262 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Honey in being assimilated is dis- 

 posed of in three ways : what is not 

 deposited in the cellular tissue as fat, 

 is consumed by the liver, and its vola- 

 tile principle is eliminated by the 

 lungs. This elimination is a matter 

 of the greatest importance as a rem- 

 edy in all pulmonary disorders. But 

 the most remarkable feature of honey 

 as a pulmonary sedative is its admin- 

 istration by atomization and inhala- 

 tion. The spray arising in extracting, 

 has been proved to exert a very bene- 

 ficial effect upon cough and dyspnfea, 

 thus revealing its curative tendency. 



Austin, O Tex. 



For tbe Amencan Bee Journal* 



"FeeflingSimr—Reyersilile Hives.' 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



In my article under the above head- 

 ing, I thought I was sufficiently ex- 

 plicit in regard to the difference 

 between hives and brood-chambers. 

 The hive ( not brood-chamber ), 

 referred to by Mr. Dadant, and des- 

 cribed on page 149, VtiL. I, of Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, was constructed 

 of straw rings or sections 4 or 5 

 inches high. There were no frames, 

 the combs being built solidly from the 

 top to the bottom of the hive, and 

 when it was necessary to separate the 

 sections a wire was drawn between 

 them, thus cutting the combs apart. 

 In the spring, or if a colony were 

 weak, only one section was used. As 

 the colony increased in strength 

 another section was added, etc., but 

 the sections were all alike, and there 

 was no point below which the hive 

 was brood-chamber, and above which 

 it was surplus apartment, any more 

 than there is in an ordinary box-hive. 



All the other references given by 

 ISIr. Dadant refer to sectional hives, 

 not brood-chambers ; the purposes and 

 functions of which are altogether 

 different. 



If the tiering up of hives is to be 

 considered the same as Mr. Heddon's 

 sectional brood-chamber, then I must 

 admit that I used too strong language 

 when speaking of the " newness of the 

 grandest of all tlie grand features of 

 the Heddon hive." lam aware that 

 hives have been formed by tier- 

 ing up several stories; that these 

 stories have been made both shallow 

 and deep ; and that brood has been 

 reared in more than one of these 

 stories, at the same time and in the 

 same hive ; but I did not suppose that 

 these hives were made and used in 

 this manner in order that the brood- 

 chamber might be divided horizontally 

 in sections; 1 supposed that other 

 objects were in view in making hives 

 in this manner, and that the result of 

 having brood in more than one section 

 came about incidentally, was consid- 

 ered of no value in itself, and no 

 advantage was taken of the fact. It 

 is, I believe, to Mr. Heddon that 

 belongs the honor of discovering that 

 there is an advantage in being able 

 to divide the brood- chaynber horizon- 

 tally, into sectional, interchangeable 

 parts. 



All those old hives mentioned by 

 Mr. Dadant, are, I suppose, now dead, 

 and laid aside for something that is 

 adapted to the needs of bee-keepers 

 under the light of the advanced state 

 of the art. I know, by actual test, 

 that the Heddon hive is" practical and 

 gives the best of results. I sold some 

 of the " results " last fall, and at a 

 paying price, too, considering how 

 much easier I produced it with the 

 new hive and system of management. 



Mr. Dadant says that the reversing 

 of hives has been practiced in France 

 a long time, but is now being aban- 

 doned. Reversing is either a damage 

 or a benefit, according to the propri- 

 ety of doing it. Neither the revers- 

 ing of combs nor the use of sectional 

 brood-chambers necessitates feeding 

 for winter, as I have explained in a 

 previous article, but allows the choice 

 of natural stores in exactly the best 

 shape for winter, 



FEEDING SUGAR TO BEES. 



I had never supposed that Mr. Hed- 

 don claimed to be original or prior in 

 advocating that the cause of bee- 

 diarrhea was in the food. I think that 

 he never made such a claim. If I am 

 correct, he has simply been a strenu- 

 ous advocate of the theory. 



I have just read Mr. Dadant's able 

 essay on page 32-5 of the Bee Journal 

 for 1881, and I am pleased to note such 

 able support of the food and pollen 

 theory. I also notice the same doc- 

 trine advocated by Mr. Heddon on 

 pages 137, 27-5 and 283 of the same 

 volume, and all published previous to 

 Mr. Dadant's article. 



Mr. Dadant says that the replacing 

 of natural stores with sugar costs 

 time and money. If by the use of 

 proper hives and management we get 

 all the honey stored in sections where 

 it can be sold for three times what 

 sugar would cost, and we have simply 

 to make the syrup and feed it to the 

 bees, it appears to me as though it 

 was time and money well spent. 



Rogersville, 6 Mich. 



Wot the American Bee Journal. 



iou to Bee-KeeBiii£. 



C. G. BEITEL. 



This is a subject which sooner or 

 later will become a serious matter, if 

 not promptly attended to. While we 

 do not object to an association for the 

 mutual protection of bee-keepers, and 

 for the accumulation of a fund for 

 their defense against the attacks of 

 men, who, in their ignorance, may 

 honestly feel themselves aggrieved 

 by the bees of their neighbors,yet there 

 are two old " saws," namely, " An 

 ounce of prevention is worth more 

 than a pound of cure," and " A stitch 

 in time, saves nine," which may be 

 very forcibly applied to this subject. 



By the first I mean, that by educa- 

 tion we may teach the ignorant their 

 errors ; let them once understand that 

 the bee, so far from being their 

 enemy, is one of their best friends, 

 and we will hear of no more lawsuits 

 about them. This can be accomplished 

 by the diffusion of all the knowledge 



upon the subject, collected in pam- 

 phlet or book form, and disseminated 

 broad-cast among the fruit-growers ; 

 let them once comprehend that it is 

 money in their pockets as well as in 

 that of the bee-keeper, and fruit- 

 growing and bee-keeping will go hand 

 in hand, all over our broad land, as it 

 does now among the more intelligent. 



It is true the bee may sometimes be 

 a tresspasser, as for instance, in the 

 drying of fruit, raisins, etc., but this 

 is only in common with wasps, 

 hornets, and the common fly, and here 

 I think the owner is much to blame ; 

 he should not dry fruit in tbe open 

 air without screens ; it is a filthy 

 practice, and should be condemned. 



Again : " A stitch in time," etc. : 

 By this I mean that by prompt action 

 in the matter of education, much 

 litigation may be prevented. The 

 trial of cases before ignorant juries, 

 nay, even before judges ignorant on 

 this subject, carried away by the 

 testimony of interested witnesses, 

 may establish precedents in the lower 

 courts, which, if not reversed, will be 

 looked upon by courts of co-ordinate 

 jurisdiction in sister States, as guides, 

 and in the course of time establish a 

 line of decisions, which now the higher 

 courts would hesitate to shake. 

 Judges do not like to reverse each 

 other — they prefer a uniform system 

 of jurisprudence, and often adopt a 

 ruling inconsistent with their own 

 opinions, rather than disturb the 

 symmetry of the law ; therefore, let 

 these decisions start out right, and 

 soon all will be lovely for the bee- 

 keeper. 



As a sample of the literature that 

 I would recommend for dissemina- 

 tion, I append an abstract from the 

 reports of the State Board of Agri- 

 culture of Pennsylvania, for 1884, by 

 M. W. Oliver, chairman : " To ob- 

 tain such information as your com- 

 mittee thought desirable to embody 

 in this report, they prepared and sent 

 to a number of prominent apiarists 

 within the State, the following list of 

 questions, viz. [I select but two] : 

 ' Are bees destructive to fruit ? Are 

 bees of importance in the fertilization 

 of flowers V " To these questions we 

 have received answers, from which I 

 condense as follows : 



To the first we answer : In no sense 

 whatever. We hold to the opinion 

 that so long as fruit is in a sound 

 condition the bees will never harm it ; 

 nor have they the power to do so. It 

 is only when fruit is injured by other 

 insects, by over-ripeness, or other 

 causes, that the bees step in to fill 

 their place as nature's scavengers. 

 Many bee-keepers plant grape-vines 

 in their apiaries, aitd so trellis them 

 as to give shade to the bees. 

 From these vines as perfect clusters 

 of fruit are plucked as from vines not 

 visited by the bees. Our experience 

 has been that while the rose-bugs 

 have destroyed all the fruit on vines 

 just outside, that upon the vines in- 

 side the apiary has been found un- 

 molested ; so tliat we count them 

 guardians, rather than destroyers, of 

 fruit. 



As to the second : " We hold 

 strongly to the affirmative side of this 



