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THE AMEHICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



second, she is the most prolific queen in my 

 apiary ; tliird, lier workers are very industrious ; 

 fourth and last, I am not at all out of patience 

 because she cost me only $3.50. Five dollars will 

 not buy her to-day; and if I have the good luck to 

 keep her till next June (supposing she is young, 

 as claimed by Mr. Alley), I shall not want to 

 part with her for two lives. All who have seen 

 her and her workers, pronounce them beauties ; 

 and Italian bees are nothing new in these parts. 



James Heddon. 

 Doicagiac, MicTi., Sept., 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Novice. 



Mr. Editor : —Sometime ago, in one of our 

 articles, we mentioned that we considered the 

 ' 'Apiary' ' department in the ' ^ Rural New Yorker'' ' 

 of more real worth than some of the periodicals 

 specially devoted to bees. 



We had then seen about half a dozen of the 

 " Rurals" that contained some very good articles, 

 from the pens of intelligent bee-keepers who 

 Avere well up to the times. Since then, how- 

 ever, we have seen so much else there so greatly 

 behind the times, that we must think our deci- 

 sion then a little hasty. For instance last week 

 a bee-keeper takes the trouble to inform the pub- 

 lic that "hives sh<^>uld be moved in the night 

 when the bees are all in, for he had just moved 

 some in the day time and a large number that 

 were out, never found their hive on their return. 

 So take notice everybody, always move your bees 

 at night ! As this was given as a piece of valu- 

 able information, we looked in vain for some note 

 from the editors, cautioning their readers against 

 falling into the same error, and pointing it out. 

 And then we wondered if the editors knew any 

 better, or anything about bees at all, for many of 

 their articles seem to imply that they are unin- 

 formed and publish anything they come across, 

 indiscriminately, truth and error, without note 

 or comment. 



Tlie editor of the Apiculturist thought it the 

 height of absurdity because we seemed to con- 

 sider him in any way responsible for what his 

 correspondent wrote. We certainly loere so inno- 

 cent as to suppose that an editor knew what he 

 was going to publish, and that should a corre- 

 spondent send him an article containing a very 

 gross error, calculated to lead beginners astray, 

 he would tell such correspondent his mistake, 

 without using his article ; or if it contained some- 

 thing else good and valuable, and he decided to 

 publish it, he would kindly mention the mistake 

 or error, in a little note somewhere, and give his 

 readers confidence by letting tliem know that 

 some one teas "running the machine" "some- 

 where." 



There are a large number of good farmers who 

 refuse to read agricultural papers, because they 

 say, and with considerable reason, that more than 

 half that is written is "impracticable nonsense." 

 We believe the American Agriculturist and the 

 American Bee Journal are at least two noble ex- 

 ceptions. None of their readers can fail to know 



that each of those papers is edited by some one 

 who is fully posted, and is at home too every time. 



The Apiculturist intimates that we think no 

 one else has a right to starts bee journal. So far 

 from that we would be glad to subscribe this 

 minute for half a dozen more ; if they were in 

 charge of competent men and had the broad plat- 

 form before them that our own Journal has — 

 namely, the advancement of bee culture for the 

 nation at large. 



We should have replied to the Apiculturist be- 

 fore, but he " called names," and when we were 

 a small boy we used to make it a principle 

 that when our comrades called us names, we 

 "wouldn't play anymore," and we feel just so 

 still. 



We, too, Mr. Editor, noticed the mention in 

 the "Scientific American," of the chicken roost 

 bee arrangement to stop moths, and felt pained 

 to think that anything, so far behind the times, 

 should be found in that paper. Then, again, we 

 noticed shortly after where they advised a corre- 

 spondent to chop up his combs and strain the 

 honey out, and mentioned too that it was said 

 that the outside combs contained the nicest honey! 

 Have Munn & Co., too, been sleeping in Rip Van 

 Winkle style, or do they think us Bee Journal 

 people not to be depended on ? 



We have had many letters from highly intelli- 

 gent people, even professors in colleges, asking 

 about the melextractor and inquiring whether- 

 there was no serious objection to such unnatural 

 treatment of bees '? 



"Unnatural treatment," indeed! About the 

 25th of last June, a farmer called on us to know 

 where he could sell his honey best. On asking 

 him liow he had got it so early, he coolly informed 

 us that he had taken it up, as it seemed full ! But 

 how about the brood? He didn't know what we 

 meant by brood, but had thrown away the young 

 bees and did not think that they were of any 

 use ! IMurdered thousands of young innocents 

 before the end of .June ! Of course such treat- 

 ment is ptirfectly natural and right. He didn't 

 get much for his honey. 



Mr. Editor, we are getting hoarse in trying to 

 explain, and all we tell inquirers now is to get 

 the ^^ American Bee Journal.'''' Yet many, many 

 times they can't attbrd it, and many more times 

 don't get time to read it. Yet the same persons 

 will say — "Why, Novice, your forty-six hives of 

 bees have been worth more to yoxr than any hun- 

 dred acre farm in Medina county," and go home 

 quite excited. 



AVe have had a few weeks' drouth, the first 

 this season, and it soon stopped the honey from 

 autumnal wild flowers. 



Since Mr. Tillinghast suggested our being 

 called "Expert" (or some such foolishness), we 

 think we could hardly be honest without con- 

 fessing some of our work this fall. For instance, 

 we removed queen from No. 2-3, August 9th, and 

 ten days after cutout thirty-two (o2) queen cells. 

 We have mentioned before that we tried hatch- 

 ing some of them in cages, and the rest were put 

 in hives from which we had removed hybrid 

 queens. AVe were such an expert at the business 

 that we hatched about one-half the thii-ty-two, 

 and after they were hatched, we bungled the life 



