1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



189 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Washington, Feb., 1871. 



O:^ Want of room, and the late period at which 

 some were received, compels us to omit a large num- 

 ber of communications this mouth. 



Q^ We are requested to state that on all letters 

 mailed for Canada with only three ce7itx postage paid on 

 them, full postage (ten cents) is required to be paid 

 when they are received there — ^just the same as thougli 

 no postage had been paid on them, when mailed in 

 the United States. But if six cents postage is prepaid 

 on them, they go through to their destination with- 

 out further charge. 



H^ We shall be able to give our readers, in an 

 early number of the Journal, a full account of a new, 

 and it is said well tested, mode of safely introducing a 

 queen into a colony, without the trouble of previously 

 removing the old queen, or searching for and destroy- 

 ing a fertile worker, if such a " troublesome customer " 

 has usurped or acquired dominion of a hive. The 

 device used is simple and cheap ; and if found to be 

 efficient — as we are assured it will be, by those who 

 have employed it — it will greatly facilitate operations 

 in bee culture, as well as prevent losses and annoying 

 disappointments. 



The Convention of bee-keepers which is to meet at 

 Cincinnati a few days hence, is convoked at the spe- 

 cial instance of Mr. H. A. King, evidently under the 

 impulse of some fancied grievance, and with the 

 obvious intent to secure and promote his own interest 

 under the guise of an ostensible extreme solicitude 

 for the advancement of bee-culture. As he has tlius, 

 from the outset, made himself peculiarly prominent 

 in the matter, it is only right and proper that he 

 should be and remain for the Convention a conspicu- 

 ous object of regard, as connected with the purpose 

 of their assembling. This is but fair. He is, besides, 

 the publisher, and claims to be the author, of a trea- 

 tise on bee-culture, and liicewise the patentee — thrice 

 repeated — of a hive by himself puiTed and lauded to 

 the skies. Now the claims and pretensions of such a 

 man are fair and fit subjects of consideration by the 

 respeciable and intelligent body of practical apiarians 

 thus called together through his instrumentality. If 

 those claims and pretensions are valid, let them be 

 endorsed and sustained ; if not, let them be pronounced 

 and denounced as a fraud and a swindle. And Mr. 

 King himself should not only not shun, but seek, and 

 eagerly embrace the coming opportunity to vindicate 

 liis title to the character he has assumed and the posi. 

 tion he seeks to occupy. In his book, speaking of his 

 hive, he says : — 



" The hive embodies two series of improvements. 

 The first was the result of the inventive skill of 

 several persons whose inventions were purchased and 

 combined in this hive, and secured by letters patent, 

 November 24th, 1863. The last series of improve- 

 ments, including our improved movable comb frame, 

 patented October 10th, 1805, originated from a dis- 

 covery deduced from carefully-conducted experi- 

 ments, which seems destined to revolutionize all 

 other systems of bee-keeping. This discovery clearly 

 reveals the cauxe of the imperfection which has here 

 tofore existed in all movable-comb hives (our own not 

 excepted). But our latest improvements completely 

 remedy these defects, and considering the past popu- 

 larity of the hive, place its future supremacy beyond 

 question. It could hardly be expected that perfection 

 would be reached in the first movable-comb hive in- 

 vented in this coimtry. On the contrary, we have 

 demonstrated by close observation and careful exjieri- 

 ment that this very point nojv claimed by the inventor, 

 viz. : the shallow space between and above thetnp-bars 

 of the frames is the direct cause of a great waste of 

 animal heat, requiring an increased consumption 

 of hduey in winter, besides retarding early breeding 

 in the spring, and frequently entirely preventing a 

 commencement being made in the surplus honey 

 boxes." 



Nowhere are divers broad clainis intermingled with 

 sundry well rounded assertions, Which somehow get to 

 be understood by the pui'chasers of rights, as covering 

 still broader assumptions, and as conveying privileges 

 that cannot be "nominated in the bond." Hence it 

 becomes the duty of a fair-minded inventor to avail 

 himself of any favorable occasion to explain matters 

 and put himself rectus i?i curia. Let Mr. King do 

 this ; let him show to the Convention, or to a Com- 

 mittee, 



First. — What his several patents cover, that is of 

 any value to a hive, or to bee-culture, and was new 

 when patented. 



Secondly. — What peculiar feature, device or arrange- 

 ment it is, that gives his hive the " supremacy " 

 claimed for it ; and that such feature, device, or ar- 

 rangement is covered by his patent or any one of them. 



Thirdly. — In what consists the grand " discovery " 

 on whichthepatent of October 10th, 1803 is based, and 

 which, according to the book, is such an essential 

 matter as "seems destined to revolutionize all other 

 systems of bee-keeping." 



Fourthly. — How the omission of " the shallow space 

 between and above the top-bars of the frames," to 

 prevent "a great waste of animal heat, requiring an 

 increased consumption of honey in winter," squares 

 with the object of " leaving a cavity aijove the frames," 

 "to absorb the moisture arising from the bees in 

 winter ?" as stated by him on the preceding page. 



The advantages and superiority of the hive in 

 question have been so long, so loudly, and so exten- 

 sively ding-donged in the ears of the bee-keeping com- 

 munity, that a reasonable curiosity has been excited 

 to know whether there is anything more than sound 

 in it. Its inventor will doubtless be present at the 

 Cincinnati Convention. That Convention will be 

 composed of many earnest, intelligent and experienced 

 bee-keepers, certainly not prejudiced against the hive 



