40 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Fo: the American Bee Journal. ] 



S? allow Hives. 



Well, Mr. Editor, this Gallup is getting 

 into an awful muss, to pay for being so blunt 

 and plain in some of his articles. But I want to 

 tell the readers of the Bee Journal that he 

 had rather be killed outright than frightened to 

 death. Mr. Alley, if I understand him aright, 

 is an agent for the Langstroth hive. Now, it 

 is not my wish to hurt Mr. Langstroth in the 

 least, but Mr. Alley is compelling me to state 

 some truths. I never have used the shallow 

 things myself, but have had the care and man- 

 agement of them for my neighbors, and have 

 examined hundreds of them in different parts of 

 the West ; and therefore probably know how 

 they work as well as any other person. I have 

 known a person to lose $600 worth of bees in 

 one winter in those hives ; another person 

 thirty swarms — all he had ; and I can show 

 you at present such rejected shallow hives all 

 over the West. I received three letters last 

 week from different individuals, all stating, " I 

 bought a right and hive from Mr. Langstroth's 

 agent, but do not like it." "Mrs. E. S. Tupper 

 commenced using the hive, but now uses the 

 American," &c. In all my large acquaintance 

 in Wisconsin and this State, I do not know of 

 a single individual that uses them in the shal- 

 low form, and nearly all of them have pur- 

 chased the right at one time or another. I am 

 aware that our climate is altogether different 

 from yours, friend Alley, but that does not 

 prove that the Langstroth hive is the best in 

 your climate. Now I could use the Langstroth 

 hive here, and do well with it, but I could 

 use the Champion, American, Thomas, Kidder, 

 Lee, Bingham, and several other form?, and do 

 better. To a large proportion of beginners I 

 could recommend the Thomas or American 

 form of hive very highly. Some of their fix- 

 tures I should leave out for myself ; and to 

 another proportion of beginners I would recom- 

 mend the hollow bass-wood, or bee-gum, as it 

 is called here. 



Now for some of my reasons. In the hollow 

 gum or American form of hive, the bees will 

 commence about so many combs for worker 

 combs, say from six to eight, and as they are 

 tall in proportion to their size, those combs are 

 carried down to the bottom all worker comb, 

 and as the bees can cluster in them naturally, 

 the queen breeds up to her full capacity earlier 

 in the season than she possibly can in this cli- 

 mate in the shallow things. And the bees will 

 winter as well, if not better, in such hives with- 

 out corncobs than yours will with them. I 

 certainly have no objection to your using corn- 

 cobs. The objection I have is this, for a person 

 to come around claiming that he has a valuable 

 secret on wintering bees, &c, and sells that 

 secret to my neighbors for ten dollars, and it 

 turns out corncobs ! It seems to me as though 

 it would be more manly to tell that neighbor 

 how to winter his bees without the use of corn- 

 cobs, and tell it freely, " without money and 

 without price." 



Now, friend Alley, I have a question to ask. 



Where, in the name of common sense would 

 or could the bees cluster in that form o f hive, 

 if not snug to the cobs, in winter, every time, 

 supposing the cobs were there? For the very rea- 

 sons I have stated, Mr. Langstroth ought, for 

 his own interest, furnish a different form of hive 

 to such of his customers as need them or re- 

 quire them. As near as I can understand, al- 

 most all movable comb hives contain the Lang- 

 stroth principle. Mr. Langstroth no doubt ob- 

 tains any quantity of testimonials from those 

 that like the hive. But, as a rule, those that 

 dislike or reject it scarcely ever write to him, 

 but adopt some other form, and condemn the 

 Langstroth principle altogether. 



From a friend and well-wisher to the beo- 

 keeping public, and all the while one of the best- 

 natured fellows you ever saw. So pitch in ! 



E. Gallup. 



Osage, Iowa., 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



In changing to Italian bees, last September, 

 the first young bees gathering hone}', or work- 

 ing at sunrise were nine days old. The first 

 young Italians with pollen on their legs, were 

 twenty-three days old, and these bore not half 

 so large loads as the older bees. I have not 

 seen any difference in age of honey-gathering 

 or pollen-gathering bees noticed in the Bee 

 Journal. Perhaps the young bees do not 

 at first gather honey for home storage, but 

 only for their own consumption. 



H. D. Miner. 



Washington Harbor, Wis. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Early Swarms in 1868. 



The first swarm of the season in latitude 41°, 

 was from N. Hartman's Italian bees. It, issued 

 on the 15th of May ; and the second swarm 

 came on the 26th. They are from a swarm of 

 last year which I sold him, put in a Langstroth 

 hive, and packed with straw and a board in 

 front, and left on its summer stand during the 

 winter. 



1 do not know of any black bees, in this town, 

 swarming till July this year. 



J. Winfield. 



Canfield, Ohio. 



Pleasant Hill, Ky. 

 I am much pleased with the American Bee 

 Journal. Instead of waning, it is increasing 

 in interest ; and I hope in patronage and circu- 

 lation, as I perceive it is exerting a salutary in- 

 fluence on the country, and creating a wide- 

 spread interest on the subject of bee-culture, 

 and the investigation of its yet remaining mys- 

 teries and intricacies, and communicating the 

 most simple and successful methods of manage- 

 ment. B. B. D UNLAW. 



West Hamburg. 

 Could apiarians know the value of your 

 Journal, none would do without it. Time, I 

 hope, will enlighten them. 



Mrs. William Harris. 



