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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[August, 



speed and ease that is utterly impossible with 

 other machines. Any child can turn it, and the 

 only caution is to take care that you do not go 

 so fast as to throw brood and all out of the 

 combs. We think it will pay to make your ex- 

 tractor only for one sized frame, in order that 

 you have no useless metal to .-wing, and if we 

 were to have several kinds of hives with frames 

 of different sizes, we should have an Extractor 

 just as small as it could be for each. 



We have one thing more that pleases us. 

 Who has not seen heavy ladened bees drop be- 

 fore the entrance of their hives and be obliged 

 to take wing again before getting in? Even 

 crawling up to the edge of the bottom board to 

 the hive seems beyond their power, so we studied 

 long and earnestly to get a simple, sure and 

 effective door-step, and here it is, as it suits us. 

 Saw off lengths of pine siding equal to the 

 width of your hive, but before doing this, with 

 plane or saw make one edge with sharp bevel, so 

 that it will set close to the upper edge of the 

 alighting board of the hive, when the other 

 rests on the ground or sawdust. To keep this 

 always in place, bend pieces of wire 2 inches 

 long twice at right angles, so that one arm may 

 be about % and the other \ inch in length. 

 Drive the long arm of two of these wires into 

 the end of the door-step, close to the sharp edge, 

 and when the short end is driven or pushed into 

 the hive, our door-step is kept up close, and is 

 hinged so that it will always rest on the ground. 

 We prefer to saw into the step a little where the 

 wire is driven, so that it will be fixed in the step 

 and turn on the short end that is in the hive. 

 These are readily removed when not wanted, and 

 we think the number of bees crawling up them, 

 (they should not be planed) during a yield of 

 honey, would convince any one of their efficacy. 

 See page 28, vol. 7. If spring scales tell the 

 truth, a door-step, certainly paid them. 



If Mr. Gallup don't stop being cross (see 

 page 12) we shan't play with him. So, now! 

 Mr. Gallup, are you sure there is anything you 

 have been trying to get into our head after all. 

 We really fear that you have made it necessary 

 for us to tread on somebody else's toes besides 

 the men who make the extractors. Send 25 

 cents for Progressive Bee-culture ! Is that what 

 you tell the rest of your pupils ? 



Bless your heart, Mr. Gallup, we "don't never 

 send" 25 cents nor 50 cents nor $1.00 for such 

 things. We get Beehives, Extractors, Patent 

 Bights, books and papers piled all around us 

 "an' we don't pay nothin' neither." If we 

 scratched our head to understand all of 'em our 

 better half should mourn more about our getting 

 bald headed "so early in life" than she now 

 does. 



Mr. Adair sent us Progressive Bee-culture a 

 long while ago, when first out, with the request 

 that we should take time to look it over care- 

 fully and give it such criticism as we honestly 

 thought it deserved, either in the Journal or hy 

 letter. This was kind and frank in Mr. Adair, 

 and so we refrained from taking any notice of 

 the work, because in our honest opinion it was 

 a strangely mixed compilation of truth and 

 error, containing strong, positive and sometimes 



almost harsh statements that our American bee- 

 keepers will see the fallacy of at once. 



For Mr. Gallup and Mr. Adair both, it is a 

 fact that we have now a host of clear, sharp, in- 

 telligent men, who read our journals, and who 

 can no more be led astray by false reasoning 

 than those who have studied bees years longer 

 than they have. Our soundest thinkers have no 

 time to theorize and argue the matter. We have 

 looked over Mr. Gallup's articles in vain to un- 

 derstand what great idea he has discovered, and 

 he is right in saying, " we don't see it at all." 



In his last article we do gather this, and we 

 presume it is the "Adair" new idea: "That 

 the queen prefers to keep her brood at the bot- 

 tom of the combs in midsummer." 



I would quietly ask the thousands who are 

 using the Extractor and two-story hives, if this 

 is so. If Mr. Gallup is writing for our benefit, 

 why does he speak as though we had not tried 

 giving a good queen room? Five years ago, we, 

 almost alone, recommended the use of the Ex- 

 tractor constantly, to give the queen all the 

 room she could use, and we have worked not one 

 hive but from 40 to GO and each has been most 

 carefully studied. We are testing now a genuine 

 Gallup hive, and cannot see that it works differ- 

 ently from what we had been lead to expect. 

 To prevent misunderstanding, we distinctly 

 state that we have no idea that either gentleman 

 meant to mislead, but have dwelt so long on 

 some pet arrangement that they do not see 

 clearly. When Mr. Gallup presents as a "new 

 idea" that the queen will raise more brood and 

 there will be less likelihood of swarming by 

 spreading the combs out horizontally, instead of 

 the usual two-story, we think he has fallen into 

 an error, but it will soon be tested in many dif- 

 ferent localities, so we will not disagree about it. 



When Mr. Adair claims that by the same "new 

 idea" (so Gallup says, not Adair) a colony 

 can be made to gather as much honey and 

 build the comb for it, as they would with empty 

 combs constantly furnished them, we think 

 he has fallen into a still more grievous error ; 

 but as we said before there are many clearer 

 heads than Novice's to decide the matter, as 

 they have others many times before. By the 

 way, will not Mr. Gallup come around to shal- 

 low hives soon again. 



In regard to box honey. We have this season 

 one of Quinby's large frame hives with a full 

 set of boxes, which was sent to us with the re- 

 quest to give it a fair trial. One of our best 

 stocks was transferred into it in April, and a 

 part of the combs from two hives were used to 

 make the large frames all full. Of course the 

 bees filled the combs with honey and sealed it 

 all up, and then after waiting a length of time 

 that enabled other stocks no heavier to give the 

 Extractor more than 100 pounds, they finally 

 commenced in several boxes, but have not up to 

 this date more than one pound in boxes alto- 

 gether. 



Another stock that we compelled to fill some 

 English vases, swarmed out twice, and then only 

 went to work in earnest after we had given them 

 another set of empty combs in place of all their 

 honey and brood. 



