THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



36 



from those with the inclined bo'tom, other 

 things being equal, you will discover moro than 

 I have hern able to do in nearly forty years 

 practice, and I have been a very close observer. 

 A lrnged bottom-board is also attended with 

 ex'ra expense, without a corresponding benefit. 



I object to the permanent bottom-board also. 

 With the permanent bottom-board you have got 

 to 'ake out the frames and bees, to clean out in 

 spring ; and you will frequently want to know 

 the exact condition of your bees in winter, 

 without disturbing them. With a permanent 

 bottom-board and closed top bar this is impossi- 

 ble. With the hive I use you can tell their exact 

 condition at any time. You can see whether 

 there are any dead bees on the bottom-board, 

 or any honey on the top, &c, without any dis- 

 turbance whatever. 



Should you think that a side-opening bive is 

 a good thing, make your hive enough wider to 

 take in an inch board in place of a frame. 

 Then you have all the advantages, without any 

 of the disadvantages. But you will soon learn 

 to have your comb built so true in the frame 

 is to dispense wth the loose b ard altogether. 



New beginners wan to test these things for 

 themselves ; — at least I did, when I was a be- 

 ginner ; and my object in telling you this is, 

 that you can try nea-ly everything without 

 being at the expense of making different hives ; 

 for nearly every one of these theories can be ap- 

 plied to the same hive, or the size of the frame 

 need not be varied. A hive with a small frame 

 is altogether ahead of a hive with a large frame, 

 for artificial Swarming, queen raising, equalizing 

 colonies, &c. New beginners will imagine that 

 they see advantages in this whim and the other, 

 when there is no advantage, but disac vantage 

 rather. At least I judge others by myself. I 

 had that disease very hard, but am "so as to be 

 about again," as the saying is. Some people 

 are extra anxious to get their fingers into other 

 people's pockets. They imagine that Mr. 

 Langstroth is making money out of his patent, 

 and they rack their brains to get up something 

 different from his, so as to obtain a patent and 

 get a share of his money or moncj^ that elongs to 

 him. I give no great credit to any person 

 after seeing his hive, and the principle of mova- 

 ble combs, for making alterations, &c. I have 

 made a great many alterations, for the sake of 

 testing by actual experience, yet I never thought 

 of applying for a patent Last week I was sent 

 for and requested to go and see some bees in the 

 shallow things, and I had the curiosity to meas- 

 ure the depth of comb, and it was just six 

 inches* The bees have done nothing, and can- 

 not Co anything but only live along from one 

 season to another, fight against moths, and 

 fina^y give up the ghost. Now, I have almost 

 conu to the conclusion that Mr. Langstroth 

 never s<mt out such a hive. It must be some 

 mistake of the agent or some one else. In fact, 

 I have thought of it considerably since reading 

 and replying to Mr. jMley. Will some one set 

 me right on that question ? 



Elisiia Gallup. 

 Osage, Iowa. 



*The frames of the shallowest Langstroth hive ever used 

 or seen, are eight inches deep. Ed. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Novice, and his Successes. 



Dear Bee Journal, and all your readers: 

 We cannot help wondering how many of you 

 are using the comb-emptying machine , and we 

 cannot help pitying those who do not know 

 anything about it, for being so much behind the 

 times. Just hear the advantages as we manage 

 the institution, as our friends call it. 



Well, we told you about the two story Lang- 

 stroth hive which we had arranged, and what^a 

 tall colony we had ready for the white clover 

 blossoms ; and we also mentioned our plan of 

 taking honey out before the bees could have 

 time to cap it over. Before commencing, we 

 selected nice worker combs for the lower or 

 breeding apartment, and put all the drone 

 comb above, after emptying out of it all the honey 

 we could get, to prevent swarming. We claim 

 this last idea, Mr. Editor ; and, by the way, we 

 can take the honey out of the frame with brood 

 in it, in all stages, sealed and unsealed, by 

 turning it at the proper speed, without injuring 

 the brood at all. 



Well, we took out at first fifteen pounds; and 

 in six days more, from the upper story only, 

 thirty- six pounds ; five clays after, forty-five 

 pounds more ; in six days again, iwenty-five 

 pounds; five days later, up to yesterday (July 

 13), forty-two pounds additional ;— making in 

 all one hundred and sixty-three (1G3) pounds of 

 nicer honey than Ave ever saw before. And we 

 are not near through yet, and have good reason 

 to think that if we had taken out the'honey more 

 fiequently, we should have obtained a still great- 

 er quantity. For we twice found the combs so 

 full that the bees had begun to fill up all the lit le 

 chinks about the hive ; and a similar hive 

 which we emptied only three days before the 

 last time, had nearly as much houey as the one 

 mentioned. 



Do you know, Mr. Editor, that this seems 

 almost incredible, especially from a locality 

 where it is generally supposed that bees cannot 

 be made i o pay expenses? The heavies- yield 

 from a black colony that I have heard from 

 here is less than forty pounds in a season. 



We have just received a couple of hives from 

 Mr. Langstroth, as he makes them now ; and 

 we must say that, in our opinion, they are far 

 in advance of the American hive, or any that 

 we have seen. The American hive looks very 

 well without bees in, or even with a swarm one 

 year old ; but with old heavy swarms, such as 

 we have now, we find it a decided relief when 

 we get round to the Langstroth hive in opera- 

 ting. In our judgment, we should have been 

 several hundred dollars better off; if we had 

 used no other than the L:ngstroth. There is 

 an advantage in using the game frames above, 

 that We do below, which can be compensated 

 for in no other way ; and this would be decid- 

 edly impossible with he American or any other 

 form of hive that Ave are acquainted with, ex- 

 cept the Langstroth. 



We have another plan of our own, viz : 



Have an extra set of empty combs to commence 

 with ; replace those taken out, with these, so as 



