60 



NEW ENGLAND FABMER. 



Feb. 



F(jr the New England Farmer. 



STRAW HIVES. 



Mr. Editor : — The article with the above head- 

 ing, some months since, in the Farmer, called out 

 some remarks from Mr. Brackett, that deserve 

 some notice, even though it may have been nearly 

 forgotten in the long time since it was written. I 

 propose to examine the principles involved, a little 

 farther. I will endeavor to avoid personalities, and 

 hope you will have patience to hear me through. 

 I am not sure but what we bee-keepers ought to 

 be indulged to a reasonable extent in pointed 

 remarks, rather more than most of your corres- 

 pondents, seeing that we have a daily example of 

 short and sharp arguments in resentment of all in- 

 sults, real or imaginary. Even the sfinginr/ 

 thrusts of Mr. Kidder and Mr. Brackett are not 

 without some benefit. Mr. Kidder, having a hive 

 and book, promises us, if we will read the one, and 

 use the other, a thousand impossible things, and 

 we that know no better, are induced to expend our 

 money, and expect in return a part at least of the 

 bright promise. Mr. Brackett interposes, and ex- 

 poses the fraud for our benefit, but in doing this, 

 perhaps he says a little more than is necessary. 

 Then it seems proper for Mr. Kidder to point out 

 these excesses. Now it may be, that these gentle- 

 men, accustomed to the sting, cannot write very 

 well without showing it. If this should be so, had 

 we not better tolerate the whole, than to refuse to 

 hear them altogether ? The subject being a dry 

 one, might not be relished without the spice. 

 These criticisms also serve to call attention to the 

 subject, and consequently promote more or less 

 investigation. In the straw hive that I recom- 

 mended, I presumed there wei-e several advantages. 

 Mr. Brackett saw, or thought he saw, serious ob- 



i'ections, and has given them to the public. It is 

 lardly possible to read over the list, together with 

 my remarks, Avithout investigating the principles 

 somewhat, and be better qualified to decide 

 whether straw hives are an advantage, or other- 

 wise. 



That part of Mr. Brackett's article to which I 

 wish to call attention, commences with these re- 

 marks : "Judging from an article in your paper 

 of the 13th, it would appear that a new and fruit- 

 ful field is to be opened for patent hives, and Mr. 

 Quinby, who has hitherto had a holy horror of pa- 

 tent hives, now summons to his side the innumer- 

 able host of inventors. He assures us that he has, 

 at the present time, a straw hive, adapted tc im- 

 proved bee-culture, and if he cannot get a better 

 one, he will shortly give us a description of it. 

 Before the country is deluged with these new pa- 

 tent hives, I should like to look into them, and see 

 in what the advantage, if any, consists. Mr. 

 Quinby says, 'that they are warmer in winter, and 

 cooler in summer.' I will leave this assertion for 

 some future occasion, still satisfied in my own 

 mind, that it is like the Irishman's grog, that kept 

 him warm in winter, and cool in summer, and was 

 good at all times." I am sorry he left to a future 

 occasion, the exposition of this fallacy, if it is one, 

 because, despite the ridicule attempted, the princi- 

 ple is just as tenable as before. As I intend to 

 give the promised description, it would have been 

 well for your readers to clearly comprehend all the 

 real objections against the hive, before any one is 

 induced to make it. The assertion, however, was a 



quotation from Mr. Langstroth — "Hive and 

 Honey Bee," page 331, revised edition. "Straw 

 hives have been used for ages, and are warm in 

 winter, and cool in summer. The difficulty of 

 making them take and retain the proper shape for 

 improved bee-keeping, is an insuperable objection 

 to their use." It being an assertion of Mr. L., 

 proves nothing further than that the principle is 

 more generally recognized than Mr. B. supposed. 



Again, I say that straw hives absorb moisture 

 as generated by the bees, and save them the 

 warmth they have generated. Mr. B. replies, "If 

 tlais is true, its author has added a new chapter to 

 the philosophy of heat and moisture. I had sup- 

 posed that when a body was sufficiently porous to 

 allow moisture to pass freely through it, that there 

 was a good deal of danger that any amount of heat 

 inside of such enclosure would be likely to go the 

 same way." Now I recognize this principle as the 

 true one. I would suggest that the "new chapter 

 to the philosophy of heat and moisture" was dis- 

 covered long ago, and has been acted on for cen- 

 turies. Is it not an acknowledged fact, that solid 

 bodies are much better conductors of heat than 

 porous ? To illustrate. Handle a piece of iron 

 and a piece of wood. Put on a coat of India rub- 

 ber, or one of wool, one impervious to air and wa- 

 ter, the other admitting the passage of both ; one 

 conducts away from the body the insensible per- 

 spiration, and retains the warmth ; Avhile with the 

 other, the effect is exactly reversed, the moisture 

 is retained while the heat is thrown off. We rec- 

 ognize this principle in the rubber shoe ; instead 

 of using it for warmth, it is put on as a protection 

 against water. A garment of linen or cotton con- 

 ducts heat much more rapidly than one of wool. 

 Perhaps the fact that the fibres lie more compact, 

 would explain the cause. Air is considered a poor 

 conductor of heat. We readily succeed in warm- 

 ing a room, but it is when the heated particles can 

 move from the fire — forming a current of air — and 

 give place to others that become heated in turn. 

 But confine air, in what is called a dead air space, 

 as we do in the Avails of a house, or, if you please, 

 confine it to the little cells in a woolen garment, 

 and the heat is very slowly passed. Now I con- 

 ceive that straw, as a material for a bee-hive, will 

 act on the same principle ; the thousand little air- 

 cells are so many dead air spaces, which prevent 

 the escape of the warmth, and yet allow the pas- 

 sage of moisture. I speak comparatively, for some 

 warmth, of course, Avill escape, but nothing like 

 Avhat will go Avhen the holes in the top of a Avood 

 hive are opened. The moisture from the bees 

 must be got rid of. I can readily conceive hoAV a 

 hive, Avith the boards of it thoroughly Avater-soaked, 

 Avould conduct aAvay the heat much faster than 

 Avhen they became thoroughly dry. In one case, 

 the pores of the wood are filled with Avater, and 

 become a good conductor, like a Avet garment ; in 

 the other, the pores become filled Avith air, and the 

 heat passes sloAvly. When a current of air is es- 

 tablished, as in the Avood hive, Avhen the holes are 

 opened in the top, to get rid of the moisture, as a 

 matter of couri".e, the heat Avill move Avith it. 

 Hence the advar tage of some material that Avill re- 

 tain the one, and dispose of the other. 



But Mr. B. says, "Place a SAvarm of bees in a 

 straw hive, and they Avill do very different from 

 any bees I have ever seen, if they do not line the 

 inside Avith propolis, a substance impervious to air 



