1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



173 



shower, for instance, have our fellow bee-keepers 

 ever observed the scrambling to get in ? Gorizzuti 

 does not seem to have had results equal to ours. 



We cannot tell how intensely interesting we 

 found the article on "Artificial Honey Comb" 

 better than by remarking that we have a pair 

 of plates five or six inches across that will make 

 impressions which the bees used readily as the 

 basis for cells. 



We are full of enthusiasm with the idea of 

 being able, before the season opens, of supplying 

 not only our hives, but also our neighbors, with 

 just such worked comb foundations as Mr. Bick- 

 ford mentions having seen, unless our editor 

 should, on second thought, consider it unwise to 

 let Novice loose with such a machine. 



We won't touch the "Hive Controversy" for 

 fear we might get a rap across the knuckles, or 

 some worse place. We really should be afi'aid 

 to have Mr. Puckett pick us to pieces, unless he 

 would adhere a little closer to the text and be a 

 little more courteous in his manner. 



We really had hoped that Mr. Thomas had 

 sold his hive all out at some ^v/'^ce or other, (we 

 do not mean the revolvable and reversible chap, ) 

 and had got ready to give us something good, as 

 he is capable of and used to do. Please, Mr. 

 Thomas, don't write about "my hive" any more. 

 We will grant that if it be made shallow it will 

 be a Thomas hive still ; but then Langstroth's 

 would be an infringement on it ; and would not 

 Langstroth have to pay for the right to sell hisf 

 We think he would, as we know he would never 

 trespass on the rights of others. 



" Gallup in a fix." Is it possible ? And who 

 would have thought that Gallup would enjoy all 

 that trouble, and wouldn't shut the bees up? 

 Was it the remnants of that same despotism that 

 prompted him to pound the poor cat on the head '? 

 By the way, we shall have to pound Mr. Gallup 

 on his (Hcn reverend head, too, if we do not hear 

 from him more frequently. He writes for other 

 folks and about things, especially when they are 

 "good for bees," but "nary" word for the old 

 stand-by. We don't even know what great re- 

 sults he achieved this last season, only by crude 

 reports. Does he forget old friends, or are they 

 not as profitable ? Or does he want to be pounded 

 more? If so, let's "hit him hard." 



Now, if we stop as long as this at every article, 

 we shall never get through, so perhaps we had 

 better skip over to those "Questions for Novice." 



Question 1st. Yes, since using the two-story 

 hive, the latter plan has superseded the former. 

 In the height of the season we leave the hive open, 

 and, as we do not give the bees time to cap the 

 cells, do very little uncapping ; and the same with 

 smoke. We never think of using any when honey 

 is coming in rapidly. Smoke is the too "much 

 bother." Later, when black robbers bother us, 

 the surest way we have tried is to operate by 

 moonlight. Romantic, etc., you know. 



Question 4th. Yes. In June and July we should 

 empty every frame that had honey in it, of course. 



Question 5th. We do not allow any crack or 

 crevice for bees to get under the hives. We had 

 much trouble by their clustering under them, 

 queen and all ; and in one case they staid several 

 days, and the more we brushed them out the 



more they would go back, until we banked saw 

 dust around every hive completely. 



Question 6tii. Yes, we too get fire in the saw 

 dust, but are going to learn to be careful. Shall 

 nail a strip of board on each side of every hive 

 before we put tliem out in the spring, so that 

 each shall stand on a sort of box, bottom up- 

 ward. A fi-iend paints the bottom of the hive 

 and sets it right on a heap of saw dust. 



"Top-storing hives behind the age !" Why, 

 bless your soul, our excellent friend Tyro and a 

 thousand others, wliat are we using but side- 

 storing hives, far ahead of Quinby's, Hazen's, 

 Alley's, or anybody else's ! Don't you suppose 

 our three tons of honey from forty-six stocks 

 was stored at the side? Empty all the honey 

 out of any hive, and don't the bees store more 

 in the empty frames at the side of the brood? 

 Don't everybody that writes a bee book, copied 

 from Langstroth, say, with great candor, that 

 bees will store fifty to one hundred per cent, 

 more honey in the body of the hive than in 

 boxes (on top?) Now, listen all. If you take 

 half of the combs, brood, and honey, in a Lang- 

 stroth hive, and ptit them in an upper story, 

 (which we always do when the season is ready 

 for it and we wish the bees to work above, ) and 

 fill out the hive with empty frames, where else 

 can the bees work except at the side? If you 

 want honey in the comb, cut it out of these frames. 

 Where is the use of old-ftishioned boxes ? 



Yes, we too have cross colonies and gentle 

 colonies, both pure, as we think, and so they re- 

 main as long as the queen lives. And we do not 

 know any remedy, unless it is to get Gallup to 

 fix them oflf all alike r/e/itle, for a consideration. 



" Mr. Baldridge's mystery unsolved" is alatigh- 

 able mistake, we think, from his not having read 

 the Journal very carefully. The correspondent he 

 quotes from only wished to know how he could 

 get a frame in the top story, when laid flat on a 

 board, to allow the bees to repair a broken comb, 

 as we had directed. Our good friend, Mr. Price, 

 has certainly stopped revolving in his Part IV. 

 wrong side uppermost. We should advise giving 

 him a friendly turn until he came right, and 

 then fasten him so. He does not believe the Ital- 

 ians "will prove any more prolific" than the 

 black bees. Didn't he revolve them backward ? 

 We have read all his articles carefully, and also 

 the other side of the question. AVe are not sure 

 but his plan would be a cheap one to pioduce 

 queen cells. We presume our queens will be al- 

 lowed to be good ones, and they are all artificial, 

 every one. We do think that some queens that 

 we have raised were worthless, because they were 

 raised in a nucleus with so few bees that they 

 were not kept warm enough, and had not plenty 

 of food. But with a pint of bees, in warm weather, 

 we think our chance for a fine qtu-en would be 

 equal to any. We might here confess that no 

 idea of profit was ever sufficient to induce us to 

 destroy a pure queen, so that we have many now 

 that were two years old last June ; yet we can 

 hardly say that they were any less prolific— arti- 

 ficial as they could well be, the way we ' ' tinkered' ' 

 them two years ago. Yet Mr. Price thinks his 

 plan would give us queens worth several times 

 as much. Well, we hope so, and think we will 



