&64 



d^LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



should be glad to hear from them. But we 

 may say that the Porto Rican honey fed 

 was of good quality ; in fact, practically all 

 the honey shipped from that island is suit- 

 able for table use. 



The first carload of bees that started Oct. 

 20 are doing good work. The sealed brood 

 has hatched out, and the colonies have made 

 substantial gain in strength. The addition 

 of young bees ready for the nectar and 

 pollen will be a great help. 



In both carload shipments it was observa- 

 ble that the shaking up, loading, and un- 

 loading en route started the queens to 

 laying in all the hives. By the time the 

 shipments arrived there were eggs and 

 larvae to be seen in all the hives. Taking 

 it all in all, the Virginia experiment so far 

 is more than coming up to our expectations. 



This " shaking up " when bees are moved 

 long distances from one cellar to another 

 might not be such a good thing; and yet as 

 we have before explained we have handled 

 brood-rearing in our cellars to advantage. 



Deatli of one 



the Veteran Bee- 



ijaime is 



St a 



It has been our practice at the close of 

 the year to chronicle the names of prominent 

 beekeepers who have died during the year. 

 It had begun to look as if the year 1914 

 would not claim any one of great promi- 

 nence. But as the last days of the year were 

 l^assing, no less a jDerson than T. F. Bing- 

 ham, of bee-smoker and honey-knife fame, 

 passed away at Sugar City, Col. Indeed, 

 the name of Bingham has been in every bee 

 journal and every bee-supply catalog for 

 nearly half a century. 



He was not only a good beekeeper himself, 

 but one who was capable of devising short 

 cuts, developing new ideas — yes, going even 

 further, making inventions that caused no 

 little stir in the bee world. Among the 

 number might be mentioned his divisible- 

 brood-chamber hive. While it was never 

 called by him under that name, it was a 

 shallow hive that could be and was worked 

 by him on the divisible-brood-chamber i^lan. 

 It was much the same hive that was later 

 perfected and patented by the late James 

 Heddon. 



During all the days the divisible-brood- 

 chamber hive was being exploited and its 

 priority discussed in the 80's we find our 

 old friend taking no hand in it, notwith- 

 standing he was really the inventor of the 

 closed-end frame and the divisible-brood- 

 chamber principle, both of which were basic 

 ideas in the Heddon patent, and around 



which there was so much bitter controversy 

 from 1885 to 1890; but the records all go 

 to show that Mr. Bingham worked his hive 

 and frame for years and years prior to Mr. 

 Heddon's use of it. 



Another of his inventions was the bee- 

 smoker. While Moses Quinby was the first 

 to bring out a bellows smoker, Bingham 

 was the first to develop a practical device 

 that would hold fire and not go out. He 

 and his partner, Mr. Hetherington (a broth- 

 er of the late Capt. J. E. Hetherington), 

 brought out the Bingham and Hetherington 

 honey-knife, the basic principle of wliich 

 was a thick blade with beveled edges and an 

 offset handle. 



Mr. Bingham made a success of indoor 

 wintering. He built a bee-cellar that was 

 of the nature of a big cistern, wholly sub- 

 merged beneath the surface of the ground. 

 He developed a scheme for ventilating it, 

 through an upright shaft, that was quite 

 unique. He wintered his bees in this par- 

 ticular cellar for years and years with re- 

 markable success. A description of it is 

 given in several editions of the ABC and 

 X Y Z of Bee Culture. In later years he 

 i:)erfeeted his earlier bee-smoker; and it is 

 to-day one of the standard tools sold by all 

 dealers. 



Mr. Bingham never wrote very much for 

 the bee-journals; but we find now and then 

 an article from him. He was usually pres- 

 ■gnt at the Michigan conventions; and wMle 

 he took no vei'y active part in the discus- 

 sions, yet what he did say was brief and to 

 the point. 



We shall not soon forget a very delightful 

 chat with him in connection with the late W. 

 Z. Hutchinson, immediately following one 

 of the conventions a few years ago in 

 Lansing. During the course of that inter- 

 view we discovered that the subject of our 

 sketch was not only a practical beekeeper, 

 but one who had given the science of bee- 

 keeping no little consideration. He was a 

 charming conversationalist ; and one would 

 not be in his presence very long without 

 feeling that he was with a cultured gentle- 

 man — one who was a master of the busi- 

 ness. 



Mr. Bingham died at the ripe old age of 

 84. An active business man as was the 

 subject of our sketch, who could live dui'ing 

 these strenuous days three score years and 

 ten, and then go it better by nearly another 

 score, deserves no small amount of credit. 

 To do such a thing, when nearly every one 

 else is living too fast, and eating too much, 

 is no small credit to the man, even if he 

 had not distinguished himself by his ad- 

 vanced ideas and inventions. It is right 



