1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



17 



in Philadelphia, it was published in 

 Washington from the time of its re- 

 sumption, in 1865, until the close of 

 1872. The January, 1873 number ap- 

 peared with Chicago as its place of 

 publication, and \V. F. Clarke as its 

 editor. Typographical errors are the 

 bane of an editor's life. The dropping 

 of a letter "T" in the heading of an 

 account of the meeting of the German 

 Beekeepers' Association, in the Au- 

 gust, 1873, issue, made it read in this 

 astonishing way. 



"In what manner can he bees be 

 prevented from making useless excur- 

 sions in search of honey during the 

 early spring months?" 



This led to a column editorial of 

 e.Kplanation in the following number 

 and some rather pointed comments 

 on the nature of the "He Bees." 



'I'lic .Xngust, 1874 issue conveys the 

 news that the American Bee Journal 

 has acquired the National Bee Journal 

 mailing list, that the former editor of 

 that magazine. Airs. Ellen S. Tupper, 

 will be joint editor with \V. F. Clarke 

 and that Thomas G. Newman will be 

 l)usiness manager. The December is- 

 sue shows Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as the 

 place of publication. This was a short- 

 lived arrangement, however, for the 

 July, 1875, issue was again sent out 

 from Chicago. How long Clarke's con- 

 nection with the Journal continued is 

 not clear. The May, 1S75 number is 

 the last bearing his name, or that of 

 Mrs. Tupper, as editor. A biograph- 

 ical notice in the July 13, 1881, issue 

 indicates that he sold the Journal to 

 Newman in the December following 

 its purchase in 1873. It is stated that 

 Clarke never owned more than 24 

 colonies of bees at one time. 



At any rate, after several years of 

 silence, Clarke again became a con- 

 tributor to the Journal under the ed- 

 itorship of Thos. G. Newman. 



In the eighties, W. Z. Hutchinson, 

 later the editor of the Beekeeper's 

 Keview, became a contributor. In 1884 

 George \V. York began work for New- 

 man as an office assistant. He in turn 

 purchased the Journal and became its 

 editor in 1892. In 1881 the Journal be- 

 came a weekly, and continued as such 

 until July, 1907. During 1883 and 84, 

 both weekly and monthly editions 

 were published. 



In 1912, Mr. York having decided to 

 enter another line of business, the 

 American Bee Journal was purchased 

 by the present owners, Dadant & 

 Sons, and removed to Hamilton, 111., 

 where it has since been published. 

 The May number of that year was the 

 first under direction of the present 

 editor, C. P. Dadant. It was in the 

 same year that the name of the pres- 

 ent junior editor, Frank C. Pellett, 

 first appeared as a contributor to its 

 columns. In October, 1915, Mr. Pellett 

 came to Hamilton and remained until 

 the following March, assisting the 

 editor with the work of the Journal. 

 At that time he became staff cor- 

 respondent and continued in that ca- 

 pacity until August, 1918, when he re- 

 moved his family from Atlantic, Iowa, 

 to Hamilton and became associate ed- 

 itor. 



Although probably a hundred other 

 bee magazines have sprung up from 

 time to time, the American Bee Jour- 

 nal is the only one in this country 

 devoted exclusively to beekeeping that 

 has survived from the early days. 

 Gleanings was established in 1873, but 

 in addition to bee culture it has a 

 home department and gives some at- 

 tention to gardening, etc. A num- 

 ber of magazines have attempted to 

 combine interests of fruit, poultry or 

 gardening with beekeeping, but most 

 of these have been short-lived. 



HIVE TOOLS, AND HIVE TOOLS 



By Arthur C. Miller 



Hive tools, what are they? Jack 

 knives, screw-drivers, putty knives, 

 chisels, old files, pieces of broken 

 carriage spring, old pokers, in fact, 

 any sort of stifT piece of metal which 

 will serve to pry apart gummed- 

 fogether hives and frames. 



Some beekeepers say they cannot 

 be bothered with a special tool for 

 the purpose, that it is always getting 

 lost or mislaid, that most of them are 

 awkward to carry, or have sharp, 

 scratchy corners, etc. The same is 

 true of substitutes. Look at the 

 notched hives and supers and the 

 broken top-bars, and one may readily 

 guess that something besides a 

 proper implement has been used. 



Of the hive tools on the market, 

 some are dinkey little toys, too small 

 to be handled effectively, too thick 

 to push readily between supers, and 

 often brittle and easily snapped, or 

 soft and readily bent. Others are of 

 proper thickness, but from shape or 

 size, present disadvantages in use. 

 Some oflFer no good surface to push 



The Miller hive-tool 



against when forcing them between 

 bodies and supers, and the hive once 

 open, they furnish no means for 

 prying up frames, cleaning out rab- 

 bets and getting into sundry cor- 

 ners. 



The tool described below has been 

 years in "growing." In the beginning 

 it had a rather narrow blade at one 

 end and a short and pointed hook at 

 the other. The hook stood at right 

 angles to the plane of the blade and 

 was an unpleasant thing to step on 

 when it chanced to get on the 

 ground. The length of the tool was 

 but S or 6 inches. In use it showed 

 something to be desired, and a new 

 one slightly different was made, and 

 from season to season they were al- 

 tered and made larger. The hook 

 was turned parallel to the blade and 

 the end of the hook was flattened. 

 The width of the hook was changed, 

 lengthened, its edge thinned and, in 

 fact, it took several seasons to de- 

 velop the hook alone. The curve, 

 the angle of it in relation to the 

 blade, its length, the space between 

 its inner surface and thj flat part of 

 the tool, all are the result of condi- 

 tions met in use, and al! have a rea- 

 son. Today the tool will carry flatly 

 in one's inside coat pocket, or in 

 one's hip pocket. 



The wide blade will slip r.adily be- 

 tween the hive edges without mu- 

 tilating them, the curved hook fur- 

 nishes a smootli surface to push 

 against when forcing the blade in, 

 and the inner surface of the curved 

 hook has the corners ground square 

 for scraping either the edges of the 

 hives and supers, or between top- 

 bars or cleaning out rabbets. The 

 width of the blade end is correct to 

 clean tops of frames or hive edges. 

 Sometimes the hook is handier on 

 the edges and sometimes the blade. 

 Held vertically in the fist the wide 

 blade readily scrapes floors, super 

 covers and similar flat surfaces. 



Take the picture to your black- 

 smith and have him make one like it 

 and temper it to good spring temper. 

 Here are the dimensions: Length 

 over all, 8 inches; blade, Ij4 inches 

 wide; hook, 1j4 inches from inside 

 of curve to tip. From the taper of 

 the flat part of tool to inner surface 

 of hook is 1 inch. Hook is three- 

 eighths of an inch wide. Get that 

 curve of the hook, then when the 

 end is slipped under the end of a 

 top bar the curved part of the hook 

 acts as a fulcrum, and will roll 

 smoothly on the adjacent frame. 



Have the end of the blade ground 

 to a putty-knife edge and the end of 

 the hook to a thin screw-driver edge. 

 The edges of the main part of the 

 tool are rounded and smooth, so also 

 of the outer part of the hook, but the 

 inner surface f f the straight part of 

 the hook is ground flat and square 

 with the sides to give good scraping 

 edges. 



What do they cost to make? A 

 few years ago they cost me, all 

 forged, tempered, ground, nickeled 

 and polished, 70 cents apiece. Now 

 they cost $1.50 each. I am particular 



