280 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



wlien the ciicunistances are favorable. 

 In this condition their consnmption of 

 lioney is very triflinf];, and if we can find 

 out liow to (let tliein into it, we sliall se- 

 cure their winterins at the smallest pos 

 sible cost, and without any detriment 

 whatever. Let us try experiments, each 

 with a single colony, to ascertain how to 

 indnce this desirable condition. 



This is " the head and front of my of- 

 fending." I mifiht have been a little too 

 sanguine and enthusiastic, but what 1 

 have done to deserve the contemptuous 

 treatment Mr. McNeill has given me, I am 

 at a loss to understand. 



Speedside, Ont. 



[Now, let the foregoing article end this 

 unpleasant and unprofitable controversy. 

 Each disputant has evidently concluded 

 tliat the language used meant more than 

 the writer designed, and therefore, misin- 

 terpreted the INTENTION of the other. 



Letters from our subscribers demon- 

 strate that they are TmED of discussions 

 which are but a " war of words," spiced 

 with "sharp-cutting thrusts," and "offen- 

 sive personalities." Earnest students of 

 apiculture have no relish for such articles; 

 and as we have concluded not to disgust 

 them any further in that line, we have 

 "dumped" a hundred of such articles into 

 the waste basket, in order to devote the 

 space of the Bee JdUiiNALto more prof- 

 itable reading matter. Correspondents 

 will please " take due notice, and govern 

 themselves accordingly."— Ed.] 



ror tbe American Bee Joumai. 



Transverse Passages in Hives. 



A. WEBSTER. 



How shall we arrange the combs in 

 hives to secure cross-passages and 

 free interior communications from 

 comb to comb and from the centre to 

 all points in the hive V I think that 

 this is a question of prime importance, 

 and that a right solution of it will 

 advance bee-keeping as much as any 

 improvement of the past ; especially 

 in climates like ours, where, at times, 

 the extremes and sudden changes of 

 temperature make the freest interior 

 communications, and the best facili- 

 ties for changing the size or location 

 of the bee-cluster, and moving the 

 stores, a necessity. Yet, what point 

 has been so generally overlooked or 

 neglected V Most of those who have 

 attempted to provide for this want, 

 have unfortunately resorted to such 

 unnatural and ineffectual devices as 

 to disgust the bees and their keepers, 

 with " winter-passaffes." 



Most hives are divided into sections 

 by parallel curtains of comb extend- 

 ing nearly through their length and 

 depth, which bee-keepers boastingly 

 say are " as perfect and regular as 

 boards," witii no means of cross-com- 

 munication but by passing over, un- 

 der, or around the frames, which, in 

 cold weather, is utterly impracticable. 

 The results are well known to be the 

 loss of thousands of colonies every 

 winter, and the injurious depletion of 

 nearly all. Such hives are, in this 

 respect, like dwelling houses with no 

 facilities for passing from one ad- 



joining room to the others but by 

 climbing over the partitions through 

 the attic, diving under them through 

 the cellar, or passing around them via 

 the outside doors. The improved 

 hives are in this respect even worse 

 than the old box and straw hives, 

 where the bees, in building their 

 combs "at random," often provided 

 partial inter-communications, and 

 occasionally laid out their interior 

 passages in a manner worthy of the 

 imitation of the founders of cities and 

 the admiration of mathematicians. I 

 remember a few such hives, and have 

 heard of others, all of v*'hicli were 

 remarkably successful as far as I 

 know their history. 



As will be seen in the illustration, 

 the combs run from, the corners 

 toward the centre of the hive in 



transverse directions, and the inner 

 end of each comb meets the side of a 

 transverse one at right angles, with a 

 passage between, that the bees will 

 always keep clear. The harmony of 

 this arrangement, and its jjerfections 

 and advantages are so obvious that it 

 only remains for me to consider the 

 best means of securing it in all our 

 hives. 



In box-hives this can easily be done 

 by fiistening starters of comb or foun- 

 dation to the underside of the top- 

 board wherever we wish combs to be 

 built. .Sheets of wired foundation 

 used in the same way would doubt- 

 less be a better but more costly and 

 troublesome method. Such box -hives 

 I am confident could be used in an 

 elevated Xortheni location, like my 

 own, far more successfully than any 

 of the poiHilar hives now in use ; and 

 if my bees and hives were destroyed 

 by fire, flood, or other accident, and I 

 were to begin bee-keeping anew, I 

 would adopt such box-hives rather 

 than the others. This is a candid 

 statement of my preference after 

 nearly ."0 years of successful bee- 

 keeping, and using movable-frame 

 hives longer than any other man in 

 the State, that I know of. 



The adaptation of movable-frames 

 to this arrangement of combs and 

 passages, at first seemed environed 

 with insurmountable difficulties that 

 long deterred me from attempting it; 

 but I am now happy to be able to say 

 tliat these difficulties, like many 

 others tliat beset the path of progress, 

 have proved to be more apparent than 

 real, and the result of wrong ideas 

 and false education on our part, and 



not inherent in the problem to be 

 solved. I find these frames a little 

 more expensive to make than the 

 Langstroth, equally convenient to 

 manipulate, and besides the advan- 

 tages of transverse passages, and the 

 shortest direct communication of tlie 

 combs of the hive with each other 

 and with the centre, they give the 

 largest possible range of brood-comb 

 in hives of compact form radiating 

 directly from the centre, and they 

 enable us to omit outside passages 

 which are unnecessary. They majr 

 be used either as hanging or standing 

 frames, and be arranged for either 

 side or top storing, or both combined. 

 For side-storing the surplus recepta- 

 cles may be placed in direct contact 

 with the ends of the frames on all 

 sides of the hive. It is probable that 

 when arranged in this way the hive 

 will be nearer a non swarmer when 

 run for comb honey than any other ; 

 and by using a brood-nest of a size 

 suited to tlie capacity of the queen, it 

 will come nearer to realizing the ideal 

 of those bee-keepers who want nearly 

 all the honey stored in the surplus 

 receptacles. 



But as concentration of forces is an 

 important principle in war and work, 

 and often the key to success, it . is 

 probable that wliere only short or 

 moderate flows of nectar are ex- 

 pected, or a moderate increase of 

 colonies is desired, a simple top- 

 storing hive will be the best. It may 

 be worked on the " liering-up " sys- 

 tem if needful, and, perhaps, the 

 cases may sometimes be advanta- 

 geously placed beneath the frames 

 for comb-building, Ijefore they are 

 put above to be tilled and fluishe'd. 



South Northlield,© Yt. 



For the American Ree Journal. 



The Pollen Theory. 



,T. F. LATHAM, (20—2.3). 



I may err as to what may be termed 

 the direct and indirect causes ; but I 

 believe the prompting cause to be the 

 direct cause, and its consequent ef- 

 fects the manifest results of its work- 

 ings. Pollen is an inanimate sub- 

 stance — " It begetteth not, neither is 

 it begotten " — a substance useful to 

 insects wliicli derive their sustenance 

 from the flowers, and like all other 

 substances that pertain to a corres- 

 ponding use in the economy of ani- 

 mate life, the results of its use may 

 be beneficial or detrimental. Whether 

 the consumption of pollen by bees in 

 winter confinement be productive of 

 good or evil, the manifest results are 

 simply the consequents of the acts of 

 the agents which prompt the demand 

 for its use. 



According to Mr. Ileddon's suppo- 

 sition, when pollen is eaten by bees 

 breeding in confinement, if the colony 

 so using it is affected with diarrhea, 

 the act of brood-rearing', not the pol- 

 len, might prove the prime cause of 

 the disease. Here tlie pollen theory 

 assumes a new phase ; for should Mr. 

 Ileddon prove correct in his conjec- 

 ture (and I think he is correct), how 

 is he to decide a case where a colony 



