460 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June l. 



could be such fools as to partake in such a 

 movement If the same was to their injury. 

 Data do not show it. It is not so; it could not 

 be. To prejudice the minds of bee-keepers, 

 basing oar cause upon such prejudice, is wrong, 

 and simply means that the work has all to be 

 done over again at a twofold expense. I am 

 practically repeating what I said at Lansing 

 and Flint. I believe it, and it will be well for 

 those who honestly think I am mistaken, to 

 kindly and logically set me right. They would 

 at the same time be performing the same ser- 

 vice to many other of my bee-keeping friends 

 who think just as I do. The producer of sweets, 

 who flies into a passion of rage, and begins to 

 hurl epithets and false charges at a new com- 

 petitor, occupies the same position as a section- 

 manufacturer who would curse some bee- 

 keeper because he had discovered (and by that 

 discovery blessed bee-keepers and the world) a 

 new material and process by which a superior 

 section could be made and sold at the low price 

 of .50 cents per thousand. Let us have the 

 truth; we are told that '"the truth will set us 

 free;" it certainly will not enslave us. The 

 more men know, the less they believe that it is 

 untenable. I am not afraid of facts. If going 

 into partnership with truth will starve me, I 

 shall have the satisfaction of realizing, in my 

 expiring moments, that I died in good company. 

 But I am not afraid of that. Whether it be 

 glucose or oleomargarine that is being decried, 

 I have no respect for the movement if I can 

 discover no logical reason for it, other than 

 unwise selfishness. I detest its morals, and I 

 fear its policy. 



I have written the above for a bee-journal, 

 and for its readers— i(>ee-/teepers— and if it serves 

 no other purpose it may serve me the one of 

 letting them know that I have convictions and 

 do not fear to express them. 



Dowagiac, Mich., May 21. 



FAX. 



Bii Klhry Krum. 



Thay is more wimern bee-keepers raizin' 

 queens f<'r sail than wuz ever heerd of afore. 



Accordin' to Quinby signs, this is goin' to be 

 a bad hunny yeer — the apple bloom wuz so 

 skeerce that it kum and went 'fore the bees 

 hardly k no wed it. 



I'd ruther have (Ii.ernins sort o' layiii' round 

 loose than to cripple these old friends of mine 

 by sockin' luiils through their spinel columns. 



One thing sartin and shiire about the 8-frame 

 hive; you don't have to look over ten frames 

 backwards and forwards half a dozen times to 

 find a pestif(U'ous hybrid queen. 



Y' ever try wirin' frames 'thout usin' enny 

 tacks? Purferate twice to begin with; put 

 wire through and back, givin' it several twists, 

 then pull down tite; thread the remaiuin' 



holes, and finish as at first. It's just as neat 

 and much more substanshel. 



Forest-leaves makes best stuff fer pack in 

 Thay don't draw moisture like chaff, and ha 

 the old-fashuned proteckshun of a holler log. 



Wuz at Ingeanoplis tother day, and seen nv 

 bee-keepin' friend Walter Ponder. While thar 

 I seed sum of Root's extra polished seckshuns 

 and thay knock the sox off of enny thing I eve 

 kum acrost in that line. 



It pays to give your bees good proteckshun 

 All of mine is done up in leaves, and them tha 

 wuz packed deepest are overfiowin' with bee 

 already, and layin' out of nights; and what i; 

 gratifyin' thay have got brood— a hull passe 

 of it too— built right next the hives in the out 

 side frames. 



Had a colony last seezin' on thick-top Heff 

 man frames that wuz too much crowded in th< 

 brood-chamber for lack of surplus arrange 

 ment, and, kontrary to expecktashun, th( 

 frames wuz burred, braced, and chunks of huu' 

 ny stuck on to the end-bars. The frames hun^ 

 true, and the spacin' wuz kerrect. Now isn't i 

 a fax. Mister Editer, that one of the best pre 

 venshuns of burr-combs is suffishent room dur 

 in' the honey-flow? 



Oh the robber bee ! he can't be beat, 

 Jimmin' around for something to eat; 

 Though the field is wide and the clover 



sweet. 

 He'd ruther be lootin' his neighbor fer 



meat. 

 But alas 1 the little piratical elf 

 Is cheatin' nobody so much as himself; 

 Fer he pokes his nose into cells of glucose, 

 When he might be swlggin' the sweet 

 from the rose ! 



[You are quite correct in regard to this burr- 

 comb question; but has any bee-keeper any 

 business to let any colony become so crowded 

 that the bees have nowhere to store honey, ex- 

 cept to push spurs of wax in every conceivable 

 nook and cranny, and chuck them full of hon- 

 ey? Therefore we may argue that, with good 

 management, thick-top Hoffman frames, with 

 proper spacing, are a bar to these nuisances. 

 We feel quite sure that, in the majority of 

 the very few cases where it is reported that the 

 wide thick top-bars do not prevent burr-combs, 

 it is due to the very fact you mention — that the 

 hive was overcrowded with honey. Every bee 

 keeper knows it is very bad policy to have his- 

 hives jjvck for room in the height of the season. 

 -Ed] 



-^ — ■ — 



McINTYRE'S ROBBER-TRAP. 



/{,(/ /. F. Mrlutyrc. 



At our State convention last fall I happened 

 to state that I caught the robbers in a trap. 

 Since that time I have had several letters ask- 

 ing for a description of said trap. Last season,, 

 after the honey -flow I reared and introduced 

 over 300 queens; and, being much annoyed by 

 a band of educated robbers that had learned 

 enough to go wherever the smoker was, I de- 



