400 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



October 



LEGISLATION ON MOVABLE 

 COMB HIVES 



By Frank Van Haltern 



I would like to take issue with Allen 

 Latham, page 321, in his Ltand on 

 the enactment of legislation com- 

 pelling the keeping of bees on mov- 

 able combs. 



Mr. Latham cites cases to illus- 

 trate the lack of skill on the part of 

 beekeepers, which is also ignorance 

 and disinterestedness. Besides takini^ 

 care of our apiaries I have done some 

 inspection work in northeast Kansas 

 and I have found conditions just as 

 bad as he points — and worse. I have 

 found hives with good framf^■, hives 

 with parts of frames, hives w'th bar- 

 rel staves for top bars, and hives 

 with no frames at all. I havo found 

 square hives, deep hives, bees in kegs 

 and barrels and — even in washing ma- 

 chines. I have found bees na'led up 

 in boxes of 1 V4 inch lumber with 

 spikes, tops, bottoms and side'j solid, 

 and I have found bees in hives so rot- 

 ten that they fell to pieces when I 

 raised them to look underneath. I 

 have found hives right side up, up 

 side down, sideways, on top of each 

 other — any old way. 



Mr. Latham says: "Let the neigh- 

 bors keep their box hives." From the 

 standpoint of a selfish beekot-per, I 

 say, let them keep them. I know how 

 to fight disease — they don't. Disease 

 will spread through their bees and 

 theirs will die and they will get little 

 honey, while I will look after mine 

 and will get honey, and ther'^ will bo 

 no competition for my bee p'i.3ture. 



But from the standpoint of the bee 

 inspector, I say, I want a law that 

 will stand behind me and back me up 

 when I tell the beekeeper that he must 

 keep his bees or disease is liable to 

 wipe them out, and some of his neigh- 

 bors at the same time. I want to give 

 him a little compulsory education. 



Mr. Latham is right when he says 

 that it is only through education that 

 we shall ever clean this country of 

 bee diseases, and the movable comb 

 hive (note that I do not say movable 

 frame hive) is one of the greatest in 

 the education of the beekeeper if the 

 inspector uses his opportunity. Mr. 

 Latham prefers educating the bee- 

 keeper to the movable comb in.3tead of 

 legislating him to it. But how can 

 we make him take the education? In 

 Kansas we compel parents to send 

 their children to school until they are 

 16. Many now in school would grow 

 up illiterate if it was not for that law. 

 People shy at education as though it 

 was a pestilence. I have talked until 

 my throat was tired and then had the 

 beekeeper wind up the inUrcour.se 

 with the remark, "Well, I guess I will 

 just let 'em set. If I get some honey 

 it don't cost nothing, and if I don't, I 

 don't care." 



There are thousands of beekeepers 

 who are beekeepers only because a 

 swarm came to them and this swarm 

 swarmed and the best they did was to 

 give them a box to go into. They are 

 too busy with other work to take valu- 

 able time from it to learn ab<-ut some- 

 thing in which they are not interested. 

 When wc undertake to educate all 



beekeepers to correct methods, we 

 have, as a schoolboy would say, some 

 job. About two-thiriLs of ihem will 

 not come to bee meetings, they will 

 not read bulletins sent to them free 

 of cost, they will not, or cannot, take 

 time to listen to the inspector and 

 they would not treat their ( wn dis- 

 eased bees if treatment was not com- 

 pulsory. I have often explained the 

 advantages of sti'aight combs and 

 good hives, and as soon as the bee- 

 keeper found that there was no law 

 compelling him to keep his bees better 

 he lost interest, even though admit- 

 ting that he ought to do something. 

 But when he was told that he had ten 

 days to treat his diseased bec^ or the 

 law would be after him, he began to 

 ask questions. 



Mr. Latham says it would take 

 longer to go through an apiary of box 

 hives and reach as satisfactory a con- 

 clusion than it would to go through 

 an apiary having perfect coi'ilis. Fo'- 

 my part I have never been able to go 

 through an apiary of box hives and 

 reach anything like a satisfactory con- 

 clusion. Box hives cannot be inspect- 

 ed with any reasonable accuracy with- 

 out tearing them to pieces, in which 

 event, should there be American foul- 

 brood in a hive, it is laid open to rob- 

 bers. But should no disease be found 

 you have an irate beekeeper to deal 

 with. 



In my opinion, a law making mov- 

 able combs compulsory should not be 

 passed in any State until that State 

 has sufficient inspectors to reach every 

 beekeeper. Then the inspector would 

 locate crooked comb hives and give 

 instructions for ti'ansferring, just as 

 he does when he finds diseasi'. Then 

 the next year he could pronounce 

 colonies free from disease wi'h much 

 more certainty than if he had to turn 

 up boxes and dig out pieces of comb 

 from beneath. 



As an inspector. I do not care what 

 kind of a hive the beekeeper uses. He 

 can buy it or make it, any old way he 



likes. But I do care what kind of a 

 comb he uses. I want the comb to be 

 straight enough to be taken tiut with- 

 out too much work, and I want it 

 bounded by a frame that will hold it 

 together. He may keep his bees any 

 way he likes, just so he has his combs 

 in such shape that I can lock at all 

 the brood without tearing his hive to 

 pieces. But he will not do this for me 

 unless I have behind me a movable 

 comb law. 

 Kansas. 



DR. NEWELL 



We are pleased to be able to re- 

 produce herewith a likeness of Dr. 

 Wilmon Newell, of the Florida Col- 

 lege of Agriculture. For years past 

 his name has been frequently men- 

 tioned in these columns in connec- 

 tion with his official work or some re- 

 search problem of interest to Ihe bee- 

 keeper. A few months ago announce- 

 ment was made of his appointment to 

 the position of Dean of the College 

 of Agriculture and Director of the 

 Florida Experiment Station. In his 

 present position Dr. Newell must con- 

 sider the problems of all phases of 

 agricultural activity common to his 

 State. Knowing his lifelong interest 

 in beekeeping, we feel that the in- 

 dustry will receive all the considera- 

 tion which its importance justifies on 

 the part of both the College und the 

 Experiment Station. 



Wilmon Newell 



SHALL WE ENFORCE MOVABLE 

 COMBS? 



By Chas. F. Hoser 



In August issue, Allen Latham se- 

 verely criticises the recently passed 

 Pennsylvania bee law prohibiting the 

 keeping of bees in box hives after a 

 certain date. There is much truth in 

 his article, and while I cann'-'t agree 

 with him in all. in the main I do. It is 

 true that most of us I'ebel against 

 force. We can be led, educated, to do 

 those things that no amount of driv- 

 iiig will force us to do. 



The box hive should be eliminated 

 if only in the interests of better bee- 

 keeping, and no better means of ac- 

 complishing its elimination can be 

 found than through our county or lo- 

 cal beekeepers' organizations. Every 

 member of a live County Association 

 is on the lookout for bee c'iseases 

 which may affect his own apiary, or be 

 transmitted from a neighboring api- 

 ary, and is ready to do his or i:er share 

 towards their eradication. 



A greater menace than the box 

 hive exists in the sale of honey (un- 

 sterilized) from an infected apiary. 

 Proof of this is contained in the arti- 

 cle by Elmer G. Carr in August 

 Gleanings. He says: "When the honey 

 barrels were emptied they were rolled 

 upon the freight house platform with 

 bungholes opened, the outside sticky 

 with honey." As a consequence, dur- 

 ing a dearth of nectar, the bees from 

 his apiary, within a stone's throw of 

 the freight house,- helped themselves, 

 and foulbrood appeared where previ- 

 ously none had existed. The apiary 

 dwindled from forty colonies or more 

 to fifteen, and no crop produced in 



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