1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



thoughts) has infringed on sundry new inven- 

 tions^— his patent being dated 1852, and theirs in 

 '1870! Alas, my patent right friends, after Mr. 

 Langstroth set the "egg" on its end, anybody 

 can "do- it. Why is this? Why are you forever 

 bellowing against the Langstroth hive? Some 

 of you aie as old as Mr. Langstroth ; why didn't 

 you invent hives with the movnlile comb i)rin- 

 ciple and introduce them, and reap honor in an 

 honest way ? 



G. W. Barclay. 

 Tipton, Lnca, Sept., 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



At the Iowa State Fair. 



Mr. Editor : — We propose relating what we 

 saw and heard, about bees and bee hives, at the 

 Iowa State Fair. 



Upon entering the fair grounds we were not 

 long in linding the apiary department, which 

 was well represented by Mr. W. H. Furman, 

 of Cedar Rapids, with a great display of honey 

 in boxes and extracted honey in glass jars, 

 which attracted a great deal of attention. 



The liive department was represented by 

 different parties, of which we will si^eak as 

 taken down on our memorandum. 



The first hive we examined was a bee hive 

 , (patented of course), by T. F. Engledow. This 

 gentleman was very enthusiastic, and explained 

 his hive in a manner that would make the unin- 

 itiated believe it was a perfect palace. Well, we 

 will commence with the frame of this hive — a 

 Langstroth frame, with some modifications, 

 hung by means of metal straps forming hooks, 

 which hang on iron rods. The frame has a 

 centre stay of jjine wood, about three-quarter 

 inch stuff. I asked him if he had that in for the 

 bees to keep warm, as it takes up the very best 

 part of the frame, and divides it into two, separ- 

 ating the brood circle, instead of having the 

 brood circle in the centre of the frame. Any 

 beekeeper can see the disadvantage of having 

 heavy strips of wood passing through the frame. 

 Between the frames and the bottom of the hive 

 is a space of three or four inches. I said to him 

 the bees would build comb between the frames 

 and the bottom. The answer was that they had 

 not done so. I wish you could see the entrance 

 of his hive ; you would laugh at the absurdity. 



The next hive we examined was Jasjier 

 Hazen's non-swarmer In ray opinion it is a 

 l)oor thing for a beekeeper who has many bees 

 to attend to. The frames fitting tight to the 

 sides of the hive, we asked the man attending it, 

 how he got the frames out when they were stuck 

 with propolis. He said he could take them out 

 very easy, but I could not see it. 



Then followed the Common Sense Bee hive of 

 D. R. Reed, of Kansas. For my part, I could 

 not see where the common sense conies in. If 

 hrmn and blowing will make it such, the pro- 

 i:)rietor is capable of doing it. Oh, beekeepers, 

 this is the hive that has a moth trap, in which 

 can be put some secret bait which attract and 

 destroy the moth and not kill the bees. It also 



has a device to shut the bees in the hive in 

 Avinter, so that they cannot fly out and get chilled. 

 The fi'ames hang on the rabbet with screws in 

 the frames, and the least jar puts them all in 

 motion. The honey box arrangement, too, is 

 worthy of special examination, and admiration ! 

 In my judgment this Common Sense Bee hive is 

 a humbug, and as great a swindle on the credu- 

 lous beekeeper as was ever put before the 

 American people. The proprietor is doing all 

 he can to introduce it. He has advertised it in 

 large letters on his horse blankets, and makes all 

 the noise he can about it, when he can get a 

 crowd to listen to him. 



-'The next hive was that of Mr. W. R. King. 

 It has a moth trap and the frames are all tight- 

 fitting at the top. 



Then followed a model of a bee house, invented 

 by a man named Glass. It would have done you 

 good to hear him give a description of the struc- 

 ture. He said any kind of bee hive could be put 

 in it, and they would do better than out of it 

 He showed us the entrance for the bees. It is 

 made of tin. He said the moths would fly 

 around the entrance and could not get in, and 

 would continue flying around so long that they 

 would die of exhaustion. He said he had seen 

 them do so, and knew it was a fact. He also 

 had three blocks clamped together to represent 

 a beehive, and a small wooden lever to lift them 

 off the shelf, to put under another box for the 

 bees to work in. He said he always had three 

 on at a time, and took off" the top one, and that 

 he never had any experience with movable frame 

 hives. He stated also that the drones laid eggs, 

 for he had seen them do it, and he had kept bees 

 for twenty years. I asked him if he took the 

 American Bee Journal, or any other bee paper? 

 he said. No. I felt very sorry for the old man, 

 for I thought he would never get to know what 

 progress had been made in bee-keeping. W^hen 

 will all this humbugging stop, and these sharks 

 with pretended or useless patents cease to gull 

 the people ? 



Mr. Furman had a stand of Italian bees on the 

 fair ground, and showing the people how to 

 handle them and the frames. Mr. D. R. Reed 

 had the old dodge bees in his hat, while talking 

 to a large crowd. Both were ordered to take 

 their bees off the grounds, as the officers said it 

 was against the regulations to have bees flying 

 there. We all looked " down in the mouth," 

 and had to forego seeing bees handled that day, 

 feeling very indignant at the officers. But Mr. 

 Furman went to the secretary for redress. It 

 seems there was a misunderstanding about the 

 matter, and the next day Mr. F. exhibited 

 the bees again, and extracted honey from the 

 comb with the honey extractor, on the fair 

 gi'ounds, as before, with satisfaction to us all. 



We also had a meeting of beekeepers, and 

 took the preliminary step to organize a Bee- 

 keepers' Association, for Central Iowa. The 

 secretary was instructed to send you a copy of 

 the proceedings. 



Bees have done well in our section, this sea- 

 son. 



. .Iames Rigg. 



Iowa Fulls, September 21, 1871. 



