138 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Dec, 



serves to be, to have a corresponding increase in 

 my business. 



II. Alley. 



Wenluim, Mass., Nov. 7, 1870. 



The above offers are the spontaneous act 

 of Mr. Alley. For the appreciation of the Jour- 

 nal thus expressed and implied, we are duly 

 grateful, and will merely add, for the encourage- 

 ment of those who may be disposed to make 

 efforts to secure the premiums offered, that, in 

 any case of unsuccessful competition, we will 

 allow the usual commission on all new subscrip- 

 tions sent in. 'J bus no one need fear that they 

 may be laboring without remuneration. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Influence of Form in Hives. 



Mr. Editor : — In the last number of the Jour- 

 nal, Mr. Smith pitches into our "preconceived 

 theories," as lie calls them. He says that we 

 pitched into the shallow form of hives in the 

 August [September] number. This is true : 

 and we did so because we had used them to our 

 sorrow, though when we first used tliem we 

 thought we had obtained an invaluable inven- 

 tion, as we then compared th.em with old-fash- 

 ioned gums and box hives. lie says some con- 

 demn and some approve of the shallow form of 

 the Langstroth hive. This is undoubtedly so. 

 The first movable comb hive we saw was in 1857, 

 and it was of the shallow Langstroth pattern, 

 the same as is now sent out as sample hives ; 

 and Mr. Smith would no doubt claim that Mr. 

 Langstroth got up the first movable comb bee- 

 hive in America— which we likewise grant as 

 being true. But in objecting to the Thomas 

 hive he says that "five years ago it would have 

 been considered a very good hive, but the world 

 moves." So it does, and in his advocating its 

 good qualities he says "more rapid breeding 

 will be induced in the shallow hive than in the 

 deep one, ' ' &c. I fail to see that the world moves 

 in this. The first form of movable hive was low 

 and flat, and his part of the world seems to have 

 progressed from the low fiat form of hive to the 

 low flat form of hive. The world moves back- 

 Avards up there in Canada. 



He says, Mr. Seays' theory and deductions 

 therefrom in regard to the production of brood are 

 not confirmed in his experience and observations, 

 and "the facts of the case warrant a very different 

 conclusion." Now what was our theory and de- 

 ductions therefrom? See September No., page 

 63. In drawing a comparison between the ad- 

 vantages and disadvantages of the shallow hive 

 and taller ones, we then said, "the combs are 

 say eighteen inches in depth perpendicular, and 

 twelve inches wide. The bees, in order to hatch 

 brood, as the weather becomes warm in the 

 spring, will cluster at the larva? end of the combs, 

 and keep up the temperature from bottom to top, 

 because of two combined reasons— the combs 

 being the long way perdendicular ; and the natu- 

 ral tendency of heat being to rise, it ascends 

 throughout the entire length of the combs, and 



thus the proper temperature is attained through- 

 out the hive." This we yet maintain. It ap- 

 pears from what Mr. Smith admits in this same 

 communication that he does not understand my 

 remarks, or if he docs, he virtually admits that 

 we are right. 



It seems that when we said " as the weather 

 becomes warm in the spring the bees will cluster 

 at the larvai end of the combs, " he wishes to con- 

 strue our language to mean in winter ; for he 

 must know that good strong colonies rear brood 

 in winter, and if I had entered into a minute de- 

 scription of the manner of procedure, time, and 

 place, that the first eggs are deposited, I would 

 have stated, as he does, that in tall hives they 

 begin to rear brood near the centre ; and in some 

 cases, Avhere the honey is nearly all consumed, 

 they begin nearer the top, extending the same 

 downward. And in our language, "in early 

 spring, as the weather becomes warm (as in May) 

 the bees cluster at the larvae or lower end of the 

 combs. ' ' The heat as generated ascends through- 

 out the entire length of the brood combs. Now 

 we did not intend to say that all the mature bees 

 were compelled to go below the extreme lower 

 part of the brood ; but that a portion of them 

 must cluster below and upon the lower part of 

 the brood combs, in sufficient quantity to pro- 

 duce the required tenq^erature, otherwise the 

 queen will refuse to deposit eggs there, or if she 

 should deposit any there, they would not hatch. 

 The bees must therefore cluster en masse below 

 the brood. 



AVc make one further quotation from his re- 

 marks, and are done. He says, "A tall hive is 

 thought best for Avintering out-doors, for we 

 know that bees will place their stores above them 

 when there is room. We know also that they do 

 not cluster on the honey, but below it ; and the 

 heat from them ascends and makes their stores 

 more accessible in cold weather. But how is it 

 with the breeding early in the season? &c. "What 

 he means by the ' larvaj' end of the comb, I do 

 not exactly know. If he intends to say that they 

 cluster at the bottoni of tlie brood comb, so that 

 the heat will ascend and warm up the upper part 

 of the brood comb for the extension of brood, 

 facts do not warrant the assertion." After hav- 

 ing but a few linos above admitted that he knows 

 they cluster "below" the honey and tliat the 

 heat from the cluster " ascends and makes their 

 stores more accessible" in cold weather, he now 

 says that "facts do not warrant the assertion" 

 that they will and do clu.ster at the bottom of 

 the brood combs, so that the heat may ascend and 

 warm up the upper part of the brood comb. Why 

 will not the same natural immxitable law of nature 

 that causes heat to ascend and make their stores 

 more accessible in cold weather, ascend also iu 

 warm weather (as the bees descend to the bot- 

 tom, for the purpose of extending their brood ?). 

 He further says, for a certain reason, that "as 

 the warmth of the cluster will be diffused laterally 

 more readily than it will downwards, more rapid 

 breeding will be induced in shallow hives than in 

 deep ones — that the heat will rad'ale towards both 

 ends from the centre" (in the shallow form of 

 hive). This has always been the trouble with 

 me. Heat, in obedience to the natural law, to 



