.THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



361 



the heaviest in stores at the bottom, 

 having previously marked every one 

 with pollen, and its location in the 

 hive. Now for the result, so far. The 

 colonies with pollen nearly all have 

 dysentery, and those having the most 

 pollen in the cluster, have it the worst. 

 Perhaps you will say, how do you 

 know this ? Well, last week we had 

 two days, nice and warm, and I took 

 most of the colonies with dysentery 

 out for examination and a flight, and 

 found as above stated. All were clean 

 inside, aside from dead bees ; no 

 daubed combs. I shall lose from 

 ' spring dwindling.' You go lOto 1 on 

 the pollen theory (it is no longer the- 

 ory with me), but 1 can beat you on 

 that, for I say 100 to 1, and more too, 

 in practice. You notice that nearly 

 all who give directions for wintering 

 say, ' plenty of good honey, or sugar 

 surup;' why don't they say, ' and pol- 

 len,' if it IS a good thing to have in 

 winter. Some of my dysenteric colo- 

 nies have eaten the lioney and left the 

 pollen, and show but slight signs of 

 dysentery." 



From all of the above, I form the 

 following conclusions : 



1. Dysentery is the cause of our 

 winter losses, to which all other losses 

 are " as water unto wine." 



2. The consumption of bee bread, 

 or perhaps floating pollen in the 

 honey, during the period in which the 

 bees cannot void the residue neces- 

 sarily accumulating from it, is the 

 cause of dysentery. 



It now only remains to devise some 

 off-hand practical method, not a com- 

 plicated and cumberous one, or one 

 which subjects one to stings or rob- 

 bing, with which to put up bees, in 

 such shape for winter as will avoid 

 the conditions which are productive 

 of dysentery. 



These points I am working at, and 

 when it is all accomplished, it will be 

 time to aimounce our success, and 

 the " what and how " of it, when I 

 have made such success positive and 

 permanent. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



Gleanings In Bee-Culture. 



Observations on Several Topics. 



L. L, LANGSTROXn. 



On page .55 of my work, you will 

 see that I noticed in 1852 (as I see 

 from my journal, and not 1854), drones 

 reared under the same circumstances, 

 so frequently referred to by some of 

 your contributors. If the spermatic 

 filaments of the drone remain some- 

 time upon the surface of the egg, it is 

 «asy to conceive that the bees can 

 remove them before they get into the 

 micropyle of the egg, and hence 

 drones instead of workers. 



I wish to make some suggestions 

 for the improvement of your standard 

 chaft hive. You will remember, that 

 years a ago you asked for some prac- 

 tical way by which the frames could 

 be insertedin the top story so that it 

 would not be necessary to remove 

 them all in order to get access to 

 those below. I think that this can be 

 done, not only without injury to the 



main features of your hive, but with 

 an increase of storage room above for 

 frames or sections, besides other ad- 

 vantages. 



Let me begin by saying that the 

 doubling the case of the upper story 

 is not only unnecessary for the pro- 

 tection of the bees below, but a posi- 

 tive injury to them, in the winterat 

 least, by making that upper story like 

 a damp cellar, and preventing it from 

 drying out as it always does when 

 made of a single thickness. This is 

 one reason why the chaff cushions in 

 your hive are so often damp, when in 

 those I have made, they are compara- 

 tively dry. Let your top story be 

 made of single thickness, and you not 

 only get rid of this evil, but have 

 much more storage room, either for 

 frames or sections. Not only so, but 

 you gain just the room which you 

 need for easy instead of cramped 

 access to the lower story. There is 

 good room for your arms, for want of 

 which, even when there are no frames 

 to remove from the upper story, I 

 always dislike to manipulate with 

 your hives, especially if there is much 

 work to be done. 



Suppose, now, that you have all the 

 room which would be gained by a 

 single thickness of the walls of that 

 story. I will show you how to ar- 

 range that space for frames, by a 



simple plan which I used very suc- 

 cessfully more than 15 years ago. My 

 upper stories were made of only %- 

 inch stuff, and were strengthened by 

 four posts, screwed one into each 

 corner. These posts did not come up 

 level with the sides of the cover, but 

 were kept just enough below to allow 

 frames to rest upon them (a, o), a 

 little below the frames which sit from 

 front to rear in the upper story (6, 6, 

 6). To sustain these frames, thin 

 rails of hard wood, about 3 inches 

 wide, with upper edges beveled to a 

 sharp edge, were fastened up against 

 the corner posts. The dotted lines 

 represent these rails. You will see 

 that the spacedn front and rear of the 

 upper frames was utilized for holding 

 storing frames, which also prevented 

 the bees from building combs between 

 the upper set of frames and the front 

 and rear walls of the upper case of 

 the top story. In the hives I used, in 

 order not to use frames resting on the 

 corners, of a difllerent size from the 

 standard Langstroth frame, the lower 

 story was made to hold 13 frames, in 

 a brood-chamber 18i^xl8J3, instead of 

 \ii}ix\i}'a ; but there will be no need 

 of your chaff hives holding more than 

 10 below. By using smaller frames 

 than the standard Langstroth, or 

 dummies instead of frames, any 

 standard Langstroth hive might be 

 made on this plan. 



If you wish to get access to any 

 frame below you need only remove 

 one or two above, moving some of the 

 others nearer together, and there is 

 nothing to prevent you from lifting 

 out the lower frame, the rails on 

 which the upper ones rest being no 

 hindrance at all. 



In this way you avoid all the heavy 

 lifting, and other trouble incidental 

 to the plan of the old two-storied 

 hive, when you desire to get access to 

 the lower story. If you still, for any 

 reason, desire to have the upper 

 walls of your chaff hive double, you 

 can avail yourself of this plan, by 

 making the air space very narrow ; 

 but in my opinion the hive is much 

 better if single thickness above. 



There was a time when I would 

 have tried to patent this plan ; but 

 while I neither question tlie absolute 

 right of any inventor to patent any 

 original patentable device, nor the 

 absolute wrong of parties who know- 

 ingly infringe upon valjd patents, as 

 a matter of plain busiiiess common 

 sense, I would advise ^against patent- 

 ing devices which can so easily be 

 appropriated by others, as almost 

 every thing connected with bee-cul- 

 ture must necessarily be. Where the 

 manufacturing of any patented arti- 

 cle requires costly buildings and 

 machinery, and heavy capital, men 

 will think long and often before they 

 attempt to infringe upon it; for in 

 their costly plant they give ample 

 guarantees to those who will defend 

 their rights. On the contrary, if a 

 man could invent the most useful 

 article that human brains ever devised, 

 but which could be easily and cheaply 

 made by almost any one ; in order to 

 reap any substantial beneflt from his 

 patent, he must expect, as the rule, 

 to engage in almost endless litigation, 

 and to spend one fortune in trying to 

 make another. I hope that you will 

 make at least one chaff hive on the 

 plan I have suggested, and put it to 

 the test of actual use in your apiary. 



Last year, in this place, at this 

 time, the weather was most propitious, 

 and the Belds and roadsides white 

 with clover ; but it had no percepti- 

 ble fragrance, and the bees in my 

 neighbors' apiaries had to be fed to 

 be kept from starvation ! This year, 

 notwithstanding the frequent and 

 drenching rains, our houses are sweet 

 with the smell of clover ; and in tlie 

 intervals when they can work, the 

 bees are accumulating stores at a 

 great rate. 



Oxford, O., June, 1883. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1883. Tivit and Plact oS Meeting. 



Auk. 29.— Iowa Central, atWinterset FairGroundB. 



Z. G. Cooley. See. Pro tern. 

 Sept. 12-14.— TrI-State, at Toledo, Ohio. 



Dr. A. B. Mason, See., Wa«on Works, O. 

 Oct. 9, 10.— Northern Mich, at Sheridan, Mich. 



O. R. Goodno, Sec, Carson City, Mich. 

 Oct. 17, 18.— Northwestern, at OhlcaKO, III. 



Thomas G. Newman, Sec. 



Oct.— Northern Ohio, at Norfalk, O. 



S. F. Newman, Sec. 

 Dec. 5-6, Michigan State, at Flint. 



H. D. Cutting. Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



ly In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetinsts.— ED. 



