168 



THE AMERlCAi^ BEE JOUMAL. 



novel. I affirm that the Heddon prin- 

 ciples are novel— that they cannot be 

 found in literature or elsewhere. Let 

 those who deny, adduce the proof. 

 The rubbish that has already been 

 lugged forward does not deserve a 

 critical man's attention. 



In the meantime these questions 

 are pertinent : if Mr. Heddon's ideas 

 are not novel, how happens it, that a 

 system which seems to promise so 

 much, has not before this become 

 familiar V How happens it, that au- 

 thoritatively informed men respect 

 the novelty of the system V 



I wish to enter a protest here 

 against the loose notions some bee- 

 . keepers seem to have about the 

 patents of their fellows. As long as 

 the laws of our country allow men 

 the privilege of patenting their in- 

 ventions, there can be no good reason 

 shown why inventors of bee-keeping 

 appliances should not be allowed the 

 same right ; and a bee-keeper who 

 Ifnowingly uses the property — i. e., 

 patent — of another without legally 

 acquiring that right, cannot be called 

 honest ; and the fact that he can 

 appropriate it without the knowledge 

 of the owner, would, if so done, only 

 give additional contempt to the theft. 

 Should an inventor ask me more for 

 the right to use his patent than I was 

 willing to give, I would content my- 

 self without it, just as I would con- 

 tent myself without his horse or cow, 

 should he ask me more than I was 

 willing to pay. It would seem that 

 there are some in this regard, where 

 their business ethics fall short they 

 seek to eke them out with sentimental 

 drivel and religious cant. Let us all 

 try to be simply honest ; then if there 

 are any among us who have a super- 

 abundance of sentiment, the balance 

 of us can, with some show of patience, 

 listen to its gurglings. 



Henderson ,+0 Ky. 



F'or tbe Amencan Bee JoumaL 



CoDil) Honey vs, Extracted Honey, 



CHAS. DADANT. 



In quoting the figures of the report 

 of Mr. Doolittle, as given on page 709 

 of the American Bee Journal for 

 188-5, I could not imagine that ]Mr. 

 Doolittle had not given all the facts 

 as they were. I could not suppose 

 that the 2 colonies which he credited 

 as having given 388 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey, had produced 388 

 poimds only, of partly pom' honey. I 

 could not suppose that he had im- 

 poverished his best colonies by taking 

 brood to rear a great many queens, 

 since he did not figure the proceeds 

 of these queens in his report, as he 

 usually does every year. If I have 

 supposed that his colonies were weak 

 for winter, it is because he manages 

 his bees to have light population in 

 the fall. (See his article on " Those 

 Six-Frame Hives," in the Bee Jour- 

 nal for Jan. 30, 1884.) 



It is not my intention to contest the 



figures given anew on "his report, but 



I will prove that the bees worked for 



acted honey give nearly twice as 



much honey as those worked for comb 

 honey ; that the production of comb 

 honey costs more money and more 

 work than the extracted ; and I will 

 again look for my proofs in the writ- 

 ings of Mr. Doolittle, in spite of my 

 chances of having the figures cor- 

 rected again. 



In the Gleanings for October, 1877, 

 Mr. Doolittle said that 2 colonies 

 worked for extracted honey gave 44(5 

 pounds each, while the colonies 

 worked for comb gave an average of 

 158 pounds. If we deduct one-fourth 

 of the 446 pounds, on account of the 

 evaporation of this honey, which was 

 not altogether ripened, since it was 

 extracted when the bees begun to 

 seal over the cells at the top of the 

 combs (Oleaiiings, 1878, page 12), we 

 have 334 pounds of extracted honey 

 against 158 pounds of comb honey- 

 more than twice as much. 



Mr. Doolittle denies now that the 

 production of extracted honey re- 

 quires less work than comb honey. 

 We find in the Gteanmys for December, 

 1877, page 33.5, that he works from 

 early dawn till late at night, averag- 

 ing about 15 hours work each day, yet 

 he had only 80 colonies. If some 

 desire to know how Mr. Doolittle 

 works his bees, let them peruse the 

 article entitled " Those Six-Frame 

 hives," referred to above. According 

 to our experience, a bee-keeper work- 

 ing for extracted honey can manage 

 at least four times as many hives as 

 does Mr. Doolittle, and without work- 

 ing more than ten hours per day. But 

 we will need some help about three 

 times in the year. 



As to the expense : If we work for 

 extracted honey, the same combs are 

 used indefinitely. When, after having 

 been emptied, they are given back to 

 the bees to be dried, they contain yet 

 about 3 per cent of honey ; besides, 

 the cappings give about 1}4 per cent, 

 of beeswax, and some honey ; these 

 returns pay for all the expenses of 

 extracting and buying the barrels. 



It is quite the reverse with produc- 

 ing comb honey. We have to buy the 

 sections, tlie foundation; have to 

 furnish the glassed boxes for shipping, 

 etc., and not a cent of return ; not 

 even the guarantee that our well- 

 cared-for sections will . reach the 

 grocer unbroken. But Mr. Doolittle, 

 himself, complains of such expenses, 

 for he wrote m Gleanings, for Oct. 15, 

 1884, that the nicest honey in a one- 

 pound section without glass means 

 nearly six times the labor and ex- 

 pense to the bee-keeper that 6 pounds 

 of honey meant 12 years ago. After 

 this quotation I have nothing to add, 

 letting the reader draw the conclu- 

 sions. 



Hamilton,*© Ills. 



For tte American Bee JoumaL 



Convention Notices. 



I^~ The Union Bee-Keepera' Association of 

 Western Iowa will meetjn Dexter, Iowa, on April 

 lu, 1886. at 10 a.m. M. E. Dakby, Sec. 



1^" A cordial Invitation is extended to all to 

 attend the 8th annual meeting of the Texas Slate 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, to be held at JudKe W. 

 H. Andrews' bee-farm, at McKlniiey. Tex., on May 

 5 and fi, 1886. Indicntions fur a trrand meeting 

 grow briiihter every day. and every effort will be 

 made to render this meeting the best and largest 

 ever held in the State. No hotel bills to pay. 



B. F. CAHROLL, Sec. 



Bee-Keeping in Nortliwestern Iowa. 



J. C. WHEELER. 



I came to this place from Kendall 

 County, Ills., on March 1, 1884, bring- 

 ing with me 20 colonies of Italian bees. 

 They had been stored in the cellar 

 during the winter, and the weather 

 being so severe they were not out for 

 a flight before being shipped. I use 

 Langstroth hives, and to prepare for 

 the journey I covered the entrances 

 with wire-cloth, bored an inch hole at 

 the top of each hive in the front end 

 (covering them also with the wire- 

 cloth ), and nailed the bottom-boards 

 on. The hives were then packed 

 snugly in one end of the car, standing 

 with the ends of the hives toward 

 ends of the car. 



After the journey of five days (500 

 miles), it being siill too cold for them 

 too fly, they were packed as follows : 

 The hives were placed on the ground 

 in a row close together, and covered 

 with wheat chaff and straw in the 

 shape of a long straw-stack about 4 

 feet wide. The chaff was kept from 

 the entrances by a 20-inch board 

 placed horizontally one inch above 

 the alighting-board. The first suit- 

 able day, being fully three weeks after 

 arriving, they were uncovered and 

 had a good iliglit, and all were in 

 seemingly good condition, except one 

 colony that had died from lack of 

 honey. 



Last winter, and also this winter, I 

 have wintered my bees similarly to the 

 description of the protection that I 

 gave them the first spring, and I like 

 it very well ; but 1 would prefer a 

 good, dry cellar. 



People said that bees could not 

 make a living in this part of the 

 country, but I still have my 20 hives 

 full of bees and honey, and last season 

 I took 1,000 pounds of honey from 

 them as a surplus. White clover is 

 scarce, but wherever started it does 

 well. I think that in a few years we 

 will have plenty of clover honey. The 

 first season that I was here I put out 

 500 linden trees, and each year I have 

 sown buckwheat from which the bees 

 stored much honey. Very late in the 

 fall they work on goldenrod and 

 resin-weed. A neighbor has a large 

 patch of sweet clover in his door-yard, 

 which proves that it is at home 

 here as well as elsewhere. I will sow 

 five acres of it this spring. There are 

 no bees nearer than 8 miles away, and 

 but 2 or 3 colonies there. 



The first year, my queens being 

 young, I found it necessary to replace 

 only those dying with about half a 

 dozen new ones, and these became 

 fertile without any apparent incon- 

 venience. I supposed.that they were 

 fertilized by my own drones, but 

 several of them produced hybrids, so 

 I concluded that there must have 

 been black bees nearer than I knew 

 of. Last summer, with every hive in 

 the apiary containing drones, fully 

 two-thirds of fifty young queens that 

 were hatched and could tiy. refused 

 to become fertile. I know they could 

 fly, for I noticed them leave the hive 



