i8o 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



teix'st, and knowiiiy his great iiifliioiicc 

 among men, and knowing also how 

 prone beginners are to keep clianging 

 from one tiling to another, and thai 

 frecinently when the new system l.s 

 not as practical as the discarded one, 

 I am constrained, at this time, to 

 malce a plea tor at least uniformity 

 of fixtures. 



Periodically, for the past 3U year&, 

 men have started out to sliow by some 

 ides of their own that the Langstroth 

 hive was not the natural home of bees, 

 and have suggested and put into use 

 other systems, alwaj's more compli- 

 cated, and just as often has the api- 

 cultural lane lieen sti'ewn with the 

 wrecks of blasted hopes and disap- 

 pointments. 



I knoAV there are many inventors 

 who think they have been a boon, and 

 have tilled a 'long felt want," but i 

 defy any one to show any hive and 

 system that will give control of the 

 bees in a more simple mnnner, and still 

 Avinter a larger percentage in so great 

 a number— a system that will all(n\ 

 one person to care for a greater num- 

 ber of bees, and put any more honey 

 on the marki't at the close of the sea- 

 son. I know there are many who wib 

 claim it (we will cut out Doolittlet; 

 then show lis the man. the system 

 and the honey. 



'Sir. Aikin wants a hi\'e that is the 

 natural home for a colony of bees, 

 and by and through his varied and 

 long experience, he thinks he h;is 

 found it. Oh. how seductive these 

 natural homes for bees are! 



Two years ago a man at Fort Col- 

 lins transferred a colony from nude]' 

 the bench his bees Avere on. and it wa^ 

 the strongest colony out of his '.U). One 

 would say. 'Surely, that is the naturnl 

 home for bees.' But. you see. it is 

 not practical. 



Tv. () y(>ais ago I took ,i (olony from 

 the top of a hirge air chiumey on the 



liank building here, and it was the 

 most powerful colony out of my (>()() 

 The chimney was full for ten feet, 

 and was much the sanu^ kind of hive 

 or system, as described by ^Nlr. Aikin 

 in one of his previous articles, and 

 aI;out as practical. 1 thought, wheji 

 taking out that colony, surely, this 

 i.-; the natiu*al home for a colony of 

 lees; l)Ut, then, it is not practical. 



Again, we took a colony out of a 

 coyote hole, that ran horizontally into 

 a l)ank on the Union Pacific railroad, 

 ;!nd it was stronger than any colony 

 i:i tlie apiary, at the time we got it. 

 'Jhis. you see. was the Langstroth. 

 (ir more, perhaps the 'Jjong Idea" 

 system. We said, surely it is the Uiit- 

 rial home for ;i colony of bees. Bui 

 it is not practical. But in my opinion 

 it was about as practical as a system 

 that compels a mun. who is runnii-:.' 

 hundreds of colonies, to carry an ex- 

 tr;i number of hives to put on and 

 ^;ike off ft)r breeding purposes. Or a 

 system that is made up of a lot o.'" 

 little bodies of hives tilled up with 

 sticks and spaces, that should be filled 

 ^^•ith great, solid spreads of brood. 

 Furely. with such a system, a man is 

 curlailed from accomplishing what he 

 could with a uniform and simple sys- 

 tem. 



Mr. Aikin implies in his last article 

 that he has as many as eight or ten 

 different hives, and that he has had 

 them for years. Surely, a man with 

 'SJv. Aikin's keen i)er<-eption has de- 

 cid(Ml long ago which was best. Then 

 why not shake the whole outfit into 

 one system, and then keep more bees. 

 l'"cause h<' can. if everything is \ini- 

 fcrm".'' Otherwise his honey-house 

 ;ind si ore-rooms nvv more like a de- 

 I'.-irtment store or nmsenm. And, O 

 the exasperating bother, if a man 

 waids a super, and the first four or 

 live lu> comes to belong in some cer- 

 tain place I 



