/Ai'7. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



483 



having become colder, takes its turn to settle away to the bot- 

 tom of the hive, and comes around under the bees, seeming 

 colder and damper as it goes, to work up among them again 

 to absorb their heat and carry it up and away again and 

 again by the same chilling process. 



I omitted all this minutia before, because I thought that 

 every reader of the American Bee Journal would understand 

 what I meant by the word " condense," and I might leave this 

 out now, and save precious space In the paper if I had not 

 been called up by my opponent to explain. 



But I add that besides this condensing of the warm breath 

 of the bees, which creates a damp current of cold air through 

 the cluster, as explained, to depress the comfort of the bees, 

 the mischief doesn't stop there ; for in cold weather that same 

 moisture turns to frost (just as it does on a bedroom window 

 from the breath of human beings) until sometimes the bees are 

 actually surrounded by thick frost, as might be seen in almost 

 any hive in cold winter weather. 



About eight years ago, as far south as Hancock county, 

 W. Va., during some cold_ nights in autumn I placed glass over 

 several colonies which I had surrounded with the usual bee- 

 spaces, then a blanket on the glass, and then a top board on 

 the blanket. In the morning I found that over the close clus- 

 ter in the center of the hive the glass was actually dripping 

 with water, which was falling back on the bees, while the 

 whole glass was coated on the under side with steam from the 

 condenst breath of the bees, and in the corners of the hive 

 were unmistakable signs of frost. 



Now if anybody will, next winter, let a hive remain on the 

 summer stand with the bee-spaces all open above and around 

 the brood-frames, and then along toward spring look in on 

 the bees some cold morning after a few days of sharp cold 

 weather, I will guarantee that he will turn away from that 

 bee-hive with thoughts in his mind about the bee-space, that 

 he never had before. 



What Mr. Hutchinson says near the bottom of the first 

 column of his article, about the "compact cluster and the 

 heat rising," actually goes farther to strengthen ray position 

 than it does to defend the bee-space; but he asks, "What 

 difference does it make?" and I think that I am showing that 

 it makes a good deal of difference. What a slaughter of bees 

 he does make in his imaginary bungling while placing sec- 

 tions on my hive which he has never handled nor seen, no, 

 not even a picture of it. But I can respectfully say that those 

 extravagantly absurd Inconveniences which he pictures out, 

 of crushing bees, and tries to force them upon me as features 

 of my method, are not necessarily true in the Common-Sense 

 system of management, as those troubles are not necessarily 

 involved by the absence of the bee-space. I slide my section 

 cases on smoothly lengthwise of the top-bars of the frames, 

 which are level with the tops of the hive-body, and if it is 

 rightly done, there is no need of crushing bees in the opera- 

 tion. 



I had used the bee-space for many years before I made a 

 bonfire of every frame I had left. And is it reasonable to 

 suppose that I would have cremated them, and put in their 

 places a new frame, a little different than anything that I had 

 every read about, unless I was fully convinced that the new 

 frame was far superior to the old bee-space frame ? Concern- 

 ing my present method, as compared with my former, I can 

 say to Mr. H., as Paul said on another subject, " and yet show 

 I unto you a more excellent way." 



Those words near the end of his article, about " daubing 

 up everything with bee-glue," and the " big job of cleaning," 

 are expressions far too strong to be justified by the facts in 

 the case. If he placas no limit on the word " everything," its 

 meaning is infinite, and I don't believe that my bees have been 

 daubing up "everything" to that extent. If I have been 

 sending them through creation daubing up everything, in- 



cluding the sun, moon and stars, that may be the reason why 

 they are none too lavish in the amount of daubing that they 

 do at home; for, you see, they wouldn't have daub enough 

 to hold out, and be able to do more than justice to things at 

 home. But perhaps he is pardonable for those expressions, 

 and also for the assertion — " with the bee-space all this Is 

 avoided " — needs substantiating, for I have yet to learn it if the 

 bees ever fill their sections without calking all the cracks they 

 can find near their work, which is all they have ever done in 

 my hives, and a stiff piece of hoop-iron ground like a chisel, 

 and pusht under the sections will easily separate them from 

 the frames, and the cleaning up in one case will not differ very 

 much from the other, leaving the appearance about the same 

 in both cases. And I am further inclined to believe that the 

 weaker the colony the less it is apt to deal in bee-glue and 

 burr-combs, and that may be one reason why some folks are 

 bothered so little with such things. 



But he virtually admits the perniciousness of the bee- 

 space in recommending to dispense with it for wintering the 

 bees, by putting a blanket or cushion flat on the tops of the 

 hanging frames, and then to flop the hive over and jam some- 

 thing down in at the ends of the loose frames to stuff up the 

 bee-space there. Just imagine how those hanging frames 

 would flop around in the operation and mash bees by the 

 handfuls ! But if the beespace is such a blessed thing to 

 defend and keep, why recommend such harsh measures for 

 the purpose of getting rid of it? Can't he see how he throws 

 the weight of his argument on my side of the scales ? 



The Common-Sense Method of Bee-Keeping is now ren- 

 dering me in my yard proof of its merits far beyond my most 

 sanguine expectations when I began its development several 

 years ago. Never did 1 have bees to boom themselves without 

 feeding in the spring, and seem so comfortable, and work so 

 early and late in the day as they have done ever since I put 

 them in my new Common-Sense Hive, and I infer that it is 

 because so many of them don't have to stay at home all day 

 to breathe up heat enough in the hive to keep the babies from 

 having the ague. 



Like Paul, again, "I have many things to say unto you, 

 but ye cannot bear them now," but if circumstances should 

 render it favorable I could be induced to give strong reasons 

 for believing that the bee-space iu the modern hive figures 

 largely among the causes that favor the conditions which 

 develop spring dwindling, bee-paralysis, nameless disease, 

 and progress finally to that which is the worst of all, and the 

 end of all— FOUL BROOD. Pennsylvania. 



P. S. — I had sealed the above article for the mail when I 

 received the Bee Journal for June 10, containing that power- 

 ful argument on the " Real Cause of Foul Brood Among Bees,' 

 the proof of which I had derived from observation during the 

 past few years in reading, and knowing where there had been 

 a few cases of foul brood in western Pennsylvania, and by 

 carefully noticing vphat had occurred to the bees prior to it, 

 had forced me to the conclusion that brood in the comb, ex- 

 posed to die, was the antecedent cause of all the trouble after 

 it had progrest through several stages. And I had noticed 

 that the undue oirculation of air through the bee-hive (in cold 

 spells), induced by the bee-space, would often force the clus- 

 ter to contract and expose their brood to die. And while I 

 primarily blame the bee-space for encouraging such contrac- 

 tion, it is easy to see that a sudden depletion of the colony 

 from any cause would accomplish the same end. 



Xlie McEvoy Foul Brood Xreatment Is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " Foul Brood; Its Natural 

 Histor}' and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for SI. 10. 



