1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



19 



without being accompanied by a swarm, and 

 that too when there were noqneen cells started? 



One of my neighbors has disposed of all his 

 Langstroth hives and uses the American. He 

 thinks they are far ahead of the Langstroth. He 

 does not use the extractor, and has never sold 

 much box honey — having made his profits by 

 selling swarms. When that plays out, as it must 

 in a few years, and he has to depend upon sur- 

 plus honey for profits, he will probably begin to 

 see some of the disadvantages of his system. 



Another neighbor bought two Kidder hives, 

 because he could get them cheap — $1.50 each. 

 He thought he would like them better than any 

 other, i saw one the other day. I find it more 

 trouble to handle the frames of the empty hive 

 than it is to handle the frames in a Langstroth 

 hive when full of combs and bees. 



I heard, the other night, of a way to prevent 

 after swarms without destroying the queen cells 

 — namely, put the new swarm on the old stand 

 and remove the old hive to a new stand. 1 do 

 not know where the idea originated, but it comes 

 to me from Mr. J. H. Locke, of Clearwater, 

 who, I understand, practiced it all last summer 

 without a failure.* 



S. ROWELL. 



Siher Creek, Minn., June 14, 1871. 



* This is a common practice among bee keepers who use the 

 old box or basket hive, and is generally successful. — Ed. 



[From the Cincinnati Ruralist.] 



Bee-keeping around Cincinnati. 



There are several old bee-keepers about Cin- 

 cinnati, old fogies and progressives, some who 

 know too much to learn any more, some who 

 like to improve at reasonable speed, and some 

 who are so fickle-minded that they adopt every 

 new thing that is called an improvement, and, 

 wasting all their time in experiments, never 

 come to any profitable result. New beginners, 

 like new converts to religion, are generally most 

 zealous, and are full of new inventions. On a 

 visit to one lately, who had just obtained a 

 Langstroth hive with a swarm in it, I found him 

 seriously considering how he would put on the 

 upper box a pair of cast-iron handles. Thinking 

 that upon some occasion he might wish to use 

 it upside down, he was at a loss how to place 

 them, whether right side up or the contrary. I 

 asked him if he could not lift the box without 

 handles. yes, he said, but he wanted to have 

 it handy both ways. Perhaps he will patent it. 



This reminds me that Dr. J. W. has at his drug 

 store a model of an apparatus, which is a most 

 astonishing remedy for the Behemoth. When 

 the chickens go to roost at night, their weight 

 on the perches puts into movement a system of 

 levers and slides which closes the entrances to 

 all the bee-hives, and then Mrs. Moth can't get 

 in without she goes in before roosting time. This 

 is patented. Mr. W. can tell something about 

 it, and maybe sell rights. 



One of our oldest bee-men is Mr. T., who came 

 here many years ago from New York, I think. 



He has long experience, and perhaps knows as 

 much about bees as any man can know by keep- 

 ing them in the old boxes. He has, I believe, 

 always refused to adopt tlie frame, but has been 

 a successful manager. I have been lately told 

 that he is, at last, about ^o adopt both the frame 

 hive and the Italian bees. I expect to hear 

 shortly that he is thinking about a honey slinger. 

 Although he has been in the business thirty 

 years, to my knowledge, and sold, I supjiose 

 hundreds of swarms, his stock has entirely run 

 out, and he is ready to begin anew in a better 

 way. 



Another old fogy about here, Mr. D. L. S., has 

 had bees in the family ever since he was born, 

 and he is now sixty-five or seventy years old. 

 If you visit his place you will see two stands, 

 containing perhaps one hundred boxes each, 

 another empty and turned into a chiclcen house, 

 and an old out-house containing one or two hun- 

 dred more. In 1868-9 he lost about seventy 

 swarms— all he had. That could not be helped, 

 as almost every bee-keeper sufiercd more or less 

 by the unusual condition of things that season. 

 He afterwards sent five hives up into the centre 

 of the State, and got them filled with Italian 

 swarms. Unfortunately, he sent his old style of 

 hives, and more unfortunately still, he will not 

 study them. He is afraid of bees after being 

 acquainted with them all his life. A fiiend and 

 myself went out to see his Italians and examine 

 his hives, but we could not get him nearer than 

 about thirty feet from the hives. He stood there 

 with his hands in his pockets, ready to run. The 

 first bee coming towards him started him. 



He gets his honey by driving up a hired man 

 to take 'off the boxes. He is a hopeless case. 

 H. G. of Clifton, is a white horse of another 

 color. He begaii about twenty or twenty-five 

 years ago with an old rattle-trap of a non-swarm- 

 ing and dividing hive, or something of that sort, 

 which I believe was given to him by its former 

 unsuccessful owner. Being of an inquiring turn 

 of mind, and every way fitted for the study of 

 bee-ology, he has kept up with all the improve- 

 ments, bought and tested many contrivances, 

 some of which turned out to be the reverse of 

 improvements, until some ten years ago he came 

 across the Italian bees and the Langstroth hive. 

 He personally visited Mr. Langstroth at Oxford, 

 and bought o"f him his first queen. He has many 

 of her descendants at work. He has not made a 

 money making business of bee-keeping, but after 

 selling and giving away thirty or forty swarms, 

 losing in '08-9 sixty-five swarms out of seventy, 

 selling and giving away about fifteen since, he 

 has fifteen or twenty on hand. He knows pretty 

 nnicli all that is known about bees. He miglit 

 perhaps find out something by taking the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal; but in a general way you may 

 say of him, that what he don't know about bees 

 is not worth knowing. If you want to talk bee 

 to him you must not consume more than an hour 

 each day, for his brother looks upon bees with 

 much disfavor, and {hisi hobby being fishing,) 

 thinks that time spent in talking about or work- 

 ing with bees is worse than wasted. With him 

 fishing is the only sensible pastime. 



J. L. is another old fogy, living beyond Brigh- 



