■2T2 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



[December, 



box-hive bee-keeper." Just so; if we 

 could, there would be a change not 

 alone in the thrift of the industry, 

 but in the profits. You who cling to 

 the old way of getting what honey 

 there chances to be in the compart- 

 ment at the top of a box-hive, or 

 rely on "sulphuring" a colony in the 

 fall in order to get enough honey 

 to last the winter through, are doin^ 

 yourselves an injustice, as well as the 

 bees. 



But the question 'remains. These 

 remarks will, in all probability, not 

 reach the man who has any box-hives. 



industry is to present your opinions 

 before the farmers at their institutes 

 and farmers' club meetings this win- 

 ter; another way, is to publish in the 

 local papers, how detrimental to suc- 

 cessful bee-keeping a few box-hives 

 are in a neighborhood. But it rests 

 with you — I would emphasize it again 

 — you must take the steps, individual- 



There may be some doubt in your 

 mind, why there is such a hindrance 

 to bee-keeping progress in a few box- 

 hives. In the first place, the bees are 

 handicapped; the farmer is not getting 



DISPLAY OF J. M. BUCHANAN, TENNESSEE STATE FAIR, 1907. (See Page 270.) 



for I know my readers are progress- 

 ive, feel as I do, and would not tol- 

 erate an old-fashioned hive around. 



Therefore it remains with you in- 

 dividually and collectively to eradicate 

 the nuisance and count yourself as a 

 promoter in apiculture. If you know 

 of any of these old hives in your 

 vicinity, see to it yourself that they 

 disappear next spring; see to it that 

 the bees are properly transferred to 

 frame hives. It will even pay you 

 to buy up the antiquated hives and 

 transfer them for yourself, if the own- 

 er has no interest in the matter. One 

 way to promote the spirit and the 



the returns due him. Aside from 

 this, the box-hive is impossible to 

 manipulate; it may be putrid with 

 disease, and no one the wiser. Just 

 here consider the menace to a com- 

 munity of bee-keepers; what a source 

 of infection, a hot bed of contagion. 

 This one factor is sufficient to warrant 

 annihilation of the box-hive. 



Can we not, then, by individual ef- 

 fort bring to the attention of everyone 

 who is antiquated in his ways of keep- 

 ing bees, to the man who says he 

 "only keeps a few bees for family 

 use," the necessity of using frame- 

 hives, if not for his own good, for 



