1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



65 



SIXTY YEARS AMONG THE 

 BEES. 



By W. J. Davis, 1st. 



(Second Letter,) 



THE BUCKWHEAT cake of 

 blessetl memory floui'islied then, 

 biit it was always preceded by 

 1 bountiful flow of dark honey. Not 

 ince in a while, but every year. Now 

 t is once in a while. No dependence 

 be placed on a harvest of honey 

 pom buckwheat. But, fortunately, the 

 lurple aster has come in to take its 

 ilace as fall forage. 



Another hive used along in the fif- 

 ies. was about 14 inches square and 

 ix inches high, with holes in the top 

 or .^torefying. When one such be- 

 anie full, an empty one wa-s placed 

 nder it and then another, as circum- 

 tances seemed to demand. The up- 

 er ones, when full, were removed and 

 oney strained if combs were too 

 ark for table use. This was probably 



step toward what is now known as 

 le Heddon hive. Various other hives 

 ere devised which we will not stop 

 ) describe. But in 1860 the Lang- 

 "roth movable frame hive made its 

 ppearance in this part of Pennsyl- 

 ania. I bought the right to use said 

 ive, and a new system of manage- 

 lent was inaugurated and a wide- 

 iread interest awakened in bee cul- 

 ire. 



In .January, 1861, the American Bee 

 lurnal made its appearance, pub- 

 ^hed in Philadelphia and edited by 

 muiel Wagner. The Dzierzon theory 



parthenogenesis and the Italian bee 

 ti-acted attention. But the sound of 

 ar was heard in the land and the 

 •St publication xyt the continent de- 

 ited to bee culture wa« suspended 

 itil .July. 1866, when it reappeared 

 iim the city of Washington, D. C. 



is not my province to speak of the 

 erits or demerits of said publication 



another started soon after in the 

 ty of New York, only to say that the 

 tter seemed to me to exist only to 

 Ivertivse what was known as the 

 anerican hive," upon which a patent 

 IS granted and much of the profits 



lich .should have gone to the bene- 



of good old Father Langstroth was 

 verted from its proper channel and 



' real inventor of the movable- 

 ime system was doomed to live and 



(lie without receiving the pecuniary re- 

 ward which his great di^scovery en- 

 titled him to receive. I will give a 

 brief description of said hive, for I 

 think they are a thing of the past, and 

 would be surprised to learn if any are 

 in use at the present time. It was a 

 movable comb hive, that is, you 

 could get the frames out when filled 

 with comb, but you could not put them 

 back. I had the pleasure (?) of ti-ans- 

 ferring the contents of eight or ten 

 such hives into E hives about 35 years 

 ago, that I took of a friend in ex- 

 change for some Italian colonies in L 

 hives. 



I desire in these articles to give to 

 beginners in the fascinating pursuit 

 of bee culture as much information as 

 possible, gleaned by 60 years of actual 

 experience with bees, and as I am too 

 old for flattery, I can be pardoned for 

 saying, by the aid of reading all the 

 standard works from Dr. Bevan, (a 

 writer of England) through to Maurice 

 Maeterlinck and several journals de- 

 voted to bee culture, I repeat, I can 

 be pardoned for saying that I have 

 learned some things but not all. 



I receive many letters running about 

 like this: "I am a beginner in the bee 

 business and I wish you would tell me 

 how you would do" this and that, and 

 that I find that in the scope of an or- 

 dinary letter a man can not give very 

 much instruction. One man in Con- 

 necticut says: "I wish to engage in 

 bee culture. What time would you 

 advise to buy bees?" My answer was 

 in the month of April. Bees are then 

 lightest in stores and brood and are 

 supposed to have come safely through 

 the winter. Second; "What kind of 

 frame would you use?" I say a free 

 hanging frame of the Langstroth type. 

 In this I have no reference to length 

 of frame, I mention this because a 

 writer in a late issue of a certain bee 

 journal recommends frames with top 

 and end bars 1 1-2 inches wide and 

 frames fitting close together both at 

 top and ends. I will say that writer 

 ma.v like such frames, you will not, 

 Mr. Novice. I heard an aged man once 

 say that one experience is better than 

 two theories. Kind reader, you can di- 

 gest that saying at your leisure. 



Bee-Keeping Not a Precarious Business. 

 About 45 years ago a man said to 

 me, "How long have you kept bees?" 

 I told him 15 years. He straightened 



