THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



41 



The publication of the Hasty article has 

 been compared to the Wiley pleasantry. 

 What \\"\\ey wrote was a LIE. What Hasty 

 has written is true. No one disputes that. 

 The only question is, whether it was policy 

 to tell the truth. I presume that the publi- 

 cation of that article iu the general news- 

 papers of the day might be prejudical to the 

 interests of bee keepers, in the same way 

 that the "everlasting clack" in them about 

 adulteration prejudices the public against 

 honey ; but among ourselves, in our own 

 family, in our own class journals, it does 

 seem that a man might speak his mind 

 freely. 



Of course, what friend Hasty has written 

 is the rankest kind of heresy, and I may be 

 equally guilty in giving it publicity, yet it 

 must be remembered that we little know 

 what may come in the future. Heretical 

 ideas are usually advanced ideas, shocking 

 as they sometimes are, and as editor of the 

 Keview I feel like allowing free speech, so 

 long as it is said decently and in order.— Ed. J 



Comments on a Beginner's Day-Book. 

 No. 2. 



)Y purchase of the apiary was in Oc- 

 tober, and on tliat account I would 

 have preferred to begin my extracts 

 and comments at that date : but then, you 

 see, I should be forever dragging a few 

 months behind the date of the Review which 

 each article appeared in. It is nicer to read 

 of February matter in February. So I skip- 

 ped down Honey Creek the distance of three 

 moons, and soused in opposite the calendar. 

 The calendar, however, don't amount to so 

 much as usual, the winter of '79-'80 was so 

 abnormal. Winter just took a little nibble 

 at us once in a while, as appears in the fol- 

 lowing : — 



" February 3d, 1880. Snow storm. Thermonie- 

 tur 25° Entrance of the colony 4-3 found closed 



with SAWDUST." 



"Four-three" meaiis fourth group of 

 hives, third hive in the group. This is the 

 "only right way " to number hives, because 

 the whole thing can be kept in the mind 

 with ease, and there is never any occasion to 

 paint or tack tigures on hives or stands. 

 Permanent tigures on hives soon result in 

 unpalatable " pi " t)y the ensuing changes of 

 location. 



This entry opens up the sawdust question 

 by a slight objection not often spoken of. 



Sawdust drifts iu windy weather, and may 

 bank up things you don't want banked up. 

 I wonder if the method of placiiig hives on 

 banks of sawdust is not declining. I adopted 

 it enthusiastically from Gleanings, and have 

 never entirely abandoned it ; but with the 

 years I find I am less in conceit with it than 

 formerly. If I was beginning in a new lo- 

 cation I am not sure I should use the method 

 at all. The danger of fire is worth avoiding ; 

 and the friendly harbor sawdust offers for a 

 mouse den under each hive I do not like at 

 all. 



"Feb. 10th. Thermometer rose to 50° Since 

 the third it has been moderate winter weather. 

 Overhauled six colonies. Brood mostly hatched 

 out. Some eggs and larvae. 



Feb. nth. Froze at night, but thermometer 

 50° to-day. Bees have not sufficiently recovered 

 from the cold spell to liy much." 



These entries, with previous ones, show 

 ■ how nicely bees can adjust themselves to 

 untimely weather. They can raise a batch 

 of brood in mid-winter, and then shut down 

 on brooding until the weather again ofEers 

 extra inducements. They again had con- 

 siderable brood Feb. 18th. 



The latter part of this month was largely 

 devoted to making " many inventions," some 

 of which I have in use clear down to the 

 present day. My day-book is ornamented 

 with rude drawings of them which of course 

 I cannot transfer to the Review. The sim- 

 plest of them all is perhaps 'the most gener- 

 ally useful of all. It is a hive shovel, origin- 

 ally designed to scoop the dead bees and 

 rubbish out of a hive when only two or three 

 combs are removed. The shovel is at right 

 angles to the handle, and you can narrow it 

 down and scoop in very narrow quarters. 

 The handle should be from four to twenty 

 inches long ; and at the lower end say three 

 and one-half inches wide, for medium size. 

 For the shovel part a suitable piece of tin 

 goes over the lower end just in the style a 

 Shaker bonnet goes over your lady's head. 

 I keep three of them : a little " teenty " one, 

 a medium one. and a big, bouncing, fat one 

 (not ladies, but hive shovels), and. although 

 useful in cleaning hives, I use them a great 

 deal more iu hiving bees and capturing 

 swarms, especially in scooping a cluster from 

 a difficult location, as the side of a tree trunk. 



Then there was my perpetual mouse-trap 

 which was described and illustrated on page 

 1(!4 of Gleanings for April, 1880. The object 

 was to have bee fixtures, when stowed away, 

 defended from being gnawed, and from 

 being ruined by ineradicable mouse smell, 

 by a trap which would be always set, baited, 



