1871.] 



TnE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



27 



"What has Mr. Hazcn invented?" If the 

 readers of the Journal can make out from Mr. 

 Hazen's answer on page 7, they can see it plainer 

 than we do. Is it boxes at the side of tlie brood 

 combs? Then IMr. Alley, Mr. Quinby, and 

 others are infringers. Even Mr. Langstroth 

 will have no right in future to put his boxes 

 other than on top. We think both Quinby and 

 Langstroth used such an arrangement before 

 Mr. Hazen took it up. 



Many farmers about here ask tis of what 

 advantage a Langstroth hive would be over box 

 hives, if they never handled the frames? To 

 answer quickly, and within their compreliension, 

 we told them that, after their bees died out, as 

 they generally do, or were taken up, we would 

 pay them twenty-five cents each for the frames 

 of empty comb, of which a two-story hive would 

 supply twenty. This reason alone, we believe, 

 has always been satisfactory, though we have 

 never yet got one of the combs. One man said 

 he would not take a dollar a piece for his. 

 Another forgot to raise the back end of his hive 

 when he put in the swarm, so the combs were 

 built cross-wise, but he carried the whole upiper 

 storv to market and got twelve dollars and a half 

 ($11?.50) for it— (fifty pounds; — the most honey, 

 or money, he ever got from a swarm in his life. 



"About one dozen stings in an hour" was 

 written when we were more of a novice than we 

 are now, if possible, and was then only pre- 

 suming that the operator was too lazy to use 

 smoke. We sometimes, when tired, sit on a 

 "camp stool" befoi-e the hive, and open and ex- 

 amine it as leisurely as we would read a paper, 

 and with the aid of smoke do not get stung at all. 



A boy asked us a short time ago how he could 

 prevent a two-story hive of his from swarming. 

 Our reply was to raise three combs of brood 

 above. "But they will sting me!" "Smoke 

 them with rotten wood." (W^e were just then 

 in a hurry.) Shortly after he "smoked 'em" 

 again, cut out his honey in nice square pieces, 

 put back the frames, and found it far less difficult, 

 we venture to say, than he would find it to 

 arrange Mr. Hazen's guide combs in the boxes. 

 By the way, do your negligent bee-keepers do all 

 that ? And could they not just as well put their 

 nice little boxes in a Langstroth hive, after set- 

 ting half the frames above, in the middle ; and 

 then if they should take a notion to progress and 

 raise queens, and all that, they have no impedi- 

 ment? And further by the way, our American 

 peojile are learning to talk queens, and practice 

 them too, at a rate that is astonishing. 



Hundreds of Langstroth hives are used about 

 here for raising box honey, and have been for 

 years. This season perhaps two dozen Extrac- 

 tors have been made or purchased, and if any one 

 has tried to use them and failed will he or she 

 please to mention it in our next Journal? A 

 lady has just made me a visit, who uses one, all 

 alone, and has no trouble at all. Our honey 

 dealers about here pay the same price for nice 

 honey in frames as in boxes. To send them to 

 market, fill an upper story with nice frames and 

 set it for a day or two over a hive, and the bees 

 will fix every frame so that it wilKcarry as tight 

 and clean as you wish. 



In regard to the tendency of INIr. Hazen's 

 articles, can ]\Ir. Barnard find one in which lie 

 gives any information on the subject, that can be 

 applied to any hive? (His last article in print 

 recommends beginners to throw away their 

 empty combs rather than use it for swarms.) 

 Does he advise anything to be done besides send- 

 ing him a stamp for particulars ? Do not the 

 three replies he has given to the charges we have 

 made against him, all run off into his pile of 

 boxes, and what they have done ? In his last he 

 communicates the great discovery that bees will 

 commence work quicker on a i^iece of comb 

 placed near the brood, than if five inches away ! 

 Did he ever hear of such a thing as placing an 

 emjjty comb between two brood combs f Small 

 boxes (one comb) have been tilled in that way in 

 forty-eight hours, and no one has ever thought 

 of patenting it. 



Why do we not put "A. I. Boot, Medina, O.," 

 to the end of our articles? One great reason is 

 that we don't want a host of letters like the fol- 

 lowing — which 1 send in the original manuscript. 



" Dear Sir : — I see in a piece from you in Adair's 

 " Annals of Bee Culture, that you have built a bee 

 " house for winterinii- bees. Will you be so kind as 

 *' to di-'scribe it to me in all its parts, and tell me how 

 " you like it? Also, inform me liovv many swarms 

 " of bees you have, what kind of liive you use. and 

 " whether you artificial swarm them, and your mode 

 " of doing it ; and how much upward ventilation you 

 " give tliem, and wliure you place it; and wlien you 

 " be^in to extract lioney, and how late ; and do you 

 " cultivate honey fora^^e for your bees, and what 

 " kinds, and how bees are doing there this season, 

 " and much oblige," &c. 



And we here declare that we can give no other 

 answer to such inquirers, than to refer them to 

 the back numbers of the American Bee Journal. 

 There is no use in sending us stamps or monej% 

 as we shall return it. Send to the editor, and 

 we presume he will send such numbers as will 

 answer the questions best. The back numbers 

 of the Journal contain all we know, besides 

 much that we have not learned. We would 

 rather pay for them ourselves, than go over the 

 ground that an answer to the above letter would 

 require. 



Many have written to inquire why we do not 

 like a side-opening hive? Simply because such 

 a thing is not at all necessary, as every one will 

 decide after having to open many hives frequently. 

 In our opinion it is only those who have had a 

 very limited experience with bees, that think 

 such a thing an advantage. If our hives all 

 had a movable side we should never open it — 

 nor have occasion to do so. 



Sometimes we use nine frames in a hive, in 

 queen raising, and sometimes only eight, and it 

 seems to make very little difterence to the bees. 



Also, frames at fixed and equal distances are 

 very nice in theory, but a great mistake in prac- 

 tice, in our opinion. (We always mean the 

 latter, if we do not say it.) 



Many are working and thinking of a hive with 

 the proper number of frames spread out horizon- 

 tally, so that no upper story will be in the way. 

 Mr. Gallup is, we believe, among the number. 

 A friend has Langstroth hives made in that way, 



