1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



35 



tude and public acknowledgment to which every inventor of 

 a labor-saving device is entitled. 



The merits of the " New Heddon " are of a kind that do 

 not show up on the surface, and hence for the novice in bee- 

 keeping, who owns but a colony or two, and expects to treat 

 these as a boy does his first watch, I would suggest the loose, 

 pendant frame and Langstroth hive. 



When one has advanced so far in the knowledge of bees 

 as to diagnose the contents of a hive from the alighting-board 

 without lifting a cover, he will then be in a position to appre- 

 ciate fully the merits of the Heddon. 



1st. This hive solves the vexing problem of a large or 

 small brood-nest, by permitting the apiarist at will, and with 

 the very smallest modicum of effort, to increase or diminish 

 it, a(J lihUuin. 



2nd. The reversibility of its frames, and the interchange- 

 ability of its divisions are of untold value in securing compact, 

 solid combs, which will never break with ordinary usage, and 

 in making the task of manipulating, whether in swarming or 

 extracting time, a pleasure rather than a toil. 



3rd. The shake-out principle I have found feasible with 

 black or German strains of bees, and when the brood-nest was 

 not filled with honey — which it should not be permitted to be 

 until the close of the honey season. 



4th. For securing both comb and extracted honey, the 

 surplus arrangements of the Heddon I have found most ser- 

 viceable in affording a No. 1 filled section ; and with the help 



The New Heddon Divisible-Brood-Chamber Hive. 



of the Porter bee-escape, in making the removal and trans- 

 ference from apiary to extractiug-room easy and safe. The 

 handling of combs does not take place until all bees have re- 

 moved from the super, and the latter in the extraoting-room. 



5th. As a hive for the migratory bee-keeper, or for the 

 large owner with out-apiaries, the Heddon is par excellence. 

 As a minister, I have had occasion to change my place of resi- 

 dence, on an average, once in five or six years. I put 28 col- 

 onies into a freight car with my household goods in the month 

 of August, 1894, and transferred them a distance of 400 

 miles with but the loss of a single colony, and without any 

 accident to either ray father or our family horse, both having 

 had their quarters in the car by the side of the bees. With 

 the light, and tight-fitting, appliances of the Heddon hive, the 

 work was simple, which otherwise would have been impossible. 



6th. As a hive for wintering, the advantage of the Hed- 

 don is in permitting the apiarist to adopt the size of the re- 

 pository to the strength of the colony with the least labor, by 

 using the single or double case. I have found that bees win- 

 ter in the cellar equally well in the double and single cases. 



7th. This hive affords the speediest and safest means of 

 natural and artificial swarming, and when once the system of 

 manipulation is mastered, the apiarist has his bees very 

 largely under his control. 



An objection to the hive has been placed in the difficulty 

 experienced by some in finding the queen-bee. I think Mr. R. 

 L. Taylor, of Lapeer, Mich., was the first to publish an easy 

 method of securing her majesty in the hive, viz.: By placing 

 an empty case on top of the brood-nest over a queen-excluding 

 honey-board, administering a few puffs of smoke at the en- 

 trance, meanwhile rapping on the sides and back of the hive 

 for one minute ; then suddenly removing the honey-board, 

 the queen will almost invariably be found on the under side 

 of the honey-board, attempting to force her passage, and 



demoralized with the rest of the colony, may always be readily 

 captured. 



Another objection has been the difficulty of keeping the 

 thumb-screws from expanding, and even the frames, in a damp 

 cellar or in wet weather, so as to become unmanageable with- 

 out the aid of a wrench and a pry-chisel. Propolis, too, will 

 cause trouble in the brood-chamber iu the fall, so as to pre- 

 vent easy manipulation. At first this seemed to me a some- 

 what serious objection, but latterly, as I became expert in the 

 use of the above aids, the objection ceased. 



Again, it has been objected that the queen will not pass 

 readily from one section of the brood-chamber to the other, 

 and hence the work of brood-rearing is retarded. With me 

 the facts do not sustain this objection to any appreciable ex- 

 tent. 1 think it must be relegated to the domain of mere 

 theory. I have noticed that when a queen wishes to lay eggs 

 she will find empty cells anywhere above or below, as soon as 

 the bees have formed passageways, which they invariably do 

 the first thing after manipulating the hive during breeding- 

 time. A queen will traverse the entire depth of the brood 

 chamber and deposit eggs in empty cells several times in 24 

 hours, if there is occasion, and if she is a queen worth her salt. 



Bureau Co., 111. 



That Building for Wiatering Bees. 



BY L. M. WILLIS. 



On page 823 are some questions from Dr. Miller, asked 

 about my article on wintering bees in a building not frost- 

 proof. In reply thereto I may say that I believe that the 

 stuffed wall insures dryness, which, to me, is one of the most 

 essential parts of wintering. 



The building I use is 10 by 24 feet, outside measure, but 

 I have used only one end of it for my bees, making the room 

 where the bees are, 10 by 12 feet, less the packing of 12 

 inches all around, or 8 by 10 feet inside. I have 44 colonies 

 in this room now. I have kept from 3 to 28 in it. I have 

 used this room three winters, this making the fourth. 



The only loss I have had was one colony that for some 

 reason left the hive before it was time to take them out, and 

 they were lost in the room among the other hives. This col- 

 ony had about 30 pounds of honey in the hive they left, and 

 the hive and combs were perfectly clean and dry. I think 

 that they became uneasy toward spring. 



I put my bees into this room on Dec. 2, 1895 ; in 1894 I 

 put them into winter quarters on Nov. 27. I leave them out 

 until it becomes cold enough to show a little frost on the un- 

 derside of the honey-board. I think this is a better guide 

 than Nov. 15, because my bees had a nice flight after that 

 date the past fall. 



I have tried to winter bees iu the cellar under the house, 

 and had dead bees in the spring because the combs became 

 moldy. 



I have not had any spring dwindling since using the room 

 described for wintering. I always put some rye flour out 

 when I put the bees on the summer stands. For the flour I 

 use a piece of board 12 inches square, with one-inch strips 

 nailed on the upper side, around three sides. On these strips 

 I place a small pane of glass, after putting a teacupful of rye 

 flour on the board. The bees will take this flour into their 

 hives pretty quick after they get a taste of it ; and it helps to 

 start breeding early. Loyal, Wis. 



Bee-Hives for the General Farmer. 



BY B. H. GABU8. 



On page 747 (1895) there appeared an article entitled, 

 " Bee-Hives for Farmers — Needs Verification," wherein the 

 writer cannot call to mind any article of Father Langstroth 

 advising the mass of farmers not to use the movable-frame 

 hive he had invented. In the article referred to, published in 

 the Farmers' Friend, in 1888, Father Langstroth says : 



" I believe farmers would have better success with their 

 bees if they used only the old straw or box hives. A simple 

 tool in the hands of one who knows how to use it, will turn 

 out much better work than an improved implement whose 

 proper use has never been learned." 



He says also in the same article : " I believe that if the 

 mass of our farmers could be persuadedto resume bee-keeping 

 with the old-fashioned straw-hive, there would not only be a 

 large increase in the number of bees, but also in a short time 

 a larger increase in the number of movable-frame hives than 

 can be brought about in any other way. How many farmers 

 would be asked by their smart boys and girls who naturally 



