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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Hetherington stated that $1,000 cash would 

 not induce him to abandon the use of thorns 

 in transferring and go back to the ordinary 

 methods now in use. Foi uniting the small 

 pieces of comb these thorns are used as 

 dowell pins, and being very hard and 

 smooth, the bees never gnaw them out. 

 They are also inserted through the side 

 bars of the frames into the edges of the 

 combs, and transfer frames should have the 

 side bars pierced to admit the thorns before 

 commencing the operation of transferring." 

 Capt. Hetherington is high authority, but 

 what use can he have for so much transfer- 

 ring? Most men with an established apiary 

 could take the $1,000 cash and buy all the 

 stocks, already transferred, that they would 

 ever want to transfer. 



Artificial, Tablets.— An article writ- 

 ten by J. Mehring for the Bienen Zeitung, 

 for March, 1859, is translated for the B. K. 

 M., giving some account of comb founda- 

 tion, or as Mr. Mehring expresses it, "arti- 

 ficial tablets," invented by him. He does 

 not seem to claim so much for the saving of 

 wax, as for the increased amount of 

 ground upon which the bees can be actual- 

 ly at work, instead of the majority of the 

 bees hanging idly in. festoons with only a 

 small number actually at work on the new- 

 ly begun comb. He says, "One thinks of a 

 field in which potatoes are to be hilled, and 

 at every hill imagine a workman. Thus 

 may it well be expected that the work will 

 be sooner finished than if only a few work- 

 men should commence at one end, while 

 the majority were obliged to stay hanging 

 about the field." As he could use no ex- 

 tractor at that time he did the next best 

 thing, and says, "As the bees began to seal 

 the honey in these beautiful honey combs, 

 and I, so to speak, thought them ripe for 

 the harvest, I took a sharp, crooked knife, 

 shaved off the cells built by the bees, to- 

 gether with the honey, to the middle wall, 

 and then hung the original artificial tablet 

 again in the bee hive, while the building up 

 was carried once more extreraly rapidly 

 forward." 



Apiculture at the Centennial.— R. 

 McKean Jones says "The display of apicul- 

 tural supplies at the Centennial Exhibition 

 is most lamentably deficient; indeed, were 

 it not for the efforts of one or two foreign 

 exhibitors, there would be scarcely any re- 

 presentation at all." At the time of his 

 writing, J. S. Harbison and J. S. Coe were 

 the only American exhibitors, and he re- 

 marks "In consequence of this neglect of 

 American bee-keepers, the small number of 

 exhibits which are to be found in the Ex- 

 hibition are so scattered that it is almost 

 impossible to compare them intelligently. 

 As the matter stands at present every 

 nation that makes any display whatever of 



apicultural instruments and supplies is in 

 advance of this country." He justly thinks 

 that this will give a false impression in 

 view of the great advances that have been 

 made in this country. 



Patent Revoked.— The B. K. M. says 

 the patent granted C. O. Perrine on the 

 Weiss foundation machine has been re- 

 voked. 



BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 



So far, the season seems to be not a very 

 good one in England, but they are hoping 

 for better things in the latter part of the 

 season. 



Bee shows seem to be quite an item in 

 England. The advertisement of the third 

 exhibition of the British Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation with the schedule of prizes oc- 

 cupies a page and a half, prizes running as 

 high as five pounds sterling. It looks 

 rather odd to see a prize offered for "the 

 best and cheapest skep for depriving pur- 

 poses," by which we understand one with- 

 out movable frames. Speaking of the prizes 

 for hives the B. B. J. says: 



One notable feature we have had the 

 satisfaction of introducing as regards hives, 

 which is, that all those entered for competi- 

 tion in the various classes (for sale) shall be 

 fitted with guides ready for use. This at 

 first may see a trifling innovation; but as 

 every exliibitor will be required to guaran- 

 tee that he will supply hives to pattern, 

 etc., it really means that the onus of fixing 

 guides shall in future lie with the vendor, 

 instead of the purchaser. This, we feel, 

 will be a great boon, especially where hives 

 are supplied to cottagers, or where the 

 system is used for the first time; and as 

 skilfull hive-makers will be able to fix the 

 guides at a minimum cost, one of the 

 'bothers' in the bar-frame system will be 

 got rid of, and the principle will, we trust, 

 prove more generally acceptable since, with 

 very little care, straight combs will be the 

 rule and not the exception. 



This is a step in the right direction. Can 

 wc not go a step father and have hives fur- 

 nished with frames filled with comb foun- 

 dation—always provided that foundations 

 prove a success? 



A correspondent of the British Bee Jour- 

 nal sends to that paper larvte of the wax- 

 moth for information, saying, "I showed 

 them to a very intelligent and practised 

 bee-keeper, who could give me no informa- 

 tion on the subject." That correspondent 

 could not keep bees very long in this coun- 

 try without making the acquaintance of the 

 aforesaid pest. 



Winder's Queen Cages are on sale at 

 our office. These cages are made of tin and 

 wire cloth, having at one end provision for 

 holding a piece of honey comb or a sponge 

 filled witti syrup or water. Over this is fit- 

 ted closely a tin cap or cover. 



