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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Dividing Bees— Straight Combs. 



On page 244, vol. 3, of the Bee Journal, for 

 June, 1868, are some inquiries by C. E. Thorne, 

 directed to me. They would have been noticed 

 before, but I have been too busy to write. 



Mr. Thorne alludes to a small book that I have 

 in preparation, on getting straight combs, and 

 making artificial swarms without looking up the 

 queen, there being but "one exception." He 

 wants to know about that "one exception," 

 whether it might not be the rule. I answer in 

 the negative. Let me explain. When a man 

 has but one hive of bees, then he must seek for 

 and find the queen. If there be more than one 

 hive on the premises, then there is no necessity 

 of losing a moment's time in searching for the 

 queen. There are no failures by this system of 

 dividing bees, and every man or woman can 

 safely practise it. The system is perfectly sim- 

 ple and readily understood. It may have been 

 published, for aught I know, but I have failed 

 to find it in detail. 



On my visit to Professor Kirtland, of Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, three years ago, I gave him a prac- 

 tical illustration of a portion of the system, by 

 dividing a colony of bees for him, and he writes 

 me that he now practises it exclusively, and has 

 ever since my visit as above. He regards the 

 system as the best and simplest yet devised, and 

 worthy the attention of all classes of bee-keep- 

 ers. It is not necessary for me to state that Pro- 

 fessor Kirtland is a bee-keeper of experience, 

 nor that he is regarded as authority on this sub- 

 ject. These facts are well understood. 



Now, a few words with regard to straight 

 combs. Mr. Thorne wants to know if my way 

 of getting straight combs is an improvement on 

 the well-known plan of raising one end of the 

 hive, a la Quinby. Well, sir, if my plan were 

 no better than that, I would keep still, and never 

 divulge it, for that is of very little value. I have 

 had some little experience in the matter, and 

 think I know whereof I affirm. I should be very 

 glad indeed to get straight combs, and as even 

 in thickness as a f -inch board, by such a simple 

 plan, but I cannot do it. The plan I refer to, 

 however, will do it in every case, and if I can 

 get time to finish writing the book, I am sure 

 that others can secure the same result. It mat- 

 ters not to me how long the frames are, about 

 getting the combs straight. They can be had as 

 straight and nice in frames six feet long as in 

 short ones of one foot or less. The book is not 

 yet ready for the press, nor can I state how soon 

 it will be, for I have so many business corre- 

 spondents to attend to that I find very little time 

 to write even a brief article for the Bee Jour- 

 nal — a periodical worthy of a generous support, 

 not only in a literary but a financial point of 

 view. ' M. M. Baldridge. 



St. Charles, III. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Italian Queens, Pure Fertilization, and 

 Bee Books. 



Bees require more than twice as much honey 

 to produce an ounce of wax, when they have 

 no pollen at command, as when well supplied 

 therewith. 



On the 24th of June, I received three queens 

 from Wm. W. Cary, of Coleraine, Mass , price 

 $10. The express charges on the three was 

 $1,60. They arrived in excellent condition, and 

 their purity proves satisfactory. I think Mr. 

 Cary is worthy of patronage. As he says that 

 he had charge of the first queens imported by S. 

 B. Parsons, in 1860, he ought to know, by this 

 time, what good stock is, and rmy person ought 

 to be satisfied with the price. 



On the 5th of September, I received a queen 

 by mail from Mr. Henry Alley, of Wenham, 

 Mass., price $3; postage, two cents, paid by Mr. 

 Alley. She is a good-looking queen, but as she 

 has not laid an egg since I received her, I can- 

 not say anything about her purity. He also 

 sent me one of his fumigating pipes, and I in- 

 troduced her by his process, and it proved satis- 

 factory in that, case. The readers of the Bee 

 Journal will recollect that his process of intro- 

 ducing is with tobacco smoke. What I wish to 

 call the attention of queen-raisers to is his method 

 of shipping by mail. The box or cage is as 

 cheap and simple, if not cheaper, than any ex- 

 press box I ever saw. Shipped on the 31st of 

 August, with about twenty workers, I received 

 them on the 5th of September, late at night. 

 There was one dead worker, and he looked as 

 though he had died of old age. The rest were 

 as fresh as if they had just been put up, with 

 ample provision for ten or fifteen days. I think 

 nothing of the queen's not laying, for none of 

 my queens had laid any for ten days previous 

 to receiving her. 



On the 17th of September, Mrs. E. S. Tupper, 

 of Brighton, Iowa, sent me the details of her 

 method of procuring the fertilization of the 

 queen by 'any drone desired, requesting me to 

 test it, and report what I thought of it, but, as I 

 had no drones, I could not test it this fall. Al- 

 low me to say that it is a great step in advance 

 of any process yet made public, for if it works, 

 (and I have not the least reason to doubt it will,) 

 there is no possibility of losing the queen, or of 

 having her mate with any other drones than 

 those selected. The process is secret at present, 

 but will be given to all those who order queens 

 from Mrs. Tupper. The readers of the Bee 

 Journal know by this time that I am opposed 

 to all secrets in bee-keeping; but as Mrs. Tup- 

 per has to support herself and family, (and her 

 husband is an invalid,) she is as much entitled 

 to some compensation for her discovery as any 

 person that I know of; and as she lias imported 

 stock both from Italy and Germany, any person 

 will no doubt obtain his money's worth, both in 

 the secret and in the queen obtained. 



Mr. J. R. Dodds, of New London, Iowa, has 

 sent me the Bee-Keeper" s Guide-Book, by E. 

 Kretchmer, price fifty cents. It is a work well 

 up to the times, and worth many times the price 

 to any new beginner. In fact, Langstroth's, 

 Quinby's, King's Bee-Keeper" s Text Boole, 

 Kretchmer's, and the American Bee Journal, 

 are the only works on bees that I am acquainted 

 with that are really worth the money thev cost. 



Osage, Oct. 6, 1808. E. Gallup. 



