Warm-Way and Cold-Way
Lexikon
Warm-way and cold-way describe how the combs within a hive are oriented relative to the entrance.
Warm-way and cold-way describe how the combs within a hive are oriented relative to the entrance. In the cold-way, the comb spaces run at a right angle to the entrance toward the back of the hive, so that looking through the entrance one sees directly into the spaces between the combs. In the warm-way, by contrast, the first comb stands crosswise in front of the entrance, so that bees flying in first meet the face of the comb.
The names date from a time when hives still had closed floors: it was assumed that the crosswise comb in the warm-way better blocked cold draughts from the entrance than in the cold-way, where the spaces act like channels leading straight inward. With the open mesh floors used almost everywhere today, this original temperature difference has practically no significance anymore.
For daily work the difference nonetheless remains relevant, though more for the beekeeper than for the bees: in the warm-way, combs can be drawn out like index cards from front to back and worked from behind, in the cold-way the beekeeper stands at the side of the hive and lifts the frames straight up and out. Some hive systems, such as the square Warré hive, even allow switching between the two layouts by turning the boxes.