THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



193 



Dr. Miller says that freezing hurts 

 honey. Well, it does. Freezing con- 

 tracts the honey and comb, and cau'^es 

 it to crack, then leak. etc. As proof 

 that cold causes honey to contract, will 

 say that I filled about fifty half-pound 

 bottles with cold extracted honey and 

 drove th«^ corks in with a hammer. 

 The bottles were then placed in a 

 warm room to prevent the honey from 

 granulating. As soon as the honey 

 got warm, all the corks were forced 

 out by expansion of the honey. 



Nellis was at that time doing a thriv- 

 ing supply business. But how things 

 have changed within a few years ! A. 

 1. Root and ourselves are the only ones 

 now ni the bee business that were in 

 it at the time Mr. JSellis was. 



I don't know how it is with A, I. R., 

 but, so far as I know 1 am all right for 

 a long time to come. My health is 

 good, has always been good, aud I 

 shall try to keep it so. 



Bingham & Iletherington advertise 

 that theri- are more than 10U,0U0 of 

 their smokers and honey knives in 

 use. No one will doubt that state- 

 ment No one should doubt their state- 

 ment that there are more than 100,000 

 of our drone-traps in use. I tell you 

 that Intel igent bee keepers appreciate 

 a good thing and they use them, too. 

 Now we expect to say, and in less than 

 five years at the farthest, that our im- 

 proved ISelf-hiver trap is in the hands 

 of 50,000 beekeepers. The improve- 

 ments in the trap were made to meet 

 the points that a few beekeepers sug- 

 gested, who have the old style trap in 

 use. The entire front of the new trap 

 is covered by perforated metal, and a 

 part of the back also. Now the l)ees 

 can pass directly through the trap 

 when they are once in it. 



No doubt many of our subscribers 

 are much interested in 'My Outing" by 

 T. O. Peet. A good many readers of 

 the A PI, now located in the far west, 

 w'ent from Massachusetts, and those, 

 as well as other of our readers, will 

 find much in friend Peet's articles that 

 will please them. 



We certainly did enjoy the visit 

 friend P. made us. The last time we 

 met him was at the apiar}' of J. H. 

 Nellis, of Canajoharie, N. Y. Mr. 



BroSf Root and Dibbern get things 

 mixed when they write about the Per- 

 fection hiver. Both the above gentle- 

 men have an idea that our Self-hiver is 

 nothing but a box that catches the bees 

 when a swarm issues. Please read the 

 new descriptions of the Perfection in 

 Jan. '93AP1. I I ather guess I can change 

 the construction of my hiver to suit the 

 times as often as Bro. Pratt and Dibbern, 

 though I must confess it is -a hard cha.se 

 to keep up with the rapid changes that 

 Dibbern makes. Dibbern has had sev- \ 



eral Self-hivers that hived all but nine- ; 



tenths of the swarm, and he considered 

 it a success, yet he comes down on. the 

 Perfection hiver when he knows it hives 

 all the bees. i 



They worked to suit him, yet as 

 soon as I described an improvement 

 in self-hivers, he at once made a \ 



change in his. j 



If Dibbern continues to adopt our ' 



ideas and changes, he is likely to de- 

 vise a swarmer that will hive more j 

 than a few bees and the queen. But, j 

 my dear man, can't you credit the ' 

 person you get your ideas from, with \ 

 knowing something about how an 

 automatic hiver should be constructed ? \ 

 1 have given indisputable evidence 

 that my hiver has worked successfully j 

 in every case but one. Mr. Dibbern 1 

 never hints to the readers of the West- j 

 em Plowman that the l^erfection Hiv- j 

 er ever hived a swarm of bees. He 

 never forgets to show up the ''imagin- 

 ary" weak points in it, however. 



