THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



307 



wide and all in one piece, to open 

 on one side only. They will not 

 believe yet that a LangstroLh hive 

 is more qnickly manipulated ; fur- 

 ther, all their hives are too small 

 for honey production. I kept bees 

 fourteen years in these hives in 

 Germany and now five years in 

 Langstroth hives here in Texas, so 

 I know the difference. The new 

 reversible-hives I do not like j'et ; 

 had one this season for trial. I 

 can get along very well without 

 any reversing for extracted as well 

 as for comb honey ; may be I am 

 wrong. 



/Selma, Texas. 



For the American ApiciMurist, 



WINTER PASSAGE OVER 

 THE FRAMES. 



Geo. F. Robbins. 



On page 261 of the Api the query 

 is put : " Is it a good plan to have 

 a passage way between the top of 

 frames and honey board?" etc. Sev- 

 eral re[)ly unqualifiedly, "■ Yes." 

 Two of them answer, "'• 1 think so." 

 So do 1 ; but I only tJiink so ; I do 

 not know. Does not Mr, Heddon 

 about strike the key? "Theoreti- 

 cally it is a good plan. It reasons 

 out well." But when he comes to 

 test it he cannot see that a bee 

 space between top bars and cover 

 or packing does either good or 

 harm. I have done tlie same to a 

 small extent. Usually there are 

 bits of comb attached to the top 

 bars that hold the sheet above the 

 frames a good bee space or more. 

 But in a few cases these bits of 

 comb have been wanting and the 

 sheet would rest on the frames. If 

 there were advantage or disadvan- 

 tage either way, I was not able 

 to discern it. I like to have that 

 passage way there. It looks as 



though it would be a good thing. It 

 would seem that as the tendency of 

 heat is upwards, bees would natur- 

 ally take that course when seeking 

 honey from the outside frames. 

 Such are the reasoning and conclu- 

 sion that occur to us almost as a 

 matter of intuition. It reasons out 

 well thus far, and here we are apt 

 to stop, thinking the argument com- 

 pleted. But an ugl}' little fact oc- 

 curs to me here that rather breaks 

 into this beautiful chain. If bees 

 will pass above in place of beneath 

 the frames because that way is 

 the warmer, it would seem that for 

 the same reason, especially if we 

 have a non-conductor above to 

 guard the heat within the hive, 

 they would form their clusters in 

 the upper part. But do they? 

 Mine do not. No matter at what 

 season of the year that the temper- 

 ature grows cold enough to draw 

 the bees into a compact cluster, 

 whether in rearing brood or not, 

 whether on full frames or empt}', 

 I always find the cluster more on 

 the lower than the ui)per half of the 

 frames, somewhat below the top 

 bar and quite down to the bot- 

 tom bar. And inasmuch as bees 

 always begin at the lower part of 

 the frame to use the honey, I am 

 inclined to think after all that they 

 pass more between the comb and 

 the bottom bar, or even underneath 

 than overhead. 



Why is it, by the way, that l>ees 

 will cluster in the lower part of the 

 front end, begin to rear brood tiiere 

 and fill it up with honey last, when 

 according to all analogy the warm- 

 est part of the hive is in the oppo- 

 site corner? We may plausil)ly 

 reason that the closer the winter 

 packing is to the bees and the bees 

 to the packing the better; just as 

 the closer "one wraps the drapery of 

 his couch around him" the warmer 

 it will keep him. But after all to 

 make the analogy complete the 

 bees would have to be wrapped 



