50 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



that bees work luucli better where 

 the Hght is completely shut off, and 

 the Doctor's new theory that the bees 

 could not find theii- way readily from 

 the upper stories will certainly meet 

 the reason of most honey j^roducers 

 as something- extremely new and 

 strange. Must we have windows in 

 each story of our bee-hives"? Oh! 

 Doctor, Doctor, what will you sirring 

 on us next"? Bees lost in darkness 

 of the upper stones of theii- hives; 

 light all shut off by break- joint hon- 

 ey-boards; poor fellows bumping their 

 heads, running wildly in every du-ec- 

 tion like the inhabitants of Pompeii 

 and Herculaneum at the time of the 

 eruj)tion of Mount Vesuvius so fa- 

 mous in history. Poor little fellows 

 haven't got light enough to find theii' 

 way out around the wicked break- 

 joint honey-board, not on cloudy days, 

 anyway. This is a death blow to the 

 Manum liive, whose entrance allows 

 scarcely any light to get in. How- 

 ever, friend Manum seems to know 

 just how to get a good big yield of 

 honey even if lack of light in his to- 

 tally darkened hive keeps most of his 

 w^orkers dodging around, bum2:)iug 

 then" heads for several days before 

 they can find the entrance, consum- 

 ing large quantities of honey all this 

 time. I am sorry to note that Dr. 

 Tinker has again given up the bee- 

 space. Now I suppose he will not 

 offer to the public any more of my 

 break-joint, bee-sj^ace honey-boards. 

 Hereafter he will use no break- joint 

 principle nor bee- spaces, setting his 

 siu-plus arrangement flatly and 

 smoothly upon the brood frames, se- 

 curing continuous passages for the 

 bees. Honestly, Ave believe this to 

 be a very bad arrangement, but we 

 may be mistaken. We \xo-pe bee- 

 keepers will make the tests as above 

 referred to and rej^ort, and if the Doc- 

 tor is found to be right and I am 

 wrong, I shall be pleased to admit it. 

 Am not sorry that in the February 

 and March numbers of the Apicultu- 

 EiST we both went on record. I cer- 



tainly shall not be sorry if it turns 

 out that the Doctor is radically wrong 

 and I am right, as I believe it will. 

 Domiglac, Mich., Feb. 13, 1890. 



Dr. Tinker, as well as Mr. fleddon, is 

 wrong in using any lioney-lioaid at all betweea 

 the sections and to)) of brood frames. Honey- 

 boards when thus used areas big a nuisance in 

 tlic apiary as burr-coniljs. Karrow top-bars and 

 bee-spaces over one-fourtli incli(I believe Mr. Hed- 

 donusesa bee-space of tliree-elghths inch) have 

 been the (iause of a good deal of profanity in years 

 past and stdl will be the cause of more as long as 

 such nuisances are allowed to exist in the apiary. 



Make kindling-wood of all hives in which bees 

 can build burr-combs and those that cannot be 

 used without a honey-board between the brood- 

 nest and sections. 



Try the Bay State Hive, brother Heddon; it has 

 none of the imperfection than anyone can rea- 

 sonably quarrel over. 



Once was the time when honey-boards seemed 

 to be a necessity, but they have had their day the 

 same as box hives and many other things that 

 were used iu the apiary. 



Swarm-hivers. 



Not since the invention of the 

 Laugstroth hive has there been such 

 a flurry of excitement, or so much in- 

 terest shown in an invention as the 

 advent of the Swarm-hiver which we 

 claim the invention of and were the 

 first to describe in public print. I 

 kuow of no recent invention of a 

 bee-fixture that has caused so much 

 lying, or one that caused so many 

 jealous and envious people to make 

 such an unfortunate exhibition of 

 theii" ill dispositions. No sooner 

 had I described the Swarmer when up 

 jump several parties not only to claim 

 the invention, but who declared I 

 should not succeed in getting the de- 

 vice patented. Each one who claims 

 the invention stated that they had not 

 made their swanner a success and had 

 laid them one side for future experi- 

 ment; and each one also stated that 

 'where I use perforated metal to con- 

 nect the two hives they used screen 

 vnre. Yet these people claim the in- 

 vention of my Swarm-hiver. No doubt 

 these kind-hearted friends have an 

 idea that I am one of those fellows 



