482 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 5, 



breed from diseased fowls, altho they may have apparently 

 been cured. The disease is there all the same. 



Acting on that theory, we have a sure cure for fowls, and 

 why not for bee-paralysis? It has certainly workt in my case. 

 I am aware that one swallow does not always make a spring. 

 Cutting the heads off of sick fowls instead of keeping a hospi- 

 tal and using this and that " sure cure " medicine, is the very 

 best remedy. Orange Co., Calif. 



The *' Detestable Bee-Space " Again Arraigned 



BY "COMMON-SENSE BEEKEEPING." 



On page 321, Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson reviews my former 

 article on "the Detestable Bee-Space," which was given on 

 page 259, and to me it seems that his article partakes more 

 of the style of throwing dust In the air and raising a fog than 

 it does of sober reason. I am glad, however, that it comes 

 from a man whom I have learned to respect so highly, and I 

 hope he will be assured of this to a sufficient degree not to 

 take unkindly what I may now say in showing the weakness 

 of his ground. 



In my former article I asserted twice that the bee-space 

 was " handy," and I used it many years because It was handy, 

 and I will venture to say that Mr. Hutchinson nor any other 

 bee-keeper in the world ever used it for any other considera- 

 tion. But suppose that I should admit further, that it is uni- 

 versally used (which it is not), would all of that go to prove 

 anything against the points at issue, which are, that the bee- 

 space is a damage to the bees in several ways ? Should we 

 fear to express an honest conviction of the right, tho all the 

 world should be arrayed against us ■? If so, than the "Com- 

 mon-Sense Bee-Keeper" was not built rightly. 



There are many things that have nearly universally come 

 into use which are a damage to those who use them, and a curse 

 to the world; such as popular vices in all their forms, but 

 would their universality prove them to be a benefit to any- 

 body? When I saw that the bee-space was costing me, in the 

 loss of bees and honey, more than it was worth to me as a con- 

 venience, I expelled it from my system of management. I am 

 no box-hive man, for I never owned a box-hive in my life, but 

 I can see that in some respects it is superior to some of the 

 clap-trap inventions that some claim to be improved hives, or 

 bee-palaces. I unfurl my flag over the following points with- 

 out fear of successful contradiction, namely : 



The bee-spaces in the hive above and around the brood- 

 frames are an injury to apiculture. First, in the wintering of 

 bees, second, in booming the colony in the spring ; and, third, 

 the early storage of surplus honey in the sections. All of 

 which I have more reasons for believing than it would be wise 

 to expand upon in this article. 



I cannot see, in Mr. Hutchinson's attack on my article, 

 that he uses the slightest argument to disprove my claim, but 

 he does say several things that would be regarded in logic as 

 Irrelevant and misleading, which I will endeavor to dispel by 

 turning on a little more light. 



He says, " How any one who has had practical experience 

 with bees could think of such a thing is beyond my com- 

 prehension." But ho was the man who thought of it, and not 

 I, or he would not have written it, for I don't do as he sup- 

 poses, and therefore I never had occasion to think of it till I 

 read it from his pen. And, furthermore, I am not to blame 

 for the limit of his comprehension, of which he speaks. And 

 I presume that the writer, when he was a boy, had to do with 

 bees long before Mr. 11. was born, and I should be allowed to 

 remark that such expressions of affected amazement should 

 be avoided In candid argument, for while they may appeal to 

 tho popular prejudice of the masses, and excite the virulence 

 of superficial readers, they have no weight as argument in tho 

 scale of real merit. 



I stand for the natural and normal warmth of a colony of 

 bees in a properly protected bee-hive, which is the heat gen- 

 erated by the bees' under circumstances that will enable them 

 to resist to the greatest extent practicable the fluctuations of 

 the external temperature. And this should be encouraged by 

 framing our hive devices as nearly as possible to come in touch 

 with the flexible laws of the bee's nature. I believe, from 

 years of careful study of the bee's nature and experimentally 

 handling of them, that my present hive (which I am not man- 

 ufacturing to sell) contains more points in perfect harmony 

 with the better features of apicultural progress and the neces- 

 sities of the bee's instinct, than any other hive that I ever 

 owned, and I think that I have used, on a small scale, the 

 majority of the leading kinds of hives known in America. 



My present hive opens up as easily, as far as I can see, 

 as the hanging frame hives that I have used, and with my 

 method of manipulation I find them less susceptible to bee- 

 glue. The brood-chamber Is invertible as a whole, or divisible 

 at pleasure. The frames are invertible, reversible, or ex- 

 changeable, with perfect ease. It, is happily and equally 

 adapted to sections, or to an upper set of frames for extracted 

 honey. The size of its frames make it superior for the devel- 

 opment of nuclei or queen-rearing. And as a shipper, it is as 

 perfect as the Heddon hive, and more easily made by half. In 

 fact, it comes more nearly to the idea of an all-purpose hive 

 than anything else that I ever read about. And yet with all 

 this, its construction is in perfect harmony with the demands 

 of the bee's nature, as it possesses the compact solidity of the 

 box-hive. 



Mr. Hutchinson inquires, "If the heat rises and escapes 

 from between two frames, pray where does it go to?" And 

 answers his own question, saying, " Into the adjoining space, 

 of course — where else could it go?" etc. This is a very falla- 

 cious kind of reasoning, and he asserts what he cannot prove 

 by logic or experiment; for heat or vapor, if set free, will not 

 play the diving dodge over and between the frames of a bee- 

 hive as Mr. H. assumes, and he must know it. But it is pos- 

 sible that he may think that we may not know where it goes 

 to, and so I will explain for his benefit by answering his ques- 

 tion beyond the possibility of being misunderstood. 



Anybody who has studied the first lessons in natural 

 philosophy knows very well that the tiniest mote in the uni- 

 verse, if set free, will rise if the surrounding particles of mat- 

 ter are more dense, or heavier than itself ; on the same prin- 

 ciple that a piece of wood float.* up in water, because the 

 water being heavier than wood pushes the wood up. And the 

 same law or principle works just the same with the air in the 

 bee-hive as it does outside. The cold air being heavier settles 

 in the bottom of the hive, and pushes the warm air up to the 

 top of the hive, working just the same through the cluster of 

 bees as it does elsewhere. And, therefore, the warm air In 

 the cluster (which is largely composed of the warm, moist 

 breath of the bees) will rise from among them to the top of 

 the hive, while the cold air from beneath works up among the 

 bees to take its place. Then the warm air, which is con- 

 tinually,being pusht up and out from among the bees will 

 gently press the other warm air that went up there first over 

 through the bee-spaces to the sides and corners of the hive. 



Now let us follow that warm air in its circuit, while we 

 remember that one of the most active laws in Nature is the 

 tendency to an equalization of temperature between every- 

 thing that comes In contact, which now comes in force in a 

 prominent way as follows: 



Whenever the weather is cold, or even cool, then the warm 

 air confronts the colder air in the sides and corners of the 

 hive, where It doesn't stay warm, a& Mr. H. seems to imply. 

 But while It cools, much of the moisture which It contains 

 condenses into drops of water, and settles on whatever It 

 touches first, like the falling of dews. Then that warm air. 



