a very dry atmosphere, but these are very
-searce during thé urge period.

CONDENSATION

A good understanding of the condensing properties of a hive
will make clear a great deal that pu2zels us about bees, and such
knowledge constructively applied to honey production, cannot
fail to give results, the magnitude of which, the beekeeper with
his present knowledge, would hardly dare to hope for.

We have seen that ventilation, by moving the warm air.out

of the hive reduces the heat of the hive. When better results

26 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

can be obtained in a way that conserves the heat of a hive, a step
forward has been taken. This will result if we let the bees, as
they are striving to do, use their hive as a condenser.

To understand how water vapor is condensed in a hive, the
dewpoint should be understood. Saturated air is at the dewpoint.
The amount of moisture that the air will hold varies as the tem-
perature changes. The amount of moisture in the air is spoken
of as absolute humidity. Air at O degrees F. is saturated with
1-2 grain, at 60 degrees F. 5 grains, and at 80 degrees F. with 11
grains of water vapor. Air at 60 degrees which contains but
2 1-2 grains of gater vapor would be at 1-2 or 50 per cent of sat-
vration. Air at 78 degrees which contains the same amount of
watef vapor (2 1-2 grains) would be but 1-4 or 25 per cent satur-
ated. This per cent of saturation is called relative humidity. If
the amount of water vapor in the air remains constant as the
temperature changes, the relative humidtiy changes with the
temperature. Air that is saturated at 78 degrees would have to —
give up 50 per cent of its water vapor when its temperature is
reduced to 60 degrees, leaving this 60 degree air also saturated.

The dewpoint is the temperature of the air, at which it would
be at saturation, if the amount of moisture is neither increased
nor deminished. 3

To illustrathe the principle of the air giving up part of its
water vapor when its temperature is reduced to the dewpoint,
saturate a sponge with water, then press slightly on it and it
looses part of its water. The pressure of the hands acts on the ©
sponge the same as reduced temperature on saturated air.

The most obvious illustration of this formation of dew, or
condensation of moisture on a cool surface, is when a pitcher of
ice water is placed in a warm room. This everybody is familiar
with. Condensed vapor on the windows, when the outside tem-
perature is cool, is another. Place a pan, bottom up on the ground
and dew will be found on the inside surface of the pan in the
morning.

The beehive, when we allow the bees to arrange their own
ventilation, condenses vapor this way, when there is enough dif-

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 27

ference between outside and inside temperature to give a dew-
point on the inside surface of the hive. We do not observe any
great amount of moisture on the inside walls of the hive, during
the urge period, because the bees, needing a good supply of water
to mix with the food they prepare, gather it as soon as deposited,
leaving the surface in better condition for more condensation.
This gives the bees nice distilled water for their use.

Records of weights taken morning and evening, during the
honey flow, show but a slight loss in weight of the hive each
morning. This has puzzled many beekeepers, and some have
suggested that the bees got rid of the water of the nectar before
entering the hive.

Let us look at this and apply the condensation theory. The
bees evaporate the water from the nectar, condense it on the
inside walls of the hive, then gather it as distilled water and mix
it with food for the brood. The water has been evaporated, but
the hive still retains it, and the hive weights have decreased but
little during the night.

We have all had some experience with dew and have ob-
served that all objects will not have dew on their surfaces in the
morning, after a night favorable to the deposit of dew. The
grass will be very wet, but the road is dry. A painted board is
wetter than an unpainted one. The grass and the road are in con-
tact with air containing the same amount of water vapor. Any
Natural Philosophy will explain this by the laws governing the
radiation of heat. The surfaces of objects on which the dew has
been deposited radiate more heat into space, and consequently
cool more than the ones that radiate less heat and have no dew
on them. The air which comes in contact with the colder surface,
and whose temperature is reduced to,the dewpoint, is compelled
to give up some of its moisture. |

The law of the dewpoint operates in the hive the same as
cutside. Air in the hive at a temperature of 90 degrees which
contains 8 grains of water vapor must, when it comes in contact
with the cool walls of the hive whose temperature is 60 degrees,
give up 3 grains of its water vapor. This condensation will go

<8 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

on as long as temperature of the hive walls, temperature of air
in the hive, and humidity of hive air, hold such relations to each
other that the dewpoint obtains at the inside surface of the hive.

All objects do not radiate heat equally well. Some part with
their heat or become cold faster than others. A smooth ‘stone,
exposed the same aS grass surrounding it, does not part with its*
heat as readily as the grass.

PROPOLIS

Blackened tin has a high radiating power and is taken as a
standard for expressing the radiating power of other substances.
Give the radiating power of blackened tin.as 100, rosin is 96 and
wood is very low. Propolis, being a rosin its radiating power is
almost perfect. But few substances approach this high standard.
It is obvious that more condensation takes place on a hiye lined
with propolis than one where the wood is without a varnish.
More condensation makes more evaporation, more exaporation
makes more room.

A substance like propolis that is a good radiator and absorb-
er, is a poor transmitter of heat. . Propolis used as a varnish
keeps the hive heat from warming the wooden walls, and they
being cooler at night, give a temperature to the inside surface,
that condenses the water vapor fast or slow, as the difference
cf inside air temperature and wall temperature is great or small.

The bees finding it necessary to separate a great deal of
water from the nectar, dispose of it by evaporation, but instinct
tells them that thé air holds very little on cool nights in May and
June; so to remove this moisture from the air, they varnish the
inside walls and make a condenser out of the hive. The process
is, in principle, the same as that used in distillation.

The makers of refrigerators take advantage of condensation
tc maintain dry air in the food chamber. A refrigerator car,
after years of experimenting has been finished off with several
coats of varnish. It has been proven, by tests, that products that
are inclined to sweat or absorb moisture, keep drier in a highly
varnished car than in one not varnished. The water vapor in the

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 29

air condenses on the inner surface of the car, making the air
drier, consequently preventing the absorbtion of water from the
air by the products stored in the car.

SHADE

Shade in the afternoon has been observed to have a tendency
to prevent swarming. There can be no condensation if the tem-
perature of the hive walls is nearly equal to or higher than the

ehive air. This is the condition that exists most of the day and |
evening when the weather is warm and the sun is shining; pro-
viding the hives are not shaded. When a hive is so situated that
the shade covers it about noon or soon thereafter, the conditions
for condensation are good, cool walls.

Bees situated in dense shade have been observed to swarm
more than those having more open surroundings. In dense shade
the humidity is high and no movement of air takes place. The
hive may be well ventilated as the beekeeper has had best results

- from well ventilated hives; but the air, being almost saturated
when it enters the hive, does not carry off the water vapor from
the hive. The good ventilation keeps the inside and outside
walls of the hive at nearly the same temperature and if the hives
are not well lined with propolis, not much condensation takes
place. With nectar not ripening into honey, they soon feel their
crowded condition.

CLUSTERING OUT

When the bees are clustering out, it is not the heat of the
hive that bothers them, but the high dewpoint in the hive. Man
can stand a temperature in dry air much above 100 degrees
without much discomforture, but let the air become so saturated
with moisture that the dewpoint approaches the temperature of
his body, then he feels more or less sufficating effects. We have
all noticed this condition of atmosphere on a day that we call
close and stuffy. The bees that are clustering out have this close
stuffy air in the hive and cluster out for relief.

Cover the outside of the hive with a wet cloth and soon the

30 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

bees will be back in the hive about their work. The hive walls
are cooled by the evaporation of the water from the cloth, bring-
ing on condensation of hive moisture, consequently lowering the
dewpoint. 3

ABSCONDING SWARMS

Many beekeepers report swarms leaving a short time after
being hived. When they have mentioned anything about con-

ditions, a high temperature and a new hive are noted. These |

make just the right combination to give a high dewpoint in the
hive. The parts of a new hive naturally would fit close, and wood
being a very poor radiator of heat, no condensation takes piace.
The swarm objecting to the close stuffy air, and having no home
ties, leave for a more suitable place. The remedy for bees that
will not stay hived is a few days in the cellar. The cellar temper-
ature is enough colder than the hive a‘r to condense the hive mois-
ture on the wood.

WILD BEES

Bees in selecting a home for themselves in a tree, consider
two things upon which their future welfare depends, and in doing
this we can believe that their instinct led them right. First, a
small entrance so that they could easily protect themselves from,
their enemies. Second, a cavity in the tree of sufficient capacity
to carry on the work of the hive, and small enough to keep them-
selves and their brood from being harmed by outside weather
conditions. Never do we find them, in the selection of a home,
paying the least attention to ventilation. Natural ventilation
is a thing that the bees ignore. Every beekeeper has visible
evidence of this truth in his aipary and it cannot be made more
clear by further discussion.

LATENT HEAT

Evaporating by the aid of condensation has the advantage
that it retains the latent heat in the hive. This might be con-
sidered too small a thing to claim our attention. Most things
pertaining to a colony of bees are small, but the result of many

‘

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 31

small things working in a single direction and having the same
ultimate goal, is great efficiency. But this is not as small as it
appears to be. During the urge period, it conserves great quan-
tities of heat for the colony. The bees’ instinct leads them to
give consideration to things that make for economy. If one
pound of water is evaporated in a hive, the water vapor into which.
- this volume of water has been converted, contains latent heat
enough to raise 1,000 pounds (about four barrels) one degree.
In changing this back from a gaseous to a liquid state, the same
amount of heat is given off in the hive. By ventilation it is lost.

HIVE WALL TEMPERATURE

If a hive of bees be covered with heating-manure to keep it
warm in spring the colony will dwindle and become wery weak.
Hive walls are warmer than hive air and no condensation takes
place. For the same reason bees in a greenhouse dwindle. They
should be set where the hive walls can cool during the night.

In some loclaities in spring, occurs a succession of days dur-
ing which the bees do not fly. They have young brood in the
hive and when they do not get condensed water from the walls
the increase is very slow. A colony of bees, small in proportion
to the hive, does not build up as fast as one that is strong for the
size of the hive. When bees are not able to heat the hive air
above the temperature of the walls, no condensation takes place,
and when the bees cannot fly no water is available for domestic
purposes. How many beekeepers have stopped to consider where
the bees got the water to rear brood before the first flight? Dis-
tilation tells the story. 3

Condensation tells many a story to explain bee behavior. Can
you wonder at the awe and amazement with which I approached
this phase of bee economy, when brought to a realization of the

-wonderful instinct that led the bee into the realms of physics, to
__ select propolis, one of the best substances nature has, to bring
their work up to a high state of efficiency.. This instinct tells
them that freer evaporation obtains when the water vapor is
being freely condensed on the inner walls of the hive. It tells
them that water can be evaporated in any air with a tempera-

9
o<

2 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

ture 20 degrees lower than that liquid. It tells them that this
water can be condensed readily on the propolis covered walls of
the hive. Wonderful is the instinct of the bee!

CONSTRUCTIVE HIVE

The hive that condenses the most water vapor and leaves it
so that the bees can dispose of it, is the hive in which we find
the contented bees. This water vapor may be allowed to pass.
from the top of the hive and be condensed the same as in the
condensing chamber of a still, but by this process the bees are
deprived of the water the same as when the honey is ripened
wholly by evaporation. It has been shown in the chapter on evap-
oration that for every pound of honey ripened in the hive the
bees, when they use the condensing system, have for their domes-
tictic use from two to four pounds of water. This amount of
water is from 60 to 80 per cent of what nectar the bees brought
“in that day. Now when this water escapes from the hive and
they have to make special trips for water to take the place of
this that has escaped, it is obvious that the bees that have to go
for water, will reduce the number of nectar gathering bees. This
percentage can only be speculated upon, but it runs from 20 td
60 per cent of the field force. When all the field force presist in
gathering nectar, as I am almost certain they do at times, the
brood is restricted.

- What the bees want is a hive that is a good condenser and
that retains the condensed water on the inner surface of the
hive. The nurse bees can then gather it as they want it. We will:
have to give the bees credit for being efficient, and it follows that
they do not evaporate the water from the nectar that they mix
with the food for the brood, but from the surplus. But there
occurs a day or a succession of days, during the urge period, when
no nectar nor water are brought in, and these are the days when
condensed water from a humid atmosphere brings contentment .
to the colony.

The hive, that from years of experimenting and close ob-
servations of weather and hive conditions, gives these results,

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING . 33

I will now try to describe. All my hives are factory made, ten-

frame Langstroth dimensions. All flat covers have been set
aside and telescope covers substituted. No inner covers, or honey-
boards, are used. This cover rests on a rabited cleat that extends
all around the hive. This cleat is fastened at a proper distance
from the top of the hive-body to allow a beespace between the
upper edge of the hive-body and the cover. On the inside top of
the cover is fastened a piece of “wall board,’ 18 3-4 by 17 1-2
inches. This “wall board” is between 1-4 and 3-8 of an inch
‘thick. The cleat on which_the cover rests is rabited so as to
leave a 3-8 inch space all raound between the hivebody and
cover, and over the edges of the hivebody and above the frames.
The cover, inside measure, for a hivebody 16 inches wide is 5 1-8
by 16 3-4 by 20 3-4 inches.

All joints and cracks are filled with hot rosin or pitch and
the inside of the hivebody and cover is given three coats of
varnish. |

-The-cross section of the Constructive Hive given here shows
at a. glance the consrtuction of the cover and the way it is
supported on the hive. Note how similar in principle is this
cover to the inverted pan that is set in the garden and which
has dew deposited on the inside surface in the morning.

- The bees seem to regard this cover as the final word on
inside finish, and they are the ones whose approval we must look
for. Never have I found one attempt to intrefere on their part.
The cover in the fall is just as free from propolis as it was the
day it was given to them.

This cover was built as the result of conclusions arrived at
from a study of condensation of moisture. The only object when
designing it was to make the hive a condenser that would ileave
the condensed water where the bees could use it, but its good
points do not stop at that one thing, as I have observed after its
use for some time. These good points are as follows:

34 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

igs Ss

Oa

YM
MOS

SOS

S

Wt,
SS

SNA

SY

We
\

SS

UWI

SSS

ww

CROSS SECTION OF THE CONSTRUCTIVE HIVE

Good condenser.
2. Wind does not blow it off.

When once on a bump or jar from person or object does
not misplace it. :

4. Bees are more gentle to handle.
No bees are crushed when putting on the cover.

When the cover is removed in cold weather and put on -
again, the hive is just as comfortable as it was before
the cover was taken off.

In regard t othe bees being more gentle to handle, it must be
stated that the bees are so gentle as to make this point very no- —
ticeable, where Seal-Tight covers are used. This must be ac-
counted for by the reasoning that the bees are contented, and in
our not having to destroy their gluing when removing the cover.
They are relieved of all work for the prevention of upward ven-
tilation, and the old guers, who are so belligerent are not there
when the cover is taken off. ,

E.

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 35

WINTERING
So much has been written on wintering bees that it is not
necessary to try the reader’s patience by restating. what has al4
ready been proven of the conditions that. give best results.
’ Just an enumeration:
Outdoor Wintering:
Strong in your bees. Sufficient honey of good quality. No

‘disturbance. Entrance and hive in proportion to the number of

bees. Hive. Sufficient insulation. Sealed covers. Absorbent
cushions?
Inside Wintering:

ene in young bees. Sufficient honey of good quality. No
disturbance. Large entrance. Ventilation of room good. . Tem-
perature of room 57 degrees.

Poor wintering is due to disturbance. Disturbance can be dia-
gramed as follows:

oa E High: Disturbance.
Light. S 57 deg. F.:Comfortable.
Noise. 5 x Low: Disturbance.
Poor honey. SD
ed) =

Temperature of air se

surrounding the hive. z High: Disturbance.
Humidity of air s 70 to 80% Comfortable.

Humidity.

surrounding the hive. = [Low Disturbance.

The bee is so constructed that the temperature of its body
ean be reduced to 57 degrees.* This reduction of body-temper-
ature the bee does not control, but it is the result of reduced
temperature of the air surrounding the bee. The tmperature of

_the bodyof the bee can be raised in two ways; first, by the tem-

perature of the air surrounding it; second, by a power inherrent

in the bee. The bee cannot of his own volition lower his tem-

perature below that of the surrounding air, hence, to attain that

*U. S. Farmers Bulletin, 695.

36 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEHPING

condition of body that gives winter’s quiet and contentment, it
depends wholly upon the temperature of the air surrounding it.

This minimum body-temperautre has been found to be 57
degrees. When the temperature of the air surrounding the bee
is below this point energy is used by the bee to keep its temper-
ature up to this safe minimum .

The instinct of the bee leads it to do things, not wholly for
his own individual comfort, but for the good of the colony. For —
this reason we find the bees clustered when the temperature of |
the hive air goes below 57 degrees. The temperature of the
cluster may be raised at the center to 90 degrees, the ones at
- the outside of the cluster are giving their bodies for isolation of
the cluster. It is not known if a temperature down to freezing
injures these exposed bees. Bees have been revived after ex-
posure, for some time to a very low temperature.

If the reader will keep in mind this relation of temperature
to the bees, the effect of humidity of the air on a colony of bees
will be better understood. It is evident to every person wintering
bees that humidity plays an important part in success or failure.
‘Temperature and humidity are so related to each other that tem-
perature controls the absolute humidity of the air at saturation,
as the following tabulation shows:

' Vapor wt. per Cu Ft.
Temperature at saturation.

Grains.
Oh ie aie ae Ca in pC ea a ects ed eee 0.54 .
dK UF ene easaMen Sa Ov oR Coane" SMowed gn Pe Ms ante who) 0.84
7) | READ ROY UMM AAD AR CUR GA SUR eee I CORR TOE pa | 1.30
21 Mas ae Lat ata aN tae MRL Neambe lie alin s CM ce Abe bat 2 1.97
AU, Goa beay Ha Sead GO DI GANA Mak elie Cus Pe a eis 2.86
51 Uae ee CORN MMR SL Rane Mee rohan ya ETT 4.09
Oe Be) ee WE ie a 5.75
OW OS 0 ET SUE ae ND cp 7.99
PN Ag NS ee Oe a eae rcan ye nn 10.95
| Sea RC GR eR a: aie Rees Wi C7 cette Rey 14.81

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 37

Where we find a colony with diarrhea we find even the
frames and combs damp. This is the condition of most colonies
that are dead or very weak in spring. Honey has an absorbing
power for water and in a moisture-laden air will absorb great
quantities of it.. When honey gets thin and watery it is not good
feed for bees, and with such a diet the system soon clogs, and
we are all familiar with the results.

We naturally ask the cause of this moisture-laden air. Most
beekeepers give respiration of the bees as the cause. One day in
the fall I took a Seal-Tight cover from the hive and held it so that
the drops of water that were condensed on its inside surface could
run down to a corner of the cover. Then I poured out a little
more than two ounces of water. What yet remained on the
cover I estimated to be one ounce. Three ounces of water con-
densed on the cover. No estimate was made of the amount. on
the hive-walls. Did the bees breathe out that much water the
previous night?

~ One of the axioms of physics is that something cannot be
produced from nothing. If bees are confined in winter quarters
120 days and they consume 30 pounds of honey, of which 1-5 is
water, making the consumption of 6 pounds of water during the
winter, or 1 1-4 of an ounce for one day. Could they breathe out
all the water that they eat, this amount falls away short of
the amount that condenses on a Seal-Tight cover in a single-
wall hive on a cool night.

OUTDOOR WINTERING

The ordinary beekeeper cannot keep his bees at a uniform
temperature; neither can he control the humidity of the air.
So his bees have a fluctuating temperature to overcome and con-
sequently a changing humidity. This changing humidity is the
ene great unseen cause of disturbance in bees.

A clear understanding of the laws of meteorology that relate

38 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEHPING

to moisture in the air, will be necessary to comprehend where
this water vapor comes from. The amount of water vapor in the
atmosphere is ascertained by using two tested thermometers.
One, called the dry bulb, is exposed and the temperature noted.
The other one has a cloth covering the bulb. This cloth is mois-
tened and the thermometer whirled in the air for a short time,
and the temperature noted. Then by subtracting the tempera-
- ture of the wet bulb from that of the dry bulb, we have a basis for ©
computing the dewpoint, and from this the relative humidity.
Knowing the tmeperature of the dewpoint and the amount of >
water vapor that saturates the air at that temperature, we have
the absolute humidity. Divide the absolute humidity of the dew-
point by the absolute humidity of the dry bulb temperature and
you have the relative humidity.

Air can be supersaturated; that is it can contain water in
excess of that which saturates it at its temperature, but this
excess water is held in the air in globules of water and is known
as fog or clouds. The excess water has given up all its gaseous
properties and is not subject to the same laws as the water vapor
ct the air. |

The gaseous vapor of the air is controlled by the same laws,
in regard to its expansion and contraction as air. It is well
known that if a chamber, in which the air is rairified, is opened,
the air rushes in from the outside until the outside and inside
air have the same density. ;

Water vapor does not rush into a hive, where the hive air is
relatively dry and a small opening is maintained, but is slowly
forced in until its tention at hive temperature equals the tention
of the outside vapor at outside temperature. Because of this slow
movement of water vapor, when its tention inside the hive is
greater than on the outside it condenses on the inner walls, or is
transformed into fog, which then looses the expansive power of —
a gas and is retained in the hive. ;

Disturbance inside the hive which causes the bees to raise
the temperature of the hive air, with its then greater capacity
for moisture, or a fall of temperature or raise of relative hu- ~

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING | 39

midity outside, give an unequal vapor tention and cause vapor to
pass from the outside into the hive.

When the hive air is cooling it loses some of its moisture
which is condensed in the hive. To illustrate; assume a hive tem-
perature of 57 degrees and an absolute humidity of four grains,
which temperature is raised to 70 degrees, and still 4 grains of
moisture, to equalize the tention of the vapor, inside and outside,
some moisture is slowly forced through the opening; let us say
until this 70 degree air holds 6 grains. When this air is reduced
to 57 degrees and an absolute humidity of 4 grains, two grains of
_ water is left in the hive after this disturbance.

Suppose the hive is not insulated (no thickness of insolation
is too much in any locality whose temperature falls below 50 de-
grees) and the outside temperature drops to 32 degrees, the hive
temperature drops from 57 degrees, humidity 4 erains, to 40
dgrees; at 40 degrees air is saturated with 2.86 grains. In this
case about 1 1-2 grains of water is left in the hive.

Let us pass to the next cause, the change of the humidity of
the outside air. Assume a maximum temperature of 40 degrees,
2 relative humidity of 84 degrees and an absolute humidity of
about 2.30 grains: the hive air at 50 degrees, a relative humidity
of 74 per cent and an absolute humidity of 3 grains. T'o! equalize
the tension of the vapor inside and outside the hive a constant
movement of vapor into the hive is taking place, which when
it is equal to the humidity that the condensing surface of the hive
can maintain, is being constantly condensed on the inner surface
of the hive. Consider the amount of vapor that is constantly:
passing into the hive on days when the relative humidity is 96
per cent. There are many days in the more southerly states
when a 100 per cent relative humidity obtains.

Because of the small amount of moisture with which a zero
atmosphere is saturated (0.54 grains) bees in the north have
less moisture to contend with than in the south, where the tem-
perature ranges from 32 degrees up to 60 and 70 degrees. In
the latter locality absolute humidity of 32 degree air at satura-
tion is 2 grains; at 60 degrees it is 5.76 grains. In the colder lo-

40 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

calities, with a temperature of zero or lower for weeks at a time,
insulation is necessary to protect the bees from the cold, az in
spring and fall to protect them from excess of moisture. In lo-
calities where the cold is not so severe but that the bees can beat
back what little cold comes in at the entrance, insulation is neces-
sary to keep the hive dry. In the north we insulate to keep the
hive warm and dry. In the south you should insulate to keep
the hive dry.

The question naturally arises as to how insulation keeps the
hive dry. How it keeps the hive warm is obvious. Because at-
mospheric vapor and temperature are so correlated they must be
considered together. Heat is communicated in three ways: by
conduction, when it travels from partical to partical in the sub-
stance heated; by convection, when the particals of the-substance
heated move away from the sourre of heat; by radiation, when
heat travels through space in all directions from the heated sub-
stance.

Insulation has to do with heat communicated by conduction. —
A substance that is a poor conductor is a good insulator. The
escare of heat from a substance or space depends on the amount
and quality of insulation surrounding the substance or space.
The fireless cooker is a good example of what insulation does.

The wood of which a hive is made is the insulation that sur-
rounds the hive air. Add to this insulation a uniform thickness
of leaves, sawdust, chaff or any other insulator and you make
it harder for the heat to pass out of the hive by conduction.
Hence a well insulated hive has a temperature more nearly uni-
form than a single wall one.

The temperature of a hive could easily be kept uniform if the
bees did not have to have air. An opening must be left for ven-
tilation, and because of this heat is passing out of theyhive by con-
vection. Not much heat passes through this opening by radia-
tion or conduction, as air absorbs heat slowly and does not readily
part with it. The escave of heat where the opening is not too
large, is not great and the radiation and convection of heat from
the bees will balance that, where outside temperature is not very
low. | Where they have both opening and single walled hives

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 41

(poor insulation) to contend with, they exert energy, and the
consequent consumption of stores, to supply the loss.

The more insulation and the greater the number of bees in
the hive, the more the temperature of the hive air lags behind as
the outside temperature changes. The hive vapor under these
conditions moves out slowly and does not saturate the hive air.

When a colony of bees cluster they create for themselves a
hive within a hive. The insulation of the cluster hive is the
bodies of the bees on the outside of the cluster, and the colder
the hive air the better they make this insulation.

Let us now indulge in a little speculation. It is an estab-
lished fact that the heat of the inside of the cluster increases as
the hive temperature falls and vice versa. The honey stores are
mostly outside of the cluster and exposed to the vapor of the
hive. We know that the bees have ways of controling the vapor
of the hive in summer. May it not be possible that the rise in
temperature of the cluster is for the purpose of increasing the lag
in temperature? This may mean a great deal to them by pro-
tecting their honey from moisture.

ABSORBENT CUSHIONS

As understood by beekeepers any porous material placed be-
tween the cover and frames for insulation is an absorbent cush-
ion. ‘Claim is made that moisture escapes through this cushion.
Sometimes the moisture has tried to escape this way and in the
spring the cushion is wet. Sometimes the cushion does not fit
snug against the super and an opening is left which gives upward
ventilation. Moisture here travels in the path of least resistance
and posses off through the largest opening it can find. Ifa close
examination is made in the winter frost will be found where the
moisture is passing out and the cushion found dry. Sometimes
the cushions are found dry where the burlap is laid across the
top of the hive and the super set on this and filled with padking.
If this burlap is examined a great deal of propolis is found on it,
put there by the bees to prevent upward ventilation. Sometimes.

this cushion is found dry because the inside of the hive is well

42 CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING

varnished with propolis, the insulation is good, which conditions
keep the hive air at a proper humdty. .

The temperature of an nsulated wall, which has an unequal]
temperature on its opposite sides, will at the points within this
wall be influenced by the distance that these points are from
the surface. If the outside temperature is 10 below zero the
first quarter of an inch on the outside part of this insulation
will be about 10 below zero. The inside surface would be about
hive temperature. Unless the laws of nature are bent or broken,
water vapor would not travel far in this material, under these
conditions, without being condensed.

In winter as well as summer, the big part that a well var-
nished hive and the consequent condensation play can be seen.
Most beekeepers winter their bees in hives used a year or more.
These hives give results in proportion to the way they are var-
nished with propolis and sealed at the top. When all hives are
well varnished inside, a seal-tight cover provided, and other nec- :
essary things pertaining to good wintering, such as bees, food,
sheltered location, insulation and a clear entrance, bee conserva- .
tion will have advanced.

INDOOR WINTERING

Indoor wintering differs from outdoor wintering in that
the repository where the hives are stored is the regulator of the
temperature and moisture, instead of each individual hive. A
good cellar or other repository where a nearly uniform tempera-
ture of 50 to 57 degrees is maintained, and well ventilated, is an
ideal place to winter bees.

When setting the hives in the cellar remove the bottom board
from each hive; then forget that the bees are in individual hives,
and think of your cellar as one big complex hive. About the only
use there is for a hive in the cellar is that it is a convenient
place to hang the frames. If the temperature and ventilation are
good, and the cellar dark, the bees will wniter as well if the
frames are taken out of the hive and hung on a rack, and prop-
erly spaced.

CONSTRUCTIVE BEEKEEPING 43

Small entrances are the primary cause of more dead bees
than anything else. Condensation takes place in a hive with a
small entrance for the same reason as given in outdoor winter-
ing; a change of hive temperature caused by some disturbance.
The botton board must be left off to eliminate this moisture trou-
ble. This gives an equal temperature to hive walls and hive air,
and makes condensation on the hive walls impossible. If a colony
of bees give off much moisture in respiration, and there is no
doubt that they give off some, it is easily diffused through the
air by means of the large opening at the bottom.

Let us remember that what we are trying to prevent is ex-
cess of moisture in the hive air, and that we control it by our
control of the temperature of the repository. Temperature and
its relation to moisture is the keystone to successful wintering.

CONCLUSION

When we compare evaporation by the aid of ventilation with
that which takes place aided by condensation, and give this an
application of the laws of heat, with its three ways of commu-
nication; conduction, convection and radiation, the tension of
vapors; and the stillness, dryness and density of the atmosphere,
our conclusion must be that condensation is so uniform in its
results, that it elimniates everything ascribed to locality, but the
number of flowers and the weather conditions that affect the
flight of bees and the flow of nectar. All other gonditions, by
the aid of condensation, can be controled by the beekeeper.

Ventilation and shade each make more room in the hive, but
not with uniformity under all conditions. So we must add to the
treatments we give the bees, a well varnished inner surface to
the hive, and a cover that, at no time, permits of upward ventila-
tion. Then the bees will be able to keep the nectar out of the
way of a queen, whose egg-laying capacity is increasing daily.

Room, and the procedure whereby the bees automatically
make more room as they need it, is the single thing that we have

to consider in urge prevention.

Sinn

y ULSAKER 4
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