1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



235 



came out bard, or with considerable trouble. Now 

 the frames are as easily removed from the Bay State 

 Hive as from "our two-story Langstroth" after they 

 have once been taken out, Let the frames remain in 

 any hive which has a strong colony of bees in it, one 

 week, with no boxes on it while forage is abundant, 

 and the bees will stick them in so that it will be dim- 

 cult to remove them. It is no more so with the Bay 

 State Hive than it is with any other in this respect. 



In opening a Langstroth Hive I always commence 

 on one side and take out the first comb that I think 

 will come out the easiest. With the Bay State Hive, 

 commence with the rear comb, that will come out the 

 easiest, generally, and I never found any more trouble 

 in removing frames from our hives than I did from 

 others, when the combs were built within the frames, 

 as they should be, and will be if the bee-keeper 

 understands his business. Any bee-keeper who can- 

 not keep the combs in his hives straight, and exactly 

 within the frames, had better not use them, as they 

 are about the same as worthless to him. Why not 

 show your friend who has this hive in use how to 

 remove the frames ? That hive has not got close 

 top frames, and you will not get stung. 



Again "Novice" says: In our opinion every colony 

 should yield at least fifty pounds of surplus, the 

 worst season, and that can only be done with the 

 extractors. Have "Novice's" bees done this since he 

 first got the extractors ? I guess not, and there are 

 thousands of bee-keepers all over the country who 

 know that there are seasons when their bees do not 

 gather one-half that amount of honey. We bee- 

 keepers, who don't pretend to know much, found that 

 out years ago. I have always made it a rule to put 

 boxes on where a full colony were stowing honey in 

 the rear or outside combs, and when they don't do 

 that, I am of opinion that the boxes and extractor 

 had not better be used. We have had one season 

 here in New England, within seven years, when not 

 one ounce of honey could be taken from a full hive 

 of bees, not even with the extractor. We were not a 

 novice at the business that season by any means, but 

 we had movable frames, and two-story hives. I 

 examined several of my best colonies every pleasant 

 ■ lay, and only now and then one cell of new honey 

 could be seen, and had we not had considerable 

 experience in feeding sugar syrup to our bees, we should 

 probably have lost all we had. We fed them all they 

 needed in August and September of that year, and 

 we never had our bees winter better than they did 

 the following winter. About that time we were fully 

 convinced that sugar syrup was much better than 

 honey for bees to winter on, and what thick-headed 

 fellow would not have discovered the same thing? 



Our bees were confined to their hives a long time, 

 and when allowed to fly in the winter, the snow was 

 not so highly colored in front of the hives as it is 

 when bees winter upon their own stores. Then, 

 again, the bees kept very quiet, and but few died. 

 This part of our story is intended as a reply to that 

 part of "Novice's" article on page 121, December 

 number. He says: " Alley fed sugar syrup to his 

 bees for 15 years, and thinks we knew not why we 

 succeeded until he mentioned it in the Journal." 

 Gracious ! don't self-conceit stick out in some peo- 

 ple ? Why, my good friend, we knew why we suc- 

 ceeded before you knew how many legs a bee has ; 

 yes, and we might say that we knew not only that 



fact concerning bees, but many others, too, that you 

 think are original with yourself. You must not be 

 so foolish as to think that we are ignorant of what 

 we are doing because we don't sit down and write all 

 our thoughts, and note every action, and send it to 

 the Journal. When we have anything that in our 

 opinion will interest the readers of the Journal, we 

 take great pleasure in sending it to the Editor, and 

 let him do as he pleases with it, and we have received 

 the thanks of many readers for valuable information 

 gleaned from our articles. 



Now I will venture to say that I have written and 

 told to more than one hundred bee-keepers within one 

 year, the advantages of feeding sugar syrup to bees 

 to winter upon. Last March I had some correspond- 

 ence with a man who has imported several lots of 

 queens, and with the usual poor success. I gave 

 him my idea for preparing food for the bees during 

 transit from Europe to America, and that was this : 

 Have the food consist of sugar syrup, and put in the 

 combs here by the bees and sealed up, and take it to 

 Europe. Make the shipping boxes there. I gave as 

 my reason for so doing this: that the bees could 

 stand the journey better, and that they would not 

 want to fly as often as they would if honey was their 

 food. 



Now it strikes me that I knew why it was that 

 sugar syrup was better food for bees than honey. 

 This sugar syrup business is not original with me, 

 more than it is with " Novice," but I got it from bee- 

 keepers fifteen years ago, in the town of Reading, 

 Mass., and most any of the bee-keepers in that vicin- 

 ity can teach some of the knowing ones of this day 

 their A. B. C.s in bee-keeping. They had the Lang- 

 stroth hives in use, and those famous " two-story 

 hives" which we hear so much about, were in use 

 in those days. "Novice" fears that he will lose 

 the "laurels." Don't be frightened, I don't claim 

 them, and you are welcome to them all. 



We will say to those bee-keepers who have seen the 

 cut of our frame on page 552, that we do not now use 

 the frame we then described, and further, that the 

 style was not changed on account of any difficulty in 

 removing them, but for the purpose of making other 

 improvements in the Bay State Hive. The frame we 

 now use is not so deep by several inches, and with 

 the improvement we have made in frames, we ven- 

 ture to say that no frame in the world can be more 

 easily removed from the hive than ours. 



Now "Novice," why not own up and tell the 

 readers of the Journal why it is that you are so 

 prejudiced against all other hives, except the " two- 

 story Langstroth Hive as we use them? " Why not 

 tell them that you have a hive to sell them ? Also a tea- 

 kettle feeder, metallic corner-pieces, etc. ? Thus 

 people will know just as well as I do why it is that 

 other hives are so worthless in your estimation. 



You are doing your level best to prejudice people 

 against all other hives, and giving them to under- 

 stand, at the same time, that your wares are just 

 what they need, and that they must have them or fail 

 in bee-keeping. 



Let me inform all who have not been through "the 

 mill," that all these "jim-crack " fixings, such as 

 some people advertise for bee-hives, are worse than 

 useless ; the more you have of them the poorer will 

 be your success, and the sooner will you abandon the 

 pursuit in disgust. 



