166 



a:HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



2. Because they decrease the venti- 

 lation at a time when it sliould be in- 

 creased to such an extent as to allow 

 all the bees to stay inside and not lay 

 out. 



3. Because they do not prevent the 

 mating of queens with drones from 

 the neighborhood. 



4. Because they expose the queen 

 to be niained or killed by her bees, 

 since they prevent her from leaving 

 the hive with the swarm. 



5. }iecause the presence of the 

 drone-trap, when first placed, annoys 

 the bees and causes them often to go 

 to the wrong hive. 



6. Because they have to be cleaned 

 often. 



7. Because you cannot inspect them 

 in several apiaries conducted under 

 our method. 



S. Because they cost money and do 

 not yield as large profits for the ex- 

 pense as the method of replacing 

 drone-comb with worker-comb in all 

 hives except tliose in which it is 

 found advisable to rear drones. 



Hamilton, Ills. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Almost Indigestible Apiarian Hash. 



.JOSHUA BULL, (12—27). 



On page 73, Mr. Allen Pringle ex- 

 pressed liimself much amused upon 

 reading wliat he styled my "lament 

 over the oblique philosophy and prac- 

 tical contradictions of our most mod- 

 ern bee-keeping;" and he seems to 

 think that I have fallen into despair 

 amidst the perplexity and maze of 

 inextricable difficulties which sur- 

 round me; and, therefore, extends 

 his friendly sympathy and advice to 

 cheer me up and give me fresh cour- 

 age. 1 am very grateful to Mr. P. for 

 liis kind sympathy and advice. 



Although myself was not awaro 

 Tliat I was laboring- in despair ; 



But hoping- for success. 

 And when by books 1 cannot know 

 .lust what to do, or how to go, 



I venture, then, to g-uess ! 



.My notions are quite in harmony 

 with Mr. I'.'s advice, when he says : 

 "After digesting the 'hash' placed 

 Ijefore you, follow your own judg- 

 ment." This is just precisely what I 

 have been trying to do, but it is not 

 an easy task for me to digest some of 

 the " hash " so as to make it u.seful in 

 forming a settled judgment. The 

 reasons given by Mr. P. as tlie cause 

 of " so much divergence of opinion 

 and contradictory advice " may be 

 very logical and correct to some ex- 

 tent, but they do not explain the 

 wiiole of the muddle. What appears 

 to me to be one great source of diffi- 

 culty is, that some people are prone to 

 "jump" at conclusions concerning 

 things which they cannot comprehend, 

 pen down those conclusions, and send 

 them abroad as facts, when they are 

 grossly mixed with error. A man 

 may reason well so far as he is mas- 

 ter of his subject, antl comprehend 

 fully what he wislies to explain ; but 

 when he ventures beyond the limits 

 of his knowledge, he is mentally in 

 the dark ; " and if the blind lead the 



blind, shall they not both fall into the 

 ditch ?" 



The elements necessary to success 

 in any undertaking are, a clear un- 

 derstanding of what needs to be 

 done, and then to know how to per- 

 form the needful labor, and the best 

 means to make use of to secure the 

 desired results. Hence, it is essential 

 that we sliould understand the re- 

 lations of "cause and effect," and be 

 able, so far as is possible, to trace out 

 the original cause from present ef- 

 fect, and vice versa ; and by means of 

 such knowledge we may be able, to 

 some extent, to applv cause to pro- 

 duce desired effect. When we can do 

 this successfully, we may congratulate 

 ourselves that we are on the road to 

 prosperity ; but in the management 

 of the apiary there are so many 

 varied circumstances which may af- 

 fect the modus operandi, that it ren- 

 ders the business very intricate, and,- 

 consequently, extremely difficult to 

 form any set rules which would in- 

 sure success everv time, and under 

 all the divers conditions which arise 

 from circumstances beyond our con- 

 trol ; therefore, the necessity of be- 

 ing able to judge for one's self what 

 is best to do under the exigency of 

 the case in hand. 



AVhile thus relying in some meas- 

 ure upon our own judgment, we 

 should not "dump all the authorities 

 in a corner," as Mr. P. says he did, 

 and not read them at all, but we 

 should peruse them carefully, and if 

 we do not wish to follow their direc- 

 tions in all their details, we may ex- 

 tract therefrom such ideas as com- 

 mend themselves clearly to our com- 

 prehension, which may materially aid 

 us in forming correct conclusions of 

 our own ; and by studying thought- 

 fully the "natural instinct" of the 

 industrious little bees, their needs 

 and requirements, and withal, by 

 having a free interchange of thought, 

 would, no doubt, substantially im- 

 prove our judgment and increase our 

 knowledge of " bee-lore." While we 

 thus compare our ideas, one with 

 another, let us all be willing to sub- 

 mit to friendly criticism, even if it 

 should seem to obliterate some of our 

 cherished theories. Let the truth 

 come to the front and stand conspicu- 

 ously there ; for truth will triumph, 

 whether we consent or not. 



In the last paragraph of Mr. P.'s 

 article..! think that he over-reached 

 himself, and has " gone wide of the 

 mark;" at least he does not make 

 clear to my understanding what he 

 asserts to be true ; viz : " It is certain 

 that Nature abounds in monstrosities 

 and imperfections, and we are con- 

 tinually improving upon her works 

 and methods." Now, JSIr. Pringle, 

 allow me to admonish you not to be 

 too hasty in your conclusions about 

 these things, but, " come and let us 

 reason together." That monstrosi- 

 ties do sometimes appear among the 

 things of Nature, I do not attempt to 

 dispute for a moment ; but it does not 

 necessarily follow as an inevitable 

 conclusion that those monstrosities 

 are the legitimate results of faulty 

 instinct or imiierfections in the laws 

 of Nature ; but rather that those laws 



have been intercepted and obstructed 

 in their functions, and diverted into 

 miscarriage and unnatural produc- 

 tions. Such monstrosities can never 

 change the immutability of Nature or 

 Nature's laws. Now, if any one can 

 show us wherein they " are contin- 

 ually improving upon her works and 

 methods," and can furnish conclusive 

 evidence that they have made real, 

 genuine improvement, why, then, we 

 will " render honor to whom honor is 

 due." But we want to know what 

 those improvements are, and what 

 they consist in, so that we can all 

 avail ourselves of their benefits. One 

 might think that he had improved 

 upon Nature's method, when, in fact, 

 he had only improved upon his own 

 method of utilizing Nature. 



Again, he says, " Allow me to give 

 here one instance of imperfect in- 

 stinct out of many that I have no- 

 ticed." He then proceeds to relate 

 an incident which transpired under 

 his own observations, the circum- 

 stances of which he seems to con- 

 sider as proof positive that his "fool- 

 ish bees " were blindly going head- 

 long to destruction. It may be due 

 to my dullness of perception or lack 

 of understanding, but in my opinion 

 the evidence given in this instance 

 does not justify his conclusions— nay, 

 far from it ; but on the contrary, it is 

 an attestation of their instinctive 

 foresight and prudence, in providing 

 as best they could against a possible 

 emergency. They seemed to know 

 that their queen was liable to fail 

 them at any time, and if she was al- 

 ready " in the dumps in the corner," 

 they certainly had cause for alarm, 

 and would have appeared very fool- 

 ish indeed if they had stood by and 

 looked idly on without doing any- 

 thing to save themselves from anni- 

 hilation. The only thing which they 

 possibly could do in that direction 

 was to rear another queen whilst the 

 means for doing so were yet within 

 their reach. It their feeble mother 

 would not lay any drone eggs for 

 them to rear drones for fertilizing the 

 young queen, they could not help 

 that ; they were doing all that was in 

 their power to do for " self-preserva- 

 tion." Now, take notice, they had 

 not destroyed their old queen, and 

 probably had no intentions of so doing 

 until they could get another one in 

 condition for laying eggs for them.. 



So far as my limited observations 

 go in this queen-superseding busi- 

 ness, the bees never kill the old queen 

 until they have another one ready and 

 able to perform duty. In support of 

 this view, I submit the following evi- 

 dence : During last summer two of 

 my colonies brought out their old 

 queens and left them dead near the 

 entrances of the hives. On observing 

 this, I examined them immediately 

 with the purpose of supplying thern 

 with others if they needed any ; and 

 in each case I found a vigorous you;ig 

 queen with a plentiful supply of fresh 

 eggs in the combs. 



Mr. Root, in his "ABC of Bee- 

 Culture," page o, says : " The Ital- 

 ians will usually have a young (jueen 

 helping her mother in her egg-laying 

 duties before she becomes unprofit- 



