834 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 31. 



honey by extracting. Were I purchasinR a fancy No. 1 comb 

 honey, I certainly would ascertain whether the honey was in 

 new or old combs before paying the top price, for when combs 

 are leveled down and the remaining portion worked over and 

 completed, no experienced eye can tell the difference between 

 the old and the new, but a true test is to take a cube and 

 sample by chewing it, and if the comb is harsh and brittle it is 

 old comb ; if soft and tender, it is new. Thus the dealer in 

 comb honey may readily detect and determine the class to 

 which such honey belongs, thereby dealing to the consumer 

 just the class of honey called for. 



Mr. Prank Benton said in his work on "The Honey-Bee," 

 Chapter VIII., page 75 : " To secure a yield of surplus honey, 

 the part remaining to be done, if all goes well, is merely to 

 put the surplus receptacles in place, admit the bees," etc. 

 Further on he says : " But if swarming complications arise, 

 the whole of the bee-keeper's skill and ingenuity may again 

 be called into requisition to keep the forces together and stor- 

 ing in surplus receptacles Thus the skill lies in having 



the colonies ready for whatever may come, and a force suffi- 

 cient to store the whole season's surplus in a few days." 



Now this has been one of the uppermost questions in the 

 minds of the bee-keeping fraternity, namely. What can we, as 

 bee-keepers, do to increase the production of honey, and at 

 the same time curtail the expenses. I belie ve the theory that 

 Mr. Benton has so well outlined has proven to be the most 

 successful of any practiced generally, but I will go one step 

 further and say that 25 (or any number) colonies of bees can 

 be so manipulated as to produce twice the amount of surplus 

 honey that has usually been produced by any of the methods 

 that I know of (providing the colonies can be induced to 

 swarm), and at the same time curtailing the expenses one- 

 half. Mr. Benton gives the secret in full when he says, 

 " Keep the forces together and storing in the surplus recepta- 

 cles," etc. To illustrate how I control the forces, I will here 

 give a full and complete statement of the only colony I had to 

 cast a swarm this year, which swarm was hived in one of my 

 double supers containing 47 sections filled with full sheets of 

 comb foundation, and v#ithout separators : 



The queen was caged and occupied one of the section 

 spaces in the upper middle tier, which super was placed' on 

 the parent stand, and the parent colony placed on top, and 

 the former super partly filled placed on top of the parent 

 hive the fifth day. Every queen-cell was cut out, and the 

 queen-cage removed and a section inserted, the parent colony 

 replaced on its stand, and a double super two-thirds full of 

 beautiful comb and honey placed on top of the parent hiv3, 

 and the former super placed on top of the double super, the 

 queen returned to her former home by one or two puffs of 

 smoke. 



In five days I noticed bees clustering at the entrance, and 

 on examination I found to my surprise every section in the 

 double super capped over, which was removed, and as the flow 

 was being washed away by the drenching rains, I added a 

 single super with the former super, resulting at the close in a 

 lot of beautiful partly-drawn combs; besides two outside 

 combs nearly full of honey were taken from the brood-cham- 

 ber, and dummies placed in their stead, it being a 10-frame 

 hive contracted to 8 during the surplus season. After its 

 close the dummies removed and two outside brood-combs put 

 in, and when the fall flow came they were filled, and on Oct. 

 15 the hive contained about 35 pounds of honey, as nearly as 

 I could weigh it, counting out comb, brood and bees. All my 

 colonies corresponded in winter stores, but not a pound of sur- 

 plus or brood-comb honey was taken from any other colony, 

 although all seemed as strong as the one that swarmed. 



Now if the reader will figure he will find that the surplus 

 honey I got (48 sections) was just what the swarm would 

 have had in the brood-combs and honey had I hived them in a 



separate hive. Therefore, I would say to any that desire to 

 test this method in the production of honey, don't do so with- 

 out preparing the hive and supers according to the specifica- 

 tions given in my article in the American Bee Journal of July 

 30, 1896, from the fact that without side entrances to and 

 from, the bees could not pass readily between the brood- 

 combs, and thus cause delay, and a disposition to repeat 

 swarming as well. 



In conclusion I predict still better and now unknown 

 methods for the apiarist as the years pass by, notwithstand- 

 ing some seem to think apiculture has reached its highest 

 attainments. 



I want to say for Dr. Miller's benefit, in regard to W. L.'s 

 riddle on page 662, that six or seven years ago I had a nucleus 

 colony containing the largest queen that has ever been my 

 privilege to see, and any one would guess her to be a fertilized 

 queen to have seen her; but all her progeny were drones. 

 The queen was driven from the hive. She was too heavy for 

 her wings, she could not fly, although her wings were perfect 

 in form. I would guess that the Doctor's suggestion is correct. 



Morgan Co., Ohio. 



Should Apicultural Inventions be Encouraged ? 



BY "INVENTOR." 



In the bee-papers I find the idea prevalent that the pres- 

 ent Langstroth hive is perfect, and no one should undertake 

 to improve hives further than to accept the Dovetailed hive as 

 a standard. Now when the time comes that there is no pro- 

 gression, then we retrograde — go back and start in another 

 direction. There is no standstill in Nature, and should not be 

 when we are trying to assist Nature. Let the idea once be- 

 come established that a thing is perfect, and a person not 

 acquainted with the principles of its intent and construction, 

 will see things differently from an expert, and, not understand- 

 ing the whys and wherefores, will leave it. 



Inventors can be just as honest as Mr. Langstroth was 

 with his invention, and I do not believe the time has come 

 when all should say, " It is perfect ; let the monopoly go on." 

 The same was said 20 years ago, that there was no room or 

 need of improvement in apiarian fixtures, but that there has 

 been, no one will deny, notwithstanding the warnings and 

 advice against inventions of apiarian fixtures. Some of those 

 who were so much opposed to inventions are using patented 

 features to-day. We ought not to admit, in this age of im- 

 provement, that the apiculturist is at a standstill in any 

 feature. 



Is there a standard in any line of improvement only as 

 the manufacturer calls it so? Is there a standard vessel on 

 the ocean, or a locomotive on the railroad, or, in fact, a per- 

 fect standard toachine or implement in the mechanical world, 

 or animal in the animal world, or vegetable in the vegetable 

 kingdom, and so on adinfinitum ? 



I saw a statement in a recent number of the American 

 Bee Journal, of the number of apicultural patents granted in 

 the United States, and it was intimated as money thrown 

 away, or as much as to say that the inventions as a whole did 

 not pay for the cost of the patents ; and the Langstroth patent 

 is included in the number. I think the patentee has the worst 

 of it if he patents a thing that does not pay. But on the 

 whole, the world is benefited thereby. 



How often we are told that bee-keepers should not try to 

 invent a hive. Who should, then ? Who is better fitted than 

 the user to overcome difficulties in his business ? As our 

 minds are different, so we see things differently, and many a 

 simple thing has been brought into use that we have wondered 

 why we couldn't have seen it before ! 



So long as bee-hives are used, there will be improvements 

 thereon, and I think that manufacturers make a mistake io 



