112 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



"wliole swarm will be at work, carrying off | 

 the feed. Now put the tube through the Avhole ; 

 into the box, and let it remain. The bees go I 

 through the tube as they did the hole before the 

 tube was put into it; and as the curtain over its 

 ends prevents the light from shining into the 

 feed-box, and as the light shines through the | 

 glass and tube in the hive into the feed-box, ! 

 the bees pass into the hive and hive themselves | 

 of course. | 



Now, if you suspect that they belong to your 

 neighbor's hives, you can easily satisfy j^ourself 

 by carrying the hive near by, and if a few 

 bees, which you will let out, pass to your neigh- 

 bor's hives and enter, you will let the swarm j 

 go, of course, to the hives. You can try them 

 at your hives, and ascertain if they are your 

 bees, and if they are, operate as you like. Con- 

 fine them four days with brood comb or queen, 

 and give them water and feed, and they will go f 

 to work when let out in the evening of the 

 fourth daj^ even if they were "disloyal rob- 

 bers" belonging to several hives ofyoar own. 



SWAKMING. I 



On a warm day at one o'clock, afternoon, i 

 move the hive which you wish to obtain a ! 

 swarm from a rod or more from its stand, and 

 set the decoy hive in its old place. Arrange 

 the decoy hive for capturing the bees, and let 

 the column on to the feed, and, after a few 

 moments, put in the tube, and you will capture 

 and hive them as before. Give them a queen 

 or brood comb, and let them have their liberty. 



HANDLIKG BEES. 



Rub a few drops of W. A. Flanders' " Bee 

 Charm" on the hands and lips, and blow the 

 breath among the bees. 



KEMOVING HONEY. 



To take honey from your bees, prepare as 

 above for handling bees, also feed them freely 

 with sweetened water, in which a few drops of 

 Charm is incorporated, and they are quiet. 



All parties who get these instructions are 

 bound by their honor and a forfeiture of one 

 hundred dollars, not to give i^ublicity to the 

 above, they haviug signed an agreement to that 

 effect. Prof. M^ . A. Flakdeks, 



Shelby, Ohio." 



I propose to show in this number of your 

 Journal — first, that Mr. Flanders has patented 

 no such process; and, second, that no person 

 can patent a secret process. In the specification 

 of his patent for 18G4, Mr. Flanders describes 

 the peculiar arrangement of the hive by which 

 he captures wild bees; and his claim, Avhicli I 

 give, shows that he has patented not the pro- 

 cess, but his mechanical devices for carrying it 

 out : 



[From the Patent Office Report for 1864.] 



"No. 42,181.— W. A. Flanders, Shelby, 

 Ohio. — Bee-hive. — April 5, 1864. — In this hive 

 the comb frames are hinged to the doors of a 

 centrally divided hive by means of extension 

 hinges in such a manner that when the parts of 

 the hive are separated by opening on the hinges 

 the frames of either half thereof may be thrown 

 out together by the opening of the door to 

 which they are hinged. The joints of the hive 



are made like the ordinary rule or table joint, 

 in order to prevent the crushing of the bees. 



Claim. — First, in combination with a dividing 

 hive, constructed substantially as specified"^ 

 bringing the comb frames by means of the ex- 

 tension hinge E F to the back or front walls, so 

 that in opening the hive the comb-frames are 

 brought out of the hive in the manner and for 

 the purpose set forth. • 



Second, so hinging the back or front of a 

 hive, and so attaching the comb frames thereto, 

 that on opening the hive all the frames attached 

 to one section may be swung out of the hive to- 

 gether, as and for the purpose specified. 



Third, in combination the curtained tube J, 

 the division board H, tube H', and glass H''^, 

 operating as described for the purpose specified. 



Fourth, the queen and drone cages when con- 

 structed and operated as specified. 



Fifth, the disk K, with the openings 1, 2, 3, 

 and 4, in combination with the openings L, ar- 

 ranged and operating as and for the purpose set 

 forth. 



Sixth, forming the joints of any position of 

 the bee-hive that opens and shuts, so that the 

 angles and edges of the parts forming the joint 

 or joints will not separate upon opening the 

 hive, or impinge upon each other when the 

 parts are being closed, substantially as specified 

 for the purpose set forth." 



In his secret circular, given above, it will be 

 seen that Mr. Flanders makes no allusion to the 

 peculiar arrangement of his own hive for cap- 

 turing wild bees, but gives such directions as 

 would enable any skilful bee-keeper to practice, 

 with any kind of hive, what he calls his patent 

 process. 



Mr. Flanders seems to have forgotten the 

 leading object of the Patent Office, which is, to 

 induce inventors to «iaA:tf /tVif^w/;. their inventions 

 for the public good, and not by throwing around 

 them the protection oi a monopoly, to aid them 

 in keeping secret their valuable discoveries or 

 improvements. 



Patent is derived from the Latin word patere 

 — to make public; to make known; but Mr. 

 Flanders seems to have confounded it with 

 Latent, (yom latere — to keep secret; to conceal; 

 and instead of acting under the broad seal of 

 the Patent Office, he ought to have obtained his 

 Professorship from some Latent Office, whose 

 authority is unrecognized anywhere outside of 

 his "Bee-keepers' Institute." 



L. L. Langstroth. 



Oxford, Ohio. 



Honey is never found in the second stomach 

 of the bee, but only in the first. The latter 

 contains only the Myme, being the digested or 

 partially digested food, which passes into the 

 intestines, and the final excreta there show that 

 the food consists mainly of pollen or bee- 

 bread. 



In the months of April and May the bees 

 collect pollen trom morning to evening, but in 

 the warmer months, the great gathering of it 

 is from early dawn to about ten o'clock. 



