216 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[MiARCH, 



honey dearth lasted till m June, when the white 

 clover came into blossom. All my colonies that 

 had from thirty-five to forty-tive pounds of 

 honey, when put into winter ciuarters the fall 

 previous, did well for the season, giving swarms 

 and surplus honey. But those having only from 

 twenty-three to twenty-eight pounds at that 

 time, had to be fed in April and May, to keep 

 them from starving, as well as to keep them 

 breeding ; and they gave no swarms and no 

 surplus honey. This would undoubtedly have 

 been difterent, had the spring been a good honey 

 season ; but the case here was the reverse. Hence 

 we had better be prepared for what may come, 

 as we have not the ruling of the season. Then, 

 in the spring, if the yield of honey comes 

 plentiful, we can regulate the balance with the 

 honey machine. 



I am surprised to see still so many ninnies on 

 bee-hive patents. In nine cases out of ten, these 

 are moths of the most ravenous breed, or other- 

 wise humbugs of the deejiest dye. They can 

 always be known by the stripes on the back — 

 that is, by using some of the Langstroth claims, 

 witliout deigning so much as to give him credit 

 in the least for his invention. You may bear 

 them at the fairs or some other public gather- 

 ing, crying out My Patent hive, and loudly 

 condemning the Langstroth hive, when at the 

 same time every good point of their hive is 

 pilfered from the Langstroth claims. There is 

 so much of this sort of imposition carried on, 

 that it is quite a drawback on the movable frame 

 system. "But," says some one, "about so 

 many will be humbugged any way, and it might 

 as well be on bee-hives as on any thing else." 

 AVell, that might do if it did not afltect so import- 

 ant a branch of business. Sometime hereafter I 

 shall look after some of the other humbugs in 

 this line. I have taken the Bee Journal for over 

 three years, and expect to continue to take and 

 read it as long as we both live, for I do not 

 wish to be divorced from it. 



H. W. W. 



Mendota, Ills. 



O;^ A meeting of the Michigan Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation will be held at Lansing, on Thin-sday and 

 Friday the 33d and 24th of this month. A largo 

 attendance and interesting discussions are expected. 



A writer in the North American Review, 

 many years ago, asserted that bees sometimes 

 suffered from dyspepsia ; but from their sober 

 and correct habits, it is presumable that they 

 are exempt from gout and rheumatism. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Washington, March, 1871. 



D:P=' The proceedings of the Cincinnati Conven- 

 tion occupy so much of our space this month, that 

 many comraunicaiions are again unavoidably omit- 

 ted ; as also the usual monthly correspondence of 

 the Journal. If the honey receptacles of our friends 

 be as well crammed next summer as our columns are 

 likely to be crowded, there is a good time coming for 

 those who have plenty of bees and know how to 

 manage them skilfully. 



CC^ In reply to inquiries from several quarters, we 

 would say that a person making or nsing a patented 

 hive, or one any part or portion of which is pat- 

 ented, is liable to damages, if he has not bought or 

 obtained the riglit of using such from the patentee 

 or patentees. Making such hives for sale subjects 

 the maker or vender, as well as the user to the 

 penalties of infringement. Buying the right to use, 

 make or sell a patented improvement of any pat- 

 ented hive, does not secure the right of making or 

 using such part or portion of the hive as is covered 

 by the original patent. However good or valuable 

 the patented improvement may be, if it cannot be 

 used except in connection with the patented article 

 of which it is an improvement, it is indispensably 

 necessary to procure a right or license from the origi- 

 nal patentee also. Nor can the original patentee use, 

 make, or sell the patented improvement, without 

 compensating or obtaining a license from the pat- 

 entee of sucli improvement. Each party has the 

 sole control of his own particular invention, and is 

 entitled to compensation for it if used ; and third 

 parties, purchasing from either, occupy precisely the 

 position of the party from whom they purchase, or 

 under whom they hold. This, of course, embraces 

 also any further or subsequently patented improve- 

 ment. Hives simjily embodying infringements or 

 evasions of an existing patent, confer no right what- 

 ever, but subject both vender and user to the penal- 

 ties of the law. 



The Baron of Rothschiitz, at Posendorff, near Lay- 

 bach in Carniola, cultivates bees on an extensive scale. 

 His apiary numbers more than five hundred colonies, 

 under the superintendence of a manager, who attends 

 to them exclusively from spring till fall, from dawn 

 to dusk, supplying on an average fifteen fertilized 

 queens daily during the season. He has 6,500 Irames 

 for his hives, of which 3,000 contain combs and honey. 

 — The apiary is subdivided into seven departments. 

 First, the honey department, with 100 movable comb 

 double hives, to accommodate two hundred colonies, 

 second, a stand with 303 colonies, which supply 606 

 small or nucleus stocks, furnishing bees to accom- 

 pany queens sold; third, 250 colonies devoted to 

 queen raising ; fourth, 350 nucleus hives, to receive 

 and hatch queen cells ; fifth, a swarming stand, with 

 90 movable frame hives ; sixth, a stand of thirty-six 

 movable frame model or pattern hives, to supply the 

 demand of customers promptly, and seventh, a stand 

 of 120 provincial hives containing Carniolian bees, to 

 supply those who desire to obtain full stocks of that 

 race or variety of the honey bee in the peculiar hive 

 used by the peasantry of the country. 



