394 



rtmrn sMERicarf beb jou^Rrtat. 



•■^'■^-^^^'■^'■^^^'■^'■■^'■^'—'^—tA 



jiartiality of the editor, or because it 

 would liave lowered tlie standard of 

 excellence of the Review ? 



In the same January number in 

 which there was no place for Mr. 

 Leach's article, Mr. Hutchinson has 

 found room to review the eleven arti- 

 cles published in the ApicuUurist, and 

 to quote, from an article of Mr. J. A. 

 Green, all the part which praises the 

 Heddon hives. The quotation stops 

 short where Mr. Green adds, "And 

 3'et in spite of what I have said in their 

 favor, I am, by no means, sure that 

 these hives are well adapted for gen- 

 eral use." (January Apictdturist, 



page 7.) 



Mr. Hutchinson is so impartial that, 

 in his answer to me, he wrote that " if 

 he had given my reasons for preferring 

 large hives he should have been bound 

 in duty to mention others who had ex- 

 perienced and arrived at opposite con- 

 clusions." I desire to inquire of him, 

 since he is so impartial, why he did 

 not give the objections of Mr. Green, 

 after having given his praises ; why, 

 after devoting so many columns to ex- 

 alt the Heddon hive, he did not give a 

 single word of critism ? For instance, 

 why did he not quote Mr. Jones, who, 

 after bujing the patent for Canada, 

 abandoned it ? etc. 



Mr. H. asks : "Can my opponent 

 extract the honey from a large hive 

 with as little labor as from a small 

 one." I can prove that, although liv- 

 ing in a countrj" where there is no lin- 

 den, our six apiaries, numbering more 

 than 400 colonies, and which give a 

 yearlj' average of more than 20,000 

 pounds of honey, require less than 

 200 daj"s of work. 



Mr. Stachelhausen, of Texas, who 

 does not use small hives, pi-oduced in 

 two apiaries, last year, 17,000 pounds 

 of extracted, and more than 3,000 

 pounds of comb honey, and did not 

 spend more than one hundred days of 

 work. (See AjncuUtirist for February, 

 1889.) 



The above are facts. Let Mr. Hutch- 

 inson and others living in a linden 

 country, and using small hives, bring 

 their accounts in comparison. We 

 want facts, rather than well-spun 

 theories. 



Oil-CIoths anci Honey-Boards. 



Mr. Hutchinson condemns the oil- 

 cloths, as he did the large hives — with- 

 out having tested them. In liis May 

 Heview, he tries to convince Dr. C. C. 

 Miller, who used both for years, that 

 the honej'-board is superior to the 

 cloth. 



He objects to the oil-cloth because 

 bees put propolis between it and the 

 frames ; while they put honey between 

 the frames and the honey-board. After 

 removing it, he lays the honey-board 



upside down in front of the hive, 

 where the bees sip the honey from the 

 broken brace-combs. To replace it, 

 he shakes the bees from the honey- 

 board, and drives down with smoke 

 those sipping on the frames. But he 

 does not notice that robbers are more 

 attracted by running honey, than by 

 propolis ; that the cloth is removed and 

 replaced faster than the board ; and 

 that, being flexible, the cloth shuts the 

 hive more closely ! When we want 

 only to see whether otir bees are short 

 of stores, we have but to remove a 

 few inches of the cloth, while he re- 

 moves the whole honey-board, or up- 

 turns his hive. 



He ends his plea for honey-boards 

 with this phrase : " We are sorry that 

 the Doctor cannot manipulate a honej- 

 board so easily ana quickly as he can 

 a quilt ; for we honestly believe that 

 the latter is • going, going, going.' " 

 {Review for May, page 75.) 



These words show how much Mr. 

 Hutchinson esteems his own opinions 

 above those of one of our most experi- 

 enced bee-keepers. Like a lover, wlio 

 considers all the defects of his sweet- 

 heart as so many qualities, Mr. Hutch- 

 inson has his eyes so blinded, hy his 

 love for the Heddon hive, that he does 

 not notice that his impartiality is en- 

 tirelj- in his words, not in his acts. 

 Let us hope that, like this lover after 

 mai'riage, he will, sooner or later, 

 awake to the reality. 



Hamilton, Ills. 



LAYING- WORKERS. 



Getting Rid of these Pest!* — Con- 

 cerning Drones. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY IKA N. LYMAN. 



everything else into shape, I put the 

 new queen in her cage into a hive, put 

 the hive in the place of another strong 

 colony, and left the queen caged 24 

 hours, when I set her at libertj'. They 

 worked right along from the time I 

 put them on the stand. That queen 

 was introdued on Aug. 14. The bees 

 did first-rate, and is a strong colonj' 

 now, but the queen did not prove to 

 be of a three-banded sti'ain, as I ex- 

 pected to get, but produces bees with 

 two broad bands. 



One Italian queen I got last season 

 from New York, to put into a queen- 

 less colony that had a drone-la3'ing 

 worker, and the bees were trying to 

 rear a queen from the drone-eggs, I 

 just put the queen into the hive in her 

 cage, after smoking the bees well, kept 

 her in the cage 24 hours, and then let 

 her ont. This was on June 25. 1888. 

 I had no trouble in introducing her, 

 and that colonj- swarmed on July 30, 

 and again on Aug. 29. All are in 

 good condition now, and doing well. 



I think that this plan works well if 

 a person has but few bees ; it is better 

 than to break up the colony. I like to 

 stir up the bees and confuse them 

 pretty well before putting in the new 

 queen, and then I think that there is 

 no trouble in introducing them, even 

 to a colony that has a drone-laying 

 worker, or any other. 



Drones made their appearance in 

 my apiary on May 20, and quite a 

 number were flying then. I look for 

 swarms soon, if the weather is good. 

 Ever}-thing looks promising. Alsike 

 clover is beginningto blossom. 



St. Peter, Nebr., May 21, 1889. 



HONEY-DEW. 



I had two colonies of bees in exactlj' 

 the same condition as described on 

 page 308, only I did not make them 

 ({ueenless bj' putting 2 colonies to- 

 gether, as I do not like to disturb my 

 bees more than is necessarj^ in the 

 working season, or at anj- time. 



My hives were of ditlerent patterns, 

 so that I could not change a brood- 

 comb from anotlier hive into the queen- 

 less hives, and I wanted to keep all of 

 my colonies, for I had but a few, and 

 wanted more. So I would not break 

 up a colony ; but to make a colony 

 strong, and get ray bees into hives all 

 alike, I sent for Italian queens, so as 

 to Italianize my colonies, as well as to 

 get them into better hives. When the 

 queens came, I took mv combs all out 

 that were fit to put into another hive, 

 and put them into the standard Lang- 

 stroth frames, as they were my choice. 



My colonies were very weak, and to 

 give them a good start, after I liad got 



Great Flow of Honej-Dew — 

 Slaking Hive-Stands. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY EZRA J. CRONKLETON. 



I work generally about 50 colonies 

 of bees. There are but few bees kept 

 in this county (Harrison), and what 

 are kept here are tried to be worked 

 on modern pprineiples, the bo.x-hive 

 being entirely discarded. 



My location is about 50 miles north- 

 east of Council Bluffs, in'theBuoyer 

 Vallej' — probably as good a location 

 for bees as there is in the State. My 

 bees are in fine condition at this time, 

 though it has been rather dry this 

 spring, but lately we have had plenty 

 of rain. It has been very dry here the 

 last three seasons, but I have always 

 managed to get a very good crop of 

 lionej-. White clover is entirely clried 

 out. 



We have had a great flow lately of 

 the much-despised " hone}--dew " — in 



