THE AMElilCAN APICVLTURIST. 



53 



bees clustev in them, nnd virttiiilly plug them tip 

 so far as air i)assage is concerned. I would ad- 

 vise >'8cientiflo" not to arrange hives in niy such 

 manner, believing that he will abandon it if he 



does. 



James Heddon. 



Ventilating holes are a nni«ance to me. I do 

 not want but one grand entrance that can be en- 

 hirged by blocks ofAvood as warm weather conies 

 on. If you put ventilators into your hives as you 

 suggest, it would give the bees a belter chance to 

 ripen their honey during the day; but that is not 

 the time such work is generally done. Most of 

 the ripening is done at night and unless you have 

 such ventilators closed on chilly nights your 

 bees would leave the sections "quick step." A 

 sort of double sweat blanket ot Avoollen, laid 

 loosely over the sections, with ventilation holes 

 above works much better in aiding the bees 

 to ryjcji their honey. Should say; No, a colony 

 treated as you mention would not store more 

 honey. Hot weather is what the bees like and if 

 there is nectar in the bloom, as large a force would 

 go to the field as from ventilated hives. I am 

 through with ventilating holes in botli summer 

 aud winter management. 



E. L. Pratt. 



On what part of the globe is CanadaP 

 D. A. Jones, or whoever runs the 

 editorial department of the Canadian 

 Bee Journal, says: 



"The American bee papers are full of discus- 

 sions as to whetlier thick top-bars are not going to 

 reduce brace-combs and do away with honey- 

 boards." 



Mr. Editor of the C. B. J., you are 

 mistaken about all the American bee- 

 papers being full of discussions re- 

 garding thick top-bars. The Apicul- 

 TURiST is published in America, that 

 part known as the United States, and 

 as we have something to do with the 

 Api, can say that no discussion on the 

 subject you mention has been carried 

 on in our paper. ♦ 



Brother Jones' paper has the follow- 

 ing editorial remarks, same issue, the 

 above quotation was taken from: " Our 

 American friends are learning some- 

 thing all the time. I wish we could 

 say the same of some of our Canadian 

 friends. By the way, we were not long 

 in " learning " that the thick, wide top- 

 bar was the j^ractical one to use. We 

 learned it many years before D. A. 

 Jones knew how many legs a bee has. 

 Please do not reckon us among the 

 Americans who are still learning about 



the proper width and thickness of the 

 top-bar of a brood-frame. Something 

 on this point may be found in this 

 issue. 



Now, Brother Jones, we were con- 

 siderate enough to say that some of 

 our, etc., etc. When you again have 

 occasion to speak sarcastically di your 

 American friends, please do not take 

 them by the lump. 



One more point, Brother Jones, 

 mention of which cornea in right here. 

 Speaking editorially of the Swarmer, 

 Bro. Jones says: — 



Our foreman used a similar arrangement in 

 18S7, made of perforated met:d, but dn) not have 

 an oi>]>oitunity of carrying his experiments far 

 enough to warrant us in putting ilie matter be- 

 fore readers of the C. B. J. 



Bosh! Brother Jones, how is it that 

 you always carry your experiments to 

 a failure ? In October, 1888, we gave 

 notice that we would give the public a 

 method for rearing queens in full col- 

 onies without dequeening the colony, 

 or in any way restricting the queen the 

 entire freedom of the combs. Abovit 

 a month or more later, Brother Jones 

 told the readers of his paper that he 

 had been conducting experiments to 

 accomplish the same results, but as he 

 had not jierfected the method he 

 would not give it to the public. We 

 believe it has never been given the 

 public up to this date. It didn't pan 

 out just as expected. Well, we per- 

 fected the iSwar7)ier before it was given 

 the public and so was our method for 

 rearing queens in full colonies perfect- 

 ed before the public knew about it. 

 We don't go off on the half cock, 

 Brother Jones. 



Brother Jones means well, but for 

 some reason never carries his wonder- 

 ful experiments to success. 



However, I must say that in view of 

 his ill success to invent new devices 

 for the benefit of his fellow beekeep- 

 ers, I do not think any more of him 

 on account of the disagreeable insum- 

 ations he makes regarding the inven- 

 tions of other people who have made 

 the same experiments a success that he 

 (Jones) failed in. 



One question Brother Jones: Why 



