268 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



[June, 



Nothing certainly could give us more pleasure 

 than to learn that Mr. Ilazen has made a larger 

 profit from Ms bees than we have from ours. We 

 rejoice at any one's success with bees ; but not in 

 selling the public patent rights for something 

 which they have already. 



What has Mr. Hazen invented, or what has 

 he done to further bee-keeping? Were his 

 patent hive ventilated, we fear that it w^ould 

 present a sorrier show than even Mr. King's 

 American hive. 



Supposing you paid five or ten dollars for a 

 great secret for charming or quieting bees, and 

 on trial the liquid did really do, in some cases, 

 all that was claimed for it, when you should dis- 

 cover that this liquid was nothing more than 

 sugar and water, should not the public be told 

 that they have it already? 



Mr. Hazen has, for the past six years or more, 

 scattered his articles through the press, so care- 

 fully gotten up that they were innocently pub- 

 lished as giving bona fide facts ; and yet their 

 tendency has been to discourage all real progress 

 or improvement, with no other design than to 

 advertise indirectly his Non-swarmer, as he 

 claims it to be. [See Report of NortJi Eastern 

 Bee-keepef s Association. ] If Mr. Barnard could 

 see our apiary, he might think that we had no 

 particular hive, although we have a principle 

 that we act on, whatever the hive may be. 



We thank ]\ir. B. for his candor, and will try 

 and set him right in his view of us. Thus — 

 Take any movable comb-hive that is convenient 

 for the purpose, full of bi-ood and bees. Instead 

 of boxes, place empty frames at the sides of the 

 brood combs, and above, if you wish of course. 

 The hive must be large enough to give the 

 bees all a chance to work. Remove the frames 

 when full and sealed, and be sure that the bees will 

 at all times have plenty of room, so that they per- 

 haps will not swarm. Is there any necessity for 

 paying Mr. Hazen, or any one else, for the right 

 to do what we have put in italics? 



If you think the Eureka hive has any advan- 

 tage over this, try it, or ask any experienced 

 apiarian, or read the article from C. O. Perrine 

 & Co., page 25(5. 



In one case, the honey is stored in small boxes ; 

 in the other, in the body of the hive. [See page 

 255, "Side-gathering Hives."] The fact that 

 thousands of old boxes do not afford room 

 enough for any surplus, or that many bee- 

 keepers who have movable frame hives do not 

 give room, argues nothing. A neighbor of ours, 

 who has Langstroth hives, got no surplus last 

 year, he "didn't have time to put on boxes at 

 all." 



We have not mentioned the melextractor, but 

 the task seems so hopeless of convincing bee- 

 keepers that "overhauling" hives in that way 

 is much less trouble than using boxes, that we 

 will give it up for the present, and let them learn 

 it when they get ready, as they have movable 

 frames. 



On page 248, Mr. McGaw has got the very 

 erroneous impression that we considered drones 

 from a virgin queen not capable of fertilizing 

 queens. At the Cincinnati Convention we gave 

 at length the result of an experiment convincing 



us (if we had any doubt before, for we had read 

 the old Journals too well) that the drone pro- 

 geny is in no way influenced by the fertilization 

 of the queen. The train of reasoning that has, 

 in some cases, been brought to bear against the 

 old theory is positively "awful" — we can think 

 of no better word. One writer in particular, it 

 seems to us, must see his blunder, if he only 

 reads his own book over again. 



We have been taking unusual pains this 

 spring to keep our bees warm, to promote breed- 

 ing, and think more highly than ever of the 

 quilt honey board. Mr. Bickford, we think, 

 gave us the idea. Use strong cloth, or the bees 

 will eat through it. The ease with which a hive 

 can be opened, with these quilts on top of the 

 frames, is refreshing. 



Of all the foolish things about a bee-hive, we 

 believe a movable side is the most so. Five 

 years ago we deliberated long and earnestly on 

 a Langstroth hive and an American, and having 

 no disinterested friend to tell us better, we fool- 

 ishly made fifty of the side-oiDcners, and even 

 cut combs out of the Langstroth to put into 

 them. As we have nice straight combs in them, 

 w-e tried to use them ; yet the thirty we have 

 had in use, we feel, have been hundr(?cls of dol- 

 lars damage to us. 



The movable side will shrink and swell alter- 

 nately, so that it is impossible to make it shut 

 tight ; and a new two-story one which the in- 

 ventor has just sent us, (and we really believe 

 there is not a feature in it that his patents can 

 cover, ) would not shut after we had it a week, 

 and now, in spite of all we can do, robbers could 

 go in at the cracks — as in fact they could into 

 all of them, unless a row of sentinels were kept 

 " up one side and down t'other." 



We attempted to make a two-story hive of 

 some of them, but have lately seen two different 

 bee friends who have tried the same thing, and 

 they have quite discouraged us in any such 

 "gate post" arrangement. For the benefit of 

 those unfortunates like ourselves, who have the 

 American hive and do not want to destroy them, 

 we attempted to suggest a way, in the Bee- 

 keeper's Journal, in which they might be used ; 

 but were so disappointed to find the article so 

 in print as though we were not aware of the ex- 

 istence of any other hive, that we shall not proba- 

 bly try it again. 



On page 285, the last item of our article should 

 have read, in regard to lady bee-keejiers — "how 

 we would like to visit tlieir apiaries." The omis- 

 sion of the two words "like to" made our 

 remark look almost disi-espectful, for we should 

 be sorry to call on the ladies without an invita- 

 tion—and even then, our time is too much occu- 

 pied for visiting much. 



In conclusion, we would add that we really 

 do not like to speak ill of any one, and though 

 our criticisms may have seemed harsh or out of 

 place, our only motive was to protect the inex- 

 perienced "brother novices" from the false 

 statements and misrepresentations that hav& 

 been such a curse to the mass of bee-keepers. 

 If patent hive men have the freedom of the 

 Journal to proclaim their wares, they must take 

 the consequences ; for we, who have no interest 



