48 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Aug. 



the lower end of the cage (first removing the 

 cork and comb), and return the cage. Open the 

 hive not less than twelve hours afterwards, and 

 you will find your virgin queen in and all right. 



Kansas is certainly the poorest place for bees 

 that one can well find, except at the end of the 

 season. Until the first of August there is so 

 little honey that no comb is made, and some- 

 times breeding entirely ceases. Early, high 

 winds keep the stocks weak, in connection with 

 little honey, but if the stocks can be made 

 strong fcy the first of August they will fill all 

 the combs they can make, or that can be found 

 for them to fill. G. F. Merkiam. 



Topeka, Kan. 



P. S. — Mr. Hosmer's method of wintering 

 weak stocks will not do here, unless one can 

 keep them until the 10th of May, and let them 

 out only on very fine days. The sudden changes 

 in the weather, and the great propensity to rob, 

 uses the weak stocks up very fast. We have 

 not had any of the bee disease here yet, but 

 last winter's cold killed large quantities. The 

 Italians rob less with me than any other, and 

 keep the moths off the combs far better than 

 blacks, besides being hardier, better breeders 

 and better honey gatherers. M. 



For the American Bee Journal.] 



Gallup Hits Somebody. 



Mr. Editor: — Do not be alarmed about my 

 quoting Mr. Adair, or from his works, nor even 

 using some of his language, as I obtained full 

 permission from him before I commenced. I 

 shall endeavor to give him full credit as far as 

 possible. Mr. A. has ventured an assertion in 

 Progressive Bee Culture to this etiect : "Tha*, a 

 perfectly balanced normal colony can generate wax 

 construct comb as rapidly as is needed for the 

 brooding of the queen and the storing of honey." 

 Now we think that we fully understand him. 

 We have experimented for years in this manner, 

 by adding more workers than one queen could 

 raise, and we thought we were doing a big thing. 

 But we now think that in a hive of the proper 

 form, one good queen can and will raise all the 

 bees that are necessary to carry on the labors of 

 the hive; if we double the quantity of honey 

 gatherers, the colony is thrown out of balance. 

 If we double the quantity of wax workers, it is 

 the same, and if we double the quantity of nurs- 

 ing bees we are no better off, only for the time 

 being. In wh t form of hive can we accomplish 

 this desirable result with the least possible manip- 

 ulation or labor? 



During a steady yield of honey, a queen will 

 occupy in my nuclei hive just about such a pro- 

 portion of three combs of brood, and the balance 

 is occupied with pollen and honey. Now place 

 her in my standard hive of twelve combs and 

 with the same proportion of bees she will occupy 

 the twelve combs just as fully as she did the 

 three, and in the same proportion. Now we will 

 place he^ in the Adair form of hive containing 

 twenty-four combs, and we have the same results. 



This form of hive would be just three feet long. 

 Now make three hives a la mode Gallup, just 

 twelve inches square, each contains eight combs, 

 and we set the three one on top of the other, and 

 we have a hive of the same capacity as of the 

 other, only it is three feet high instead of three 

 feet long. This hive certainly ought to suit 

 Novice, as it would be one story better than his, 

 and if it is a nice thing to lift oft' one story in 

 order to get at the bottom hive, it certainly ought 

 to be a great deal nicer to lift off two, and this 

 hive would be covered by the Langstroth patent, 

 and not by the King patent, so that Novice's bees 

 could find no fault on that score. 



Now we ask any candid bee-keeper who is 

 using the Gallup frame to try the experiment, 

 and satisfy yourself, don't take Gallup's or Adair's 

 assersions as they are bound up with their pet 

 New Idea and have gone to theorizing, etc. For 

 ourselves we have tried tall hives to our satisfac- 

 tion. Make the experiment with both good 

 queens and everything but the form of hive aa 

 as near as possible, and when half the season is 

 over, exchange combs, brood, bees and queens 

 from one hive to the other, and at the time of 

 the change extract the honey out of the way of 

 the queens and mark the results. Or what would 

 be better, use both stocks in their respective hives 

 one season and exchange the following season. 

 The combs are to be the same in every respect, 

 all brood comb and all will be in the same sized 

 frames. 



Now we actually think, that a blind man with 

 his eyes shut could see as plain as day who was 

 the father of Noah's sons after the above experi- 

 ment; but the blindest man we ever saw was a 

 man who could see but would not. 



E. Gallup. 



Beport. 



H. H. Flick, Lavansville, Pa., writes July 8, 

 1873: 



Bees are doing finely. We have an old-fash- 

 ioned season here ; prospects are good yet for 

 more ; plenty of rain keeps up the clover to 

 " fever heat." I can turn off over 125 pounds of 

 white clover honey per colony. 



Chicago Honey Market 



G. BAUMEISTER & CO. 



Wholesale and Retail Dealers in 



H:o35rE"2- & EEiES"v^J^x:, 



231 West Randolph Street. 



Will pay for choice white box honey 25@30c- 

 Fair to good 20@25c. 



Extracted, choice white 12@16c., fair to good 

 10@12c. Strained 8@10c. 



Beeswax 30@33c. 



