206 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[March, 



day, during the latter part of ^lay, 1870 ; while 

 in December of the same year tlie mercury sank 

 to 27" below zero. Mr. H. can judge from these 

 facts whether bee-keeping would be a profitable 

 pursuit in such a country or not. 



Herbert A. Burch. 

 South Haven, Mich., Jan. 25, 1871. 



[For the AmericiiQ Bee Journa.l] 



Novice. 



Dear Bee Journal : — We have just returned 

 from the Cincinnati Convention, where we had 

 tlie i>leasure of meeting many with whom we 

 felt ourselves well acquainted, but had not been 

 so personally until then ; and we must say that 

 the reception which your old friend "Novice" 

 received when he was recognized, was such as 

 we had hardly dared expect. 



We must confess that the number of warm 

 friends who took us by the hand, and the con- 

 gratulations we received, were more than ample 

 compensation for our writing for the Journal 

 during the past four or five years. 



We also enjoyed the very great pleasure of a 

 long friendly talk with Mr. Langstroth ; and we 

 very much regret that his health will not permit 

 him to give us the benefit of his writing through 

 the Journal. His ideas have a clearness and a com- 

 prehension of the whole subject of bee culture, 

 that we have never met before. Even at the 

 time of his invention, the movable comb hive, 

 years ago, he seems to have looked forward and 

 fo%seen just what would be needed so far, that 

 we think the most successful bee-keepers will 

 agree together, after years of experiment, that 

 the hive he gave us, is all and more than just 

 what we needed. 



We suppose you will have a report of his re- 

 marks at the Convention, and therefore do 

 not send them ; but in our opinion they were of 

 more value than all that was said on bees.* 



The rest of the proceedings we will leave for 

 some one else to give, and make a few notices of 

 last mtmth's Journal. 



In regard to comb foundations, our experi- 

 ments, made in October last, would prove some- 

 thing very difterent indeed from the single ex- 

 periment of Mr. Quiuby ; and we will ask only- 

 one week to test the matter in full frames, be it 

 in March or xVpril, with good foundations. 



Happy to hear from Gallup again. 



Jasper Hazen's long article, like all others we 

 have seen from his pen, (and they are widely 

 scattered,) purports to be written for the purpose 

 of giving information on bee-culture ; yet Ave 

 cannot gather a single idea more than that he 

 has made some great discovery on hives — Circu- 

 lar on receipt of stamp ! 



"Without practising any violence on the 

 colony !" We presume that refers to movable 

 combs and the melextractor. 



If oiu" good natured editor does not like to 

 tell a correspondent that there are advertising 

 pages for patent hives, let us at least show tjiat 



* If tliis be so, he must have bceu very meagorly reported. 

 -Ed. 



tee feel it. Mr. Hazen cannot but be well aware 

 that the Langstroth two-story and many other 

 hives give every advantage that his does on pre- 

 vention of swarming, by giving room. ^Vhether 

 the room is in boxes or full sized frames at the side 

 of the brood, there certainly can be no advan- 

 tage in boxes over frames. Any bee-keeper who 

 does not give his bees all the room they can use, 

 is certainly behind the times. 



Mr. Hazen, please be open and honest and tell 

 us in the beginning that your sole object is to 

 sell rights for your hive. 



Mr. Gallup may well say he could not realize 

 the capabilities of the melextractor until he had 

 tried it. 



Had Mr. Qninby been at the Cincinnati Con- 

 vention, he would have found that there is a 

 very strong tendency to give Mr. Langstroth the 

 whole credit of introducing the movable comb 

 hive, now at least. 



We think queen nurseries will work, and pos- 

 sibly even if they are not patented 



With high anticipations of what the coming 

 season of 1871 is to develop by the aid of a com- 

 bined brotherhood of disinterested bee-keepers 

 (not patent hive men), we are among the many 

 yet a Novice. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eeport, Cross-breeding, and Questions. 



I commenced the spring of 1870 with seven 

 colonies of black bees, and one with a drone lay- 

 ing Italian queen — all in movable frame hives, 

 wintered on their summer stands. 



On the 22d of September, 1860, I received from 

 Mr. A. Grimm, of Jefferson, Wisconsin, by mail, 

 two Italian queen bees. I clipped a wing of 

 each, caged, and introduced them. One of them 

 the bees neglected, and she died in the cage ; but 

 I succeeded in introducing the other. I made 

 frequent examination for eggs and brood during 

 October following, but found neither. At Christ- 

 mas the weather was warm and pleasant ; bees 

 came out of the hive, and I examined it tliorough- 

 ly. I found neither eggs nor brood, and felt much 

 disappointed. I frequently saw the queen, appar- 

 ently all right. Made no further examination 

 till February. 1870. The 16th was warm, no 

 snow on the ground, and bees flying. Examined 

 and found brood in worker cells, from the egg to 

 capped brood, with caps raised. This was con- 

 clusive evidence of drone brood, and you may 

 well believe I was disappointed. I made no 

 further examination till March 10th, which was 

 a warm day, with bees flying. Found brood in- 

 creased, hatched and hatching, and no sign of 

 worker brood. 



Query 1. Can any of the readers of the Journal 

 explain how this occurred? I do not believe 

 Mr. Grimm would knowingly sell me or any man 

 a virgin queen for a fertilized one. Did she 

 become a drone layer by being chilled when in 

 the mail ? There were no dead bees in the trans- 

 porting box. The next day after she was in- 

 troduced was very cold. It was the best mishap 

 that could have occurred. I will explain. I 

 furnished her with worker brood, and empty 



