THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



11 



ing off naturally ; but it will contain all the 

 combs, h()nej\ and youncc bees, save -what are 

 contained on the one card removed. If queen 

 cells were not already staited, they will at once 

 start them, and a queen will be matured in ten 

 or twelve days, only a day or two longer than 

 when a swarm issues naturally. The swarm in 

 the new hive will be in just the same condition 

 as a first swarm would, except that they have a 

 card of comb instead of an entirely empty hive; 

 and the next day even this card of comb may be 

 removed, first shaking ofi" all the bees and the 

 queen, and replaced in the old hive again, leaving 

 the swarm to build all new combs, as iu natural 

 swarm! a g. 



It will be seen at a glance that nothing can be 

 nearer nature, than the plan I give. "But," 

 says some one, " it is diflicult for me to find the 

 queen, and I would like some method that I 

 could practice, without searching for the queen." 

 Here it is, then. "When you wish to make a 

 swarm, first remove the stock you intend to 

 divide a sliort distance away, and set an empty 

 hive on the stand where the stock stood. Now 

 remove each card, carefully shaking offer wing- 

 ing off all the bees back into the hive, and place 

 the card in the empty hive. By the time you 

 have placed them all in, there will be bees enough 

 return to nourish the brood. Having put frames 

 into the old hive from which you have just 

 removed the cards of comb, place it again on 

 its stand, removing the new hive into which 

 you have put the cards of comb to a new stand. 

 It will now be seen that the queen and a large 

 portion of the bees will be on the old stand, in 

 the old hive now filled with empty frames, and 

 like a first swarm will go to work and fill their 

 hive with new combs. Care must always be 

 taken that the hive containing the combs has 

 bees enough to nourish the brood. 



I would here remark that whatever method is 

 practiced, it is absolutely necessary that the old 

 queen be in the empty hive, as bees always build 

 clrone comb when they have no queeu ; and every 

 method that does not recognize this fact should 

 be rejected. J. H. Thomas. 



Brooklin, Ontario. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Reply to B. C. Auchampaugh's Questions 

 About Patent Rights and Claims. 



Mr. Editor : — I will answer, as briefly as I 

 can, the questions of B. C. Auchampaugh, iu 

 in the last number the Journal. 



And first, let me assure him that he is entirely 

 mistaken in supposing that I claim to be the 

 first inventor of all kinds of movable frames, 

 as the following extracts Irom page 209, 3d edi- 

 tion of my work on bees, published in May, 1859, 

 will plainly show. " 1 have before me a small 

 pamphlet, published in London in 1851, describ- 

 ing the construction of the "Bar and Frame 

 Hive" of W. A. Munn. The object of this inven- 

 tion is to elevate frames, one at a time, into a case 

 with glass sides so that they may be examined 

 without risk of annoyance from the bees." 



In the June number of the Bee Joubital for 



1861, page 142, is a communication which first 

 appeared in the " Country Gentleman," some 

 extracts from which will make this point still 

 clearer to your correspondent : 



"When I applied for a patent, I was not 

 aware that movable conib hives had ever been 

 used, except those with movable bars or the 

 sectional frames of Huber. The former required 

 the combs to be cut from their side attachments, 

 while the latter were so costly and demanded so 

 much experience, time, and patience, to open 

 and close the sectiosn, that notwithstanding they 

 were invented at the close of the last century, 

 they were confined almost exclusively to ama- 

 teur bee-keepers. ****** Since my 

 application for a patent, I have ascertained that 

 prior to ray invention other movable frames 

 besides those of Huber, were in use iu Europe, 

 None of them, so far as I can learn after 

 thorough inquiry, are any better than those of 

 Huber. I would refer those who desire informa- 

 tion on this point, to the Cours Pratique d^ 

 Apiculture of Mr. Hamet, published in Paris in 

 1859, which contains a larger variety of cuts 

 and descriptions of hives than can he found, 

 I believe, in any other work. All the modifi- 

 cations of the Huber hive are pronounced by 

 Hamet to be useful only for purposes of obser- 

 vation ; and he asserts that, in the districts of 

 France, where bee-keeping is most largely pur- 

 sued, no movable frame hives have ever come 

 into general use— and that the removal of the 

 frames from the best of them is often more diffi- 

 cult than from the Huber hive. He closes his ac 

 count of these hives with the significant remark 

 that, " in a moment of enthusiasm" he once 

 supposed that such a hive might be cheaply 

 made, but that he had tried in vain. 



"Now compare these results in France with 

 the extension, by the best practical bee-keepers 

 of this country, of the movable comb principle, 

 and the inference will be almost irresistible that 

 they have not yet invented a cheap and practical 

 way of using movable frames. * * * * * 

 Of all the movable frame hives now in use on 

 the continent of Europe, the Berlepsch hive la 

 probably the best. It was invented subsequently 

 to mine, and uses the essential features covered 

 (in this country) by my patent, without which 

 the German hive would have had no more prac- 

 tical utility than those which have so signally 

 failed. 



" Allow me to give an extract, in this con- 

 nection, from a letter received by me last fall 

 from the Baron Von Linsingen, of Osnabriick, 

 Kingdom of Hanover, dated August 10, 1860: — 

 ' I feel convinced that no other apiarian has 

 been able to construct a movable comb bee- 

 hive in such an advantageous way as you have 

 done.' 



" Were I to attempt to show in what particu- 

 lars the various patents in this country, using 

 movable frames, have appropriated to a greater, 

 or less extent, the essential and patented features 

 of my invention, I should require more space than 

 iu the largest liberality you would be willing to 

 give ; besides opening a personal controversy 

 in which comparatively few of your readers 

 would feel any interest. This much, however, 

 I wish to say, that in my opinion all of them 



