136 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Dec: 



[Fot the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee Keepers and Bee Masters. 



Our dear old friend, William Augustus Munn, 

 is no more. He died rather suddenly on Sun- 

 day, October 13, in the sixty-third year of his 

 age, as he was born on the 28th day of October, 

 1810. . He had a good, kind heart, and, up to 

 the last, was active with his hobby, — " the 

 bees." His last article, pago 103, The British 

 Bee Journal, api^eared in print nearly three 

 weeks after his death, and the conclusion of 

 that article is exprcss'ed in langu ige of advice 

 to all of us, as if it came from the grave. — ' Let 

 us all, then, try and extract all the good we 

 can from the various hives suggested, and, 

 guided by the impartial review of our bee mas- 

 ter editor, let us remember that bee stings are 

 all cured by a little blue bag, if we should taKe 

 to it, and that our lives are not forfeited by any 

 stings we may give, as' our pens are, not barbed 

 with poison." , , 



His loss will be felt by ^U lQye;;s of bees, and 

 there is a large debt of ;grajtit\ideduetohim for 

 having so long >vorked to ipiproYQ bee culture, 

 and having assisted so very much in briuging 

 apiculture to the. perfection it now has arrived 

 at. Major Munn must have commenced early 

 in taking an interest in' those wonderful crea-- 

 tures, the bees, as he would be only 24 years' 

 old, when he first invented his bar-frame hive, 

 in 1834. . ' ■ ■ 



Huber was the inventor of bar-frames, but 

 his frames wer^ an'inch tliick, and, when put 

 together, formed the, ends and tops of the hive; 

 but the Major W|is the first to put bar-frames in 

 a box or case, the same as the modern bar-frame 

 Mves; after' testing and improving his hive, for 

 nine years, he .took out a patent in Paris for it, 

 in 1843. ■'■•'■ ■ •; 



Hev. L. L. Langstroth, in America,' and the 

 Pastor Dzierzon, in Germany, (two 'of the clev- 

 erest bee masters in the world, — may they long 

 liVe to enjoy their honors!) invented their im- 

 proved bar-frame hives, at tli6 sam'e time, quite 

 unknown to one another, about the year 1852, 

 and, on October' 5, of that year,- Langstroth ob- 

 tained his first 'patent for his hive, and, with 

 these improvements, bee keeping has l)ecome of 

 national importaliide in many countries in the 

 world. " ■ i 



It was not with hiVes only, that Major Munn 

 devoted his time and' talents to improve bee 

 culture, as is seen in his various and multitudin- 

 ous Writings. He published a pamphlet on bees 

 in 1844, and another edition in 1851, and in 

 that year exhibited his hives, etc., at the great 

 International Exhibition in London. In 1870, 

 to crown his long labors, he reprinted his friend 

 Dr. Edward Bevan's work, on " The Honey Bee," 

 which is the most scientific woTk on bees ever 

 w^ritten in England. Major Munn has also 

 written a great many articles for the journals 

 and magazines in this country and in America. 



We can now only deplore the loss of our dear 

 friend, with the matured vigor of his pen and 

 intellect, and it is a wise providence that does 

 not let us know whose turn it may be next ; but it 

 is a warning to us all, not to waste those talents 

 that have been intrusted to us, but to freely 

 distribute them for the good of our fellow crea- 

 tures. William Caek. 



Newton Heath, Near Manchester, Eng. 



[For the American Bee JoumaL] 



An Error Corrected. 



. On page 100, of the Nov. number of the 

 Amekican Bee Journal, Mr. C. P. I^adant 

 says: " Out of sixty hives containing both side 

 and top boxe§, separated from the brood cham- 

 Ijer by any partition, not one colony was found 

 that worked in the side boxes half as well as in 

 ■* tiie to^D boxes." '■','■ 



As this assertion (and the truth' of it I forth- 

 with acknowledge) is of 'a nature fo mislead 

 ' some beginner, I will here give a short sketch 

 of a series of carefully conducted experiments 

 made through four.s'nfcc'etesive years, vrtth hives, 

 ' having side, top, and fend boxes, for surplus 

 honey. ' ' " 



As our honey pasture is somewhat' diflferent 

 '. from others farther east," I will here state that, 

 ■ in early spring, we rSC^ivfe a little honey from 

 ; the blossoms of wild plum,'^nd a good harvest, 

 - quite late in the fall, froni golden rod. 

 ' In conducting our experiments, we used, as 

 many of otir numerous visitors 'will', remember, 

 a style of (jliampi'on hive, havin^'lSpxes on top, 

 on the side, aii'd'on the ends of the trop.^ frames ; 

 'when all these boxes were on' or" al'bund the 

 brood, the bees, would prefer to bui'ld comb, 

 and store iii 'the top boxes, in preference to 

 ■• side boxes ; next, they wptild occ.upy the 

 boxes on the end.s 'of the. "brbq^ combs,' and, 

 last of all the side jjoxe's'; all of which is ac- 

 cording to a fixed law of nature, warriiair being 

 lightest, would -Hie 'to''. tl>e 'top boxes, and, as 

 there the bees found tl^e htimid air to keep the 

 wax pliant, whilst comb;, building, they, of 

 course, occupied these box'es,'in preference. 



But, thanks to a lucky acci4enty being with- 

 out top boxes for a number pf, hives, we set the 

 seco;id story of these hives aside, put the roof 

 di]|-eot on ijie lower ^tpry, and, lo! the bees 

 would; pqcupy, the, boxes, on the end of the 

 brood combs, ju^t as readily as their neighbors 

 would the, 'top- boxes. Now, how was this? 

 Well, here, the warm air could not escape into 

 top boxes, and remained below, spreading hori- 

 zontally fropi the brood cluster of bees. 



We yet. experienced a difficulty of get- 

 ting bees tp work in side boxes, and now,, 

 after layipg for hotirs in the grass by the side 

 of various observing hives, we have come to the 

 following conclusion : That boxes placed on the 

 siiie of brood combs are reluctantly occupied 



