I902 



mi: AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



G3 



ious honey instead of fat, gluttonous 

 drones, etc. 



WHY JSKIDGK CUMHS. 



By the way, can any one explain the 

 persistency of colonies in building 

 bridge combs from the bottoms of the 

 deep half-depth extracting frames to 

 the top frames of the brood and honey 

 combs in the main hive body, except 

 upon the theory that the little creatures 

 want a sten-ladder arrangement to en- 

 able them to reach the upper tier of 

 combs V It may be all right for the 

 workers, but it is mighty inconvenient 

 for the party who has the job of over- 

 hauling the supers occasionally- How- 

 ever, tile bridge combs come in handy 

 for making starters for sections, the 

 combs being peculiarly clear and white, 

 and apparently much more deceptible 

 to the workers than undrawn founda- 

 tion. If any one is disposed to doubt 

 this, let him or her try a few sample 

 sections and be convinced. I save all 

 of it that I can get hold of and it is one 

 of Doolittle's wrinkles, too, I believe. 



Rutledge. Pa. 



the best features of the leading hives. 

 The hive is easily handled and is very 

 warm. I shall produce all my honey 

 exclusively in the 4x5 sections. 



Last year I sold all my honey to the 

 consumers, and all of the honey from 

 the Providence apiary that we could 

 spare. Some of the questions asked by 

 people were very amusing, while others 

 were exceedingly annoying. One lady 

 asked me if I took the honey and put 

 it in the comb, while another wanted 

 to know if I mixed water or some kind 

 of syrup with the extracted honey. I 

 find that most everyone likes comb 

 honej' the best. 



Newton Center, Mass-, March 9, igor. 



THE LANQSTROTH HIVE. 



Observations of a Youthful Bee= 

 Keeper. 



(By Lawrence C- Miller. 1 



UNTL about a year ago my only in- 

 terest in bees was eating the hon- 

 ey I got without stings. Occa- 

 sionall}' I helped my father with his 

 bees and last June he gave me a colony. 

 As there are many small children near 

 where we live I was obliged to place 

 the hive in an upper room in the house 

 and arange it so that the bees could fly 

 out of the window. 



I had the hive arranged with glass 

 sides in the surplus cases and the neigh- 

 bor's children would flock up almost 

 every day to watch the bees. Later in 

 the year I took charge of my father's 

 apiary, near Providence, and enjoyed it, 

 and the idea of being braver than the 

 other boys, very much, even more than 

 I expected. When I began to get cash 

 for honey from my own colony I be- 

 came more interested and when Mr. 

 Hill asked me for an article, I felt as 

 if I was really becoming a bee-keeper. 

 This year I am going to make a busi- 

 ness of it and devote all my time out 

 of school to it- My father assists and 

 helps me with his knowledge, I have 

 got a hive which is a combination of 



Ay OLl' 1JKE-KEEPE15 AKlSES IN ITS DE- 



FENiSE. 



(By John M. Davis.) 



IT SEEMS to me that friend Kerr, 

 p*ige 3, igo2, A, B, K,, is reason- 

 ing from an erroneous basis. Gen- 

 erally his ideas are good, so far as I 

 liave observed, but I beg leave to differ 

 \ erj- materially with him on this hive 

 (|uestion. 1 bought my first Langstroth 

 hive during the winter of '68-'69. Since 

 then many styles of movable-frame 

 hives have been patented and lauded to 

 the skies through our bee journals. I 

 .could furnish Brother Kerr many cuts 

 of them from my old files of bee jour- 

 nals. Like the mushroom, they flour- 

 ished for a day and died, but the Langs- 

 troth, like the rock of Gibraltar, stands 

 as firmly today, as when first given to 

 the world by Father Langstroth, about 

 half a century ago. and is spreading 

 over the entire civilized world, like a 

 prairie on fire. 



Probably Mr. Kerr will say: Oh, 

 this is because manufacturers push 

 them. I assent: Yes, they push them, 

 l)ecause they sell, and thej- sell because 

 they give satisfaction. Lumber is get- 

 ting scarce and high, but through this 

 section thousands of tons of nice wheat 

 straw is burned or rots. Why not 

 manufacture this into old style straw 

 >keps'.' Simply becau.se no one would 

 buy them. I think, like Brother Kerr, 

 that the Langstroth hive has some 

 faults, but I have never found a hive 

 that did not have more. All the gilt- 

 edge brain power that has been brought 



