148 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Jan-., 



lay of nine years, to put his patent before the 

 bee-keeping public. He will have some machines 

 made complete in every particular, embracing 

 some recent modiiications and improvements, 

 ready for sale next spring, together with terri- 

 tory for exclusive use of the same. Tlie ma- 

 chines will not be high in price, or beyond the 

 reach of any bee-keeper who has twenty or more 

 colonies of bees, and the materials for a set of 

 ten or a dozen combs will not cost much— in fact, 

 I don't d re to say how little. You will be satis- 

 fied on that score. 



Gentlemen, I think we are about to take another 

 long step forward in bee culture. 



E. BiCKFOKD. 



Seneca Falls, N. Y. Nov. 23, 1870. 



[For the Americao Bee Journal.] 



The Hive Controversy. 



Mr. Editor :— In the November number of the 

 Journal, Mr. C. Rogers again tries his hand in 

 the "patching" business, making an effort to 

 "patch" up the theory advanced in his former 

 article (in the July number). According U^^ my 

 experience in the bee business and the use of the 

 Langstroth hive, his "patch" work does not fit 

 the facts. Let us see. In the first place, he 

 says — "For wintering in a cellar the Langs- 

 troth hive is perhaps good enough." Well, it it 

 is, why fall out with it in early spring, for the 

 bees dying off so rapidly? The shape of the 

 hive has nothing to do with that. Again, lie 

 says— "But if a swarm is not breeding enough 

 to make up the loss in early spring, there must 

 be a fault somewhere." Well, suppose there is 

 " a fault somewhere," why did you not point it 

 out and tell us where it is, instead of telling us 

 what "we expect," &c. If the Langstroth hive 

 is good enough "for wintering in a cellar," it 

 comes out with the same advantages as other 

 hives ; and Mr. R. has failed to show wherein it 

 is in fault for the bees dying off "in early spring. ' ' 

 Again, he says — "When we take bees from 

 the cellar, we expect that they will have brood 

 in all stages." Well, suppose they have, does 

 that prevent the old bees from dying off with 

 old age, or from being blown down and chilled 

 to death with the bleak winds of early spring?— 

 Again, he says — "We expect too that the 

 queen will continue to deposit eggs even more 

 rapidly, because of the excitement produced by 

 the bees flying." That idea, I presume, is pecu- 

 liar to Mr. R. ; at least it is the first time I ever 

 heard that bees flying stimulate the queen to de- 

 posit eggs more rapidly. I have known bees to 

 "fly" quite freely when they were on the point 

 of starvation, yet the queen refused to deposit 

 any eggs at all. It is when bees are gathering 

 stores rapidly, that the queen is stimulated to 

 deposit eggs rapidly. But suppose, Mr. R., that 

 the bees "flying" and your "rye meal" did ex- 

 cite the queen to deposit eggs more rapidly, what 

 good would the eggs do when there was not bees 

 enough in the hive to keep them at the hatch- 

 ing temperature ? You admit, yourself, that the 

 bees die off very rapidly the first day or two 

 (that they fly}, after being taken from the cellar. 



Why should you expect the bees to be increasing, 

 so soon after suffering such heavy losses? Again, 

 "In deeper hives they do increase, and the 

 deeper the hive the greater the increase." Here 

 is some more of Mr. R.'s peculiar logic. Ac- 

 cording to that, all we would have to do, is to 

 increase the depth of our hives to have all the 

 bees we desired. One hive would be all that an 

 operator would want. When more bees were 

 wanted we need only increase the depth of the 

 hive, and the bees would soon be on hand. Now 

 suppose we have a hive five or six feet high, 

 would the bees go to the top of the hive to com- 

 mence rearing brood, &c., or would the queen 

 commence to deposit her eggs at the lower end 

 of the capped honey? And then where would 

 yom- heat or warmth go? It does appear to me 

 that a hive could be made too "deep." Again, 

 Mr. R. says— "The reason why the shallow 

 hive is not good for early spring, as I understand, 

 is this : as soon as the severe weather is past, 

 we want to confine the animal heat as much as 

 possible, &c. Consequently we shut oft' all up- 

 ward ventilation. The coldest part of a hive is 

 near the entrance," &c. Well, suppose it is, 

 what does that prove ? I used to hear it said, 

 when I was a boy, in order to have a warm house 

 you must have the ceiling low, or, in other words, 

 a low story. Now suppose your tall hive has 

 the same number of cubic inches that the shallow 

 form has, diftering only in shape, what becomes 

 of the same amount of animal heat in the shal- 

 low form? Is it not still confined to the hive, 

 and when it rises to the top does it not diffuse 

 itself and warm up just as much surface as it 

 would in a hive ten feet high ? Remember, if 

 your bees have any stores (in the tall hive) they 

 are at the top, and the first eggs deposited by 

 the queen will be at the lower part of the capped 

 honey or stores, and the animal heat rises to the 

 top or ceiling of the hive, some distance above 

 the cluster of bees. Then where is the advan- 

 tage of your tall hive? Again, he says— "The 

 further the bees get from the bottom the warmer 

 they find the temperature," Suppose that is so, 

 what does it prove? Did you ever know bees 

 (in cold weather) cluster high up in tlieir hive 

 among the capped honey? Bees always put 

 their capped honey (in your tall hives) at the top 

 of the hive, and cluster in cold weather at the 

 lower part of the capped honey. No amount of 

 cold air coming in at the enti-ance, can force 

 them to cluster high up between sheets of 

 sealed honey. But the animal heat generated 

 by the bees "does rise to the top of the hive, and 

 the longer the sheets of capped are, the further 

 the bees are from the heat generated by them. 

 Again, Mr. R. says— "These hives being so 

 low, before the bees get out of the way of the 

 cold air coming in at the entrance, they are 

 bumping their heads against the top." Well 

 suppose they do "bump their heads against the 

 top," what does that prove? The heat gene- 

 rated by them certainly cannot get higher than 

 the top, and the bees being there too, they are 

 certainly in the warmest part of the hive. 

 Again, he says—" In a tall hive they can draw 

 up and get well out of the way of the cold air 

 from the entrance." Not quite so, Mr. R.; if 



