152 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Claims. 



" What I claim as my invention, and desire 

 to secure by Letters Patent, is — 



First — Constructing and arranging the mov- 

 able comb frames of bee-hives in such a manner 

 that when placed in the hive or case, they have 

 not only their sides and bottoms kept at suitable 

 distances from each other, and from the case, 

 substantially in the manner and for the purposes 

 described, but have likewise their tops separated 

 from each other, throughout the whole or a por- 

 tion of their length, substantially in the manner 

 and for the purposes set forth. 



Second— Constructing and arranging movable 

 frames in such a manner that when they are in- 

 serted in the hives, the distances between them 

 may be regulated at will, substantially in the 

 manner and for the purposes described. 



Third— Constructing movable combs and ar- 

 ranging them in the hive, in such a manner that 

 the bees can pass above them into a shallow 

 chamber or air-space, substantially in the man- 

 ner and for any or all the purposes set forth. 



Fourth — The shallow chamber in combina- 

 tion with the top bars of the laterally movable 

 frames, or their equivalents, and with the per- 

 forated honey-board upon which to place honey 

 receptacles, substantially as and for the purposes 

 set forth. 



Fifth — A movable partition, or divider, sub- 

 stantially as described, when used in combina- 

 tion with movable frames, substantially in the 

 manner and for the purposes described. 



Sixth — The use of movable blocks for exclud- 

 ing moths and catching worms, so constructed 

 and arranged as to increase or diminish at will 

 the size of the bee-entrance, substantially 

 in the manner and for the purposes set forth. 



The reader will observe that there is nothing 

 in these "claims" which limits the arrangements 

 of the hive, as far as regards shape, size, man- 

 ner of supporting frames, side or top opening, 

 &c. All these details can be, as they have been, 

 varied to suit the ideas or locality of the par- 

 ties using the movable comb frames — which are 

 the central idea around which nearly all bee 

 hive inventors, constructors, and patentees in 

 late years arrange outside fixtures to suit their 

 own tastes or the supposed wants of the bee- 

 keeping public. 



The decision which was rendered at Utica in 

 1866, a copy of which was published in the 

 January number of the Bee Journal, makes 

 the first clear— the defendant being decided to 

 have infringed the Langstroth Patent, in that 

 he used frames constructed substantially as 

 specified in our first and second claims. The 

 case of Furman & Parsons (owning the Lang- 

 stroth Patent in Iowa) vs. Silas Dodd (using 

 the "Harbison Hive") decided by the United 

 States Court at Des Moines, Iowa, May 15, 

 1868 might also be cited. When to these de- 

 cisions are added the facts that the claims of the 

 inventor have been thrice passed upon by the 

 Patent Oflice, and upheld the last time in the 

 face of a most persistent and unscrupulous op- 

 position to the extension of the Patent, by cer- 

 tain infringing patentees of the hives, it appears 

 only fair to say that his right to said Patent, 



having been fairly, fully, and repeatedly tested 

 and confirmed, parties making use of any of his 

 patent in hives of their own construction, ought 

 to inform the public of that fact — especially 

 when stating that they claim no patent, and 

 leaving the inference that all are free to use all 

 parts of their arrangements. 



L. L. Langstroth & Son. 

 Oxford, Butler Co., Ohio. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Form of Hives and Wintering Bees. 



In the Bee Journal, Vol. 4, No. 4. page 72, 

 in an article headed " Wintering Bees on their 

 Summer Stands," Mr. J. T. Langstroth, after 

 giving his method of preparing hives, &c, says, 

 " any bee-keeper can thus have his bees put up 

 to winter as well, {if not better) on their summer 

 stands, than in the best winter depositories, and 

 this even in Minnesota.' 1 '' As I have been called 

 upon, in several private letters, for my opinion, 

 I propose to give it for what it is worth, through 

 the Journal. Free, honest, open discussion is 

 what is wanted, to get at the facts. 



When I lived in Canada, I used some of the 

 old fashioned straw hives, and had some of them 

 made broad, and flat on the top ; and it is a fact 

 well-known to Canadian bee-keepers, that a 

 straw hive will allow all the moisture to pass off, 

 on the same principle that it would in the wool 

 or carpeting. The combs will be perfectly dry in 

 all weather. Yet in long continued cold weather 

 my bees would starve to death, with abundance 

 of honey in the hive. I know but very little 

 about Minnesota weather from actual expe- 

 rience; but last winter I was hauling wheat to 

 the railroad in Minnesota. One morning the 

 temperature was 15° below zero at home; 36° 

 below, at the station ; and at Spring Valley, 

 twenty -five miles further west, it was at 36° 

 below. 



Bees will stand any amount of cold when in 

 the proper condition. We will suppose the 

 bees in the warm central chamber, as he says. 

 Now let us see their condition. They have un- 

 sealed liquid honey deposited in the combs, in 

 the cluster, and they also have some sealed 

 honey in their immediate reach — we will sup- 

 pose enough to last them twenty days. Now 

 then comes on a cold snap. In Massachusetts, 

 or in Ohio where Mr. Langstroth lives, it is a 

 rare occurrence if there is not a change in ten 

 or fifteen days, so that the bees can expand; and 

 if the combs are dry, they gather in more honey, 

 and are soon prepared for another cold snap. 

 3ut a few winters ago we had in Wisconsin 

 (and Minnesota, I have every reason to believe 

 is as cold as Wisconsin) a winter that for thirty- 

 four days in succession the thermometer ranged 

 from 10° to 36° below zero. In such long con- 

 tinued cold the bees consume all the stores in 

 their immediate reach, and contract their clus- 

 ter as small and close as possible ; and to ex- 

 pand their cluster and move laterally to combs 

 containing cold sealed honey, is something that 

 I never knew them to do in such cold weather. 

 The consequence is, they starve to death with 



