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TPIE AMERICAN BEE JOUPtNAL. 



very short time iifter, he was holding forth in an- 

 other part of the ground, as tame as a liitten. 



I understand that in St. Lawrence county, in 

 the State of New Yorli, ten dollars has been de- 

 manded of those using the triangular guide, and 

 prosecution threatened if they refused to pay it. 

 Some paid ; others refused ; but the threat has 

 not been carried out. Thej'- are now operating 

 in Michigan, and I am informed many timid bee- 

 keepers are pajing their ten dollars ; and now 

 this sham suit, an account of wliich appears in 

 the Journal, will, as the Editor very correctly re- 

 msirks, tend to frighten timid or ignorant parties 

 into paying for the use of the "guide." I believe 

 it to be the tluty of every honest bee-keeper, to 

 expose this nefarious system of obtaining money. 



Honey Extractor. 

 I would not have one of the many that have 

 been described in the Bee Journal. Why ? Be- 

 cause I am just so vain as to think that I have a 

 better. "And you want to advertise it," says 

 one. No, I do not ; but will tell you how it is 

 made. It would not pay you to buy of me under 

 the present tariff; besides, you may not like it as 

 well as your own. It is made of zinc. Tin will 

 eventually rust ; zinc will not, and is in no way 

 affected by the honey. For my frames, it re- 

 quires to be about twenty-two inches deep and 

 twenty inches in diameter. There is a rim around 

 the bottom, to keep the bottom up from the floor. 

 The bottom is strengthened by cutting a board, 

 six inches wide and just long enough to crowd 

 into the rim, and is fastened there. It holds the 

 bottom of the tub from sinking in the middle. 

 Now for the advantage over all others. I make 

 it with a tight cover or top, which keeps out all 

 flies, bees, hornets, or any other sweet-toothed in- 

 sect, and allows you to use it in your apiary or 

 anywhere else you choose, leaving the honej^ re- 

 main in it until you wish to empty it. The frame 

 that holds the combs may be turned -with a crank 

 on the to]) of it, or with gearing. I use the latter. 

 The bearing on which the frame work runs, is a 

 tin or zinc cone, say two and a half inches in di- 

 ameter at the base, and running to a point at the 

 required height. The cone is soldered to the bot- 

 tom of the tub. One-half of the cover takes out, 

 to allow the combs to be put in. One-third of 

 the other half is made fast to the tub, and the 

 other two-thirds hung to that, with hinges, which 

 allow it to open, so that the frame work can be 

 removed. When not in use for extracting honey, 

 this tub makes one of the best boxes known for 

 the good wife to keep her bread and cakes in. 



Galltjp's Observations and Experiments, 

 which I have just been reading, are quite interest- 

 ing. But I am led to inquire, are we drifting out 

 into an open sea of difliculties? It must be so. 

 And the worst of it is that Gallup, having made 

 known to us our position, never attempts to help 

 us out of it. First he says — "Sealed brood in- 

 troduced into a strong stock fed just sufficient to 

 keep the bees alive, would perish and become 

 putrid in three days." What reason does friend 

 Gallup give for that ? Again — " eggs would not 

 hatch in such colonies, until the bees commenced 

 to gather honej^ or until they were fed more 

 plentifully." Dues friend Gallup wish us to un- 



derstand that bees' eggs are so very wise that they 

 refuse to hatch, and be starved to death ? Come, 

 now, lend a hand to the wheel, and pilot us out 

 of this difficulty. Why did the eggs of one of 

 your queens refuse to hatch ? Others have met 

 with such instances. Who will explain it? And 

 what about those ' ' four partially fertilized queens? 

 I think tliey were something like my little brother's 

 cow, which he was driving home one day, when 

 a neighbor met him and inquired if the cow was 

 farrow ? Not understanding what Avas meant by 

 the term, he answered — "little farrow, not much 

 farrow though. " How will friend Gallup account 

 for partial impregnation ? Is the theory exploded 

 that "queens mate only once?" I know that 

 lately it is claimed that queens have been known 

 to mate two or three times ; yet the old theory 

 had a "loophole," and it could still be said that 

 though they mated more than once, they were 

 only fertilized once. But if Gallup's queens were 

 a little fertilized, probably, had they mated again 

 they would have been wholly fertilized. Then 

 what of the theory ? Now a certain writer in 

 Iowa claims that when the young queen returns 

 from the bridal tour, with the organ of the drone 

 attached, the workers will sometimes iusmediately 

 remove or pull it away. In which case the queen 

 must mate again in order to become fertilized. 

 He also claims that he has removed it himself 

 three or four times, in one season, from the same 

 queen, thereby preventing impregnation. Now, 

 if it is absolutely necessary foi' the organ of the 

 drone to remain for a certain length of time, in 

 order that the queen shall become impregnated, 

 it is quite easy to understand that if the bees re- 

 move this too soon, the queen will be only par- 

 tially fertilized. Hence, if all written is true, some 

 of us are in a fog. Can friend Gallup dispel it ? 



Frame Hives. 

 In the war of hives there is one question that 

 is nearly settled. It is generally, if not altogether, 

 admitted that frame hives are best. But which 

 among the legion of frame hives that are offered 

 to the public is best, is yet a question. Every 

 maker and vender is crying up his own wares as 

 best ; and if somebody '' spoils his horn," he gets 

 a friend to blow for him. There are likely to be 

 at least as many opinions as there are different 

 hives. My own opinion is that not one in fifty 

 has added any real improvement to the Lang- 

 stroth patent. Yet do not understand me to say 

 that it has not been improved ; for I believe, and 

 if I spoke as I feel, I should say I know it has. 

 Aside from the shallowness of the original form, 

 it has, in my opinion, three, yes four objections. 

 First, it has a permanent bottom bound, and in 

 order to clean out the hive properly in the spring, 

 it is necessary to remove the frames. Yet almost 

 every attempt to make a movable bottom board 

 and have it attached to the hive, has been a bung- 

 ling failure. Still such has been accomplished, 

 and is therefore an improvement. Second, it is 

 inconvenient in moving and taking out frames 

 filled with honey. This difficulty has also been 

 overcome. Third, the frames are too long, from 

 front to rear. The combs in such a hive are 

 more waiving, and are more likely to be built 

 crooked. This, however, may be greatl}^ over- 

 come by raising the rear of the hive, which has 



