THE AMERICAI^ EEE JUURNAL. 



279 



ends of the end-bars, a double bee- 

 space is found between the end-bars 

 and the bottom-board. Tims, as the 

 combs are built down to within bee- 

 space of tlie bottom-board, they are 

 found to extend tlie deptli of one bee- 

 space below the end-bars; then, if it 

 be desired to use a bottom-bar, a 

 straight edge may be laid even with 

 the lower ends of the bottom-bars, 

 and witli a thin, sharp knife the 

 combs can be trimmed so as to give 

 them a square (lowei') edge that will 

 fit even and snug to the bottom-bar, 

 iis it is nailed on, and the bees will 

 make all fast in a few hours. Thus 

 the combs are in their natural posi- 

 tion, and the frames completely filled. 



Another advantage which is gained 

 by reversing brood-combs, is clearing 

 them of honey stores that is generally 

 found in the upper part of such combs, 

 and in the way of the queen when she 

 desires to extend the area of brood. 

 But this may be accomplished as ef- 

 fectually by uncapping such stores, 

 and at the same time trimming the 

 combs down to within brood-comb 

 thickness (say Jg of an inch), and 

 placing the combs within % of an 

 inch of each other, on returning them 

 to their places in the hive. (Jive bees 

 room for storage above, and they will 

 forthwith carry the honey from the 

 lower to the upper set of combs, and 

 the queen will deposit eggs in the 

 thus emptied cells. If these combs 

 are to ever remain in the brood-cham- 

 ber, I can see no good reason why 

 they should be reversed; but if they 

 are to be in the brood-chamber for ex- 

 tracting combs, then they should be 

 reversible. 



This brings us to the use, or benefit, 

 of reversing combs thai are used in 

 the second and third stories for ex- 

 tracting. I would say that by having 

 such combs reversible, we may do 

 witliout that nuisance — a queen ex- 

 cluder. 



Instinct directs the bee to deposit 

 honey stores in the upper portion of 

 the comb, and to do tlie work of 

 breeding in the lower part ; in order 

 to occupy as nearly- the entire space 

 above as possible, the cells in the 

 upper part of the combs are extended 

 to a greater depth than are the lower 

 brood-cells ; it appears that combs 

 that are more than % of an inch 

 thick are unfit for worker-brood, and 

 that the queen will not attempt to fill 

 a comb with eggs that is l.ij or m 

 inches tliick. 



In building combs in the upper 

 story, it is also found that the bees 

 are inclined to build the cells deeper 

 above, and more shallow below ; thus, 

 as the queen, in the height of the 

 breeding season, seeks more room, 

 she reaches the lower edges of the 

 upper combs having cells of proper 

 depth for brood, deposits eggs in 

 those cells as they are returned from 

 the extractor, and when we go again 

 for another load of honey, on the next 

 round for extracting, we are disgusted 

 to find the lower portion of our sur- 



Elus combs full of eggs and young 

 rood. Although it may be desirable 

 to have breeding go briskly on at such 

 times, if it can be confined to its 

 proper compartment, yet such breed- 



ing in the surplus combs is a nui- 

 sance; and thus the invention of that 

 failure— the queen-excluder. 



Since I have used the extractor, I 

 have had much trouble with this 

 breeding in the second, and even the 

 third stories of the hive. During the 

 summers of 1882 and 1883, I adopted 

 the plan of giving the weakest colo- 

 nies all combs that were thus filled 

 witli brood ; but in doing so, I was 

 deprived of the use of many choice 

 combs for extracting, which 1 was 

 only able to replace by beginning 

 anew with frames filled with founda- 

 tion, and this, of course, was a draw- 

 back to honey-gathering. This work, 

 it is tine, was a great help to the weak 

 colonies for the one season, but when 

 the next season's breeding came on. 

 then 3.,', or perhaps ?^ of such combs 

 were found with cells too deep for 

 breeding, and had to be taken away 

 or cut down, and altogether there was 

 a loss. 



In the spring of 1884 1 made arrange- 

 ments to reverse all surplus combs as 

 soon as I found that the queen had 

 begun to deposit eggs in their lower 

 edges. By thus reversing all the 

 combs in the surplus apartment, and 

 driving all the bees down upon the 

 lower set of combs, I was sure that 

 the queen was below ; I also found 

 that if she came above again, she did 

 not pass the thick portion of the 

 comb to deposit more eggs in the thin 

 part of the comb that was now near 

 the top-bar, and what little capped 

 brood there was in the comb when re- 

 versed, would hatch; then the thin 

 portion of the combs was imme- 

 diately built out by the bees for 

 storage comb ; and "before the ex- 

 tracting season was over, I was taking 

 off combs tint were 2 inches, and 

 some of them 2J^ thick from top to 

 bottom, and I had no further trouble 

 with brood in extracting-combs. 



This reversing, of course, gave the 

 cells a downward inclination, but I 

 could see no difference in the rapidity 

 or success of depositing honey in 

 them ; yet I tliink that hereafter I 

 will turn them all hack again as fast 

 as I find them so thick that the queen 

 cannot use them for breeding. 



Orion, p Wis. 



For the American Beo JoumaL 



Eidicule is Not Argument, 



W.M. F. CLAKKE. 



Tlie chief object of Mr. McNeill's article 

 on pasie 233, apiieais to lie to make mn 

 look ridieulous ; ami in all kindness, let 

 me ask, siipposini; that oliject to he ac- 

 complished, wherein will the interests of 

 apiculture he advanced thereby ? I am 

 Sony that the article found its way into 

 print, liiit sinci' it fias, 1 nuist cfaiiij the 

 right of reply, though 1 dislike to be com- 

 pelled to write so mncli abont myself. 



In the first place, Mr. McNeill seems to 

 be elated at having succeeded, as he 

 thinks, ill holding up a mirror before nie, 

 and showing me that I am a consnmmate 

 dolt. This is the style of some people ; if 

 you give them an inch in tlie way of can- 

 did acknowledsemeiit, they will take an 

 ell of credit to themselves, and try to hold 

 you up as a laughing-stock. I have some 

 self-respect left, though I did own that I 



wrote rather iinpiilsively when the tlieory 

 of liiheniatioii first iiiiijressed itseff upon 

 my niinit. 



There was no need of all that long 

 homily abont my haste in annoiincing my 

 discovery, hecoming a "blind leader of 

 the blind," " slopping over," etc., for what 

 did 1 do ? Advise all bee-keepers to 

 adopt my theory ? No. I did but mod- 

 estly ask every fellow bee-keeper to try 

 one colony according to my method. 1 

 simply took all into my confidence, and 

 requested them to aid me in testing a 

 theory which I thought, and still think, 

 liad wrapped up in it the secret of suc- 

 cessful wintering. 



I am accused of having an "ambition to 

 shine among the lights of the bee-keeping 

 world." Well, is that a crime? This 

 ambition, so far as I am concerned, was 

 fully gratified long before Mr. McNeill 

 was heard of as a bte-keeper, and at a 

 time when the lights of the. bee-keeping 

 world were more scarce than they are 

 now, and consequently the light they shed 

 was more valuable. This is, perhaps, as 

 good a place as any to notice what Mr. 

 McNeill says at the close of his article 

 about " homage," "anxiety to be crowned," 

 "wearing laurels worthily," and soon. 

 Let me just say, that inasmuch as the 

 bee-keeping world exhausted all its 

 honors on me long ago, there are no more 

 to crave. I cannot attain any higher dis- 

 tinefion than that of having been elected 

 President of the North American Bee- 

 Keepers' Association next in order to 

 Langstroth and Qniiiby, and afterwards 

 elected to a second term. Mr. McNeill 

 " would not pluck one leaf from laurels," 

 etc. Well, he cannot; that is one satis- 

 faction. 



There is no ground for ridiculing me on 

 account of tlie latitude whifh 1 have al- 

 lowed myself in defining hibernation. It 

 is a latituile given by the facts of natural 

 science, and I have already produced 

 adequate authority for the position that 

 hibernation is a matter of degrees. But 

 Mr. McNeill will not allow me to make my 

 own explanations. I am not permitted to 

 speak for myself. lie admits that, accord- 

 ing to my detinitions, there is " no con- 

 troversy between us," and then proceeds 

 to substitute his definitions for mine, in 

 order to make me out "very illogical!" 

 Who conld not be made to appear "very 

 illogical" according to his method? There 

 is no fairness in such tactics. 



The climax of Mr. McNeill's attempts to 

 make me look ridiculous is reached in 

 connection with his reference to Web- 

 ster's definition of the word hibernation. 

 Alter quoting this, he goes on to say. " If 

 this be the real, scientific definition of the 

 word, Mr. Clarke has truly made a won- 

 derful discovery." Well, it is not the 

 "real, scientific meaning of the word," 

 and 1 have stated this in the Bee Jouk- 

 N.vi. more than once, as Mr. McNeill must 

 be very well aware. There is a popular 

 and a scientific use of the term. Webster 

 gives the popular use of it. Months ago, 

 I (pioted from one of the highest authori- 

 ties in the world, the scientific meaning 

 as follows: "Hibernation is the term 

 employed by naturalists to denote the 

 jieculiar stale of torpor, in which many 

 animals which inhabit cold or temperate 

 climates pass the winter." And now I 

 am represented as having " announced to 

 the world as one of the most important 

 discoveries in apiculture, that bees actu- 

 ally pass the winter in close quarters, or 

 in seclusion !" I never did anything of 

 the kind. What I did was this : I called 

 attention to a fact or principle in bee-life, 

 not unknown, but practically overlooked, 

 in our theories ot wintering. I said, there 

 is a state known to the scientific world as 

 "hibernation" — which has degrees, from 

 a kind of semi-torpor to a very pro- 

 found torpor — into which, or some- 

 tliing like it, bees relapse in winter 



