170 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



[Feb. 



Combs spread horizontally seem to be gaining 

 considerable favor, and perhaps it is going to be 

 better liked with the extractor than the two-story, 

 in fact we think there is quite an advantage in 

 enlarging the hive, gradually (by division board,) 

 of this shape, but other disadvantages of roof, lum- 

 ber, unwieldiness, etc., seem to over balance it. If 

 they can be made cheap enough we are open to 

 conviction, but please don't patent them. 



Mr. Wurster, page 186, is certainly in error in 

 thinking that revolving brood, sealed or unsealed, 

 injures it. Every comb in an apiary, (even 1000), 

 is always extracted, and very careful experiments 

 show that no brood is injured, unless thrown out 

 by being turned too fast. And we were amazed to 

 see Mrs. Tupper state, in King's Journal, that 

 brood should not be extracted, as it was of more 

 value than honey. The matter can be tested in 

 three days by any beekeeper, and we cannot under- 

 stand why Mrs. Tupper was led into such an error. 

 Does extracting honey from brood combs injure 

 brood ? 



Time, July, 1870. 

 Locality, Novice Apiary. 

 "Mr. Novice, there is trouble here, certainly, 

 come and see." 

 "Well!" 



"What does it mean that the brood is uncapped 

 when it should be capped over." 

 " Should it be capped ? " 



" Most certainly, do you observe they are fully 

 formed and should be nearly ready to hatch, see, 

 many of them have commenced to turn dark. 

 Now, are you sure that extractor has not killed 

 them ? Why do you smile, have you ever observed 

 the like before? " 



" Frequently in hot weather." 

 " And are you sure it is all right?" 

 "Quite sure, but to make sure again we will 

 watch this colony. See, here are large patches 

 uncovered and we once feared it was foul brood, or 

 something wrong, but they always came out right." 

 Of course, subsequent examinations showed per- 

 fectly formed live bees, and we never have been 

 able to discover that any injury has resulted to 

 brood unless they are whirled out, which a little 

 practice will always enable the operator to avoid. 



When first using the extractor, six years ago, 

 we gave the subject great attention. 



Further facts on the subject will, of course, be 

 welcome, but they should be the result of careful 

 observations. 



We should consider it impossible to give the 

 queen sufficient room in the proper season, after 

 all the combs were moved one by one in the center 

 and filled, could we not use the extractor on brood 

 combs. 



Page 143. We are sorry we "cannot see" that 

 Mr. Hazen has answered us. Will not Gallup try 

 and make it plainer ? It seems to us, in our sim- 

 plicity, that Mr. Hazen' s figures only make our 

 query stand out the stronger. 



We think we never said that we would risk 1,000 

 colonies in one apiary, but we really cannot find 

 that fifty colonies give a smaller yield that ten per 

 hive; we never have kepi one hundred, but Grim, 

 who has much experience of that kind, advises 

 from fifty to one hundred, not more than the latter. 



Mr. Hazen why will you parade those deceptive 

 figures ? 



Any beekeeper can use all that is valuable in your 

 hive, and no law gives you any power to restrain 

 them, and yet you do not scruple to receive and 

 solicit S 10.00 for "right to make and use," etc. 



Will this work never be ended, and will the 

 community never get better informed ? Remove 

 the top and two sides from any box hive, and pile 

 honey boxes against the sides thus exposed, and 

 on top prepared with guide combs, etc., and you 

 have, when the whole is protected by an outer 

 cover, the Hazen hive complete. If you can pre- 

 vent swarming, in a good season, the boxes will 

 often be all filled. Mr. Hazen is only one of the 

 many, but he uses our columns oftenest in his 

 advertising raids. 



Page 187. Scientific. Supporting arms to cor- 

 ner are nearly |, metal rabbet f , which leaves § 

 inch between end of the hive and ends of frame, 

 the distance we prefer for rapid work with the 

 extractor. If, when working for box honey, bees 

 build in this \ inch space, the ends of the hive can 

 easily be made to approach nearer to the frame by 

 rabbeting in the end of the hive | inch or more 

 instead of | as we do, 



Why don't we try a Bay State hive? Because it 

 embodies no essentially different principle from 

 Hazen' s or Quinby's, and we are trying one of the 

 latter, and because our beekeeping would then go 

 back to luck and chance, and now it is not. We 

 could, it is true, build a colony up strong at the 

 expense of others and get box honey almost invar- 

 iably, but a hive that would give us 100 lbs. box 

 honey we think would give 300 extracted, and the 

 labor in the latter case would be much less. 



For box honey we should recommend Quinby's 

 hive, unless it can be shown, by experiment, that 

 Alley's tall narrow frames possess an advantage in 

 inducing the bees to work more readily in boxes, 

 which we very much doubt. 



Shaking young bees before the entrance of such 

 hives, from other stocks, a la Hazen, will certainly 

 give large results, but could any one honestly 

 claim that such a yield was the product of one 

 hive. The depopulated stocks would probably die 

 from "overstocking." 



Mr. Gallup has, of late, given his mode of man- 

 aging one. or two stocks. Will he, through the 

 Journal, tell us how he would manage an apiary of 

 from fifty to seventy-five after the experience he 

 has had from his late experiments ? 



Mr. Grim's articles are nearly all for the general 

 treatment of a large apiary, and have been of 

 double value to us on that account. 



He writes us that he is strongly inclined to work 

 his bees for box honey next season, unless prices 

 for extracted improve. 



We have now before us an offer of 13$ cts. for 

 20,000 lbs. delivered in Cincinnati, so that we 

 know something what we can depend on. 



Our seventy-one colonies are now nicely housed 

 on shelves one foot wide, placed six inches from 

 the wall, so that the air may circulate all around 

 and between them, and are as quiet and cosy as can 

 be tucked up under their quilts. 



In our remark in address to Michigan Beekeep- 

 ers' Association, in regard to ventilation, we took it 



