THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



393 



the case, and dismissed the suit. The | 

 plaiutiff probably mistoolc the attaclis 

 of the troublesome gad-fly for the 

 attacks of bees, which he saw work- 

 ing upon the clover. In California, 

 recently, a bee-keeper has been sued 

 by a fruit-grower tor alleged damages 

 done to grapes. The suit was in a 

 justice's court; the apiarist was 

 beaten, but has, I believe, appealed to 

 the higher court. 



As to whether bees really do injure 

 fruit, is a question that has been 

 frequently asked. I presume many 

 fruit-growers will unhesitatingly say 

 they do, and they know they do, 

 while bee-keepers are equally certain 

 that it is impossible for bees to pierce 

 the skin of fruit. At the convention 

 of bee-keepers held last December in 

 Detroit, Prof. A. J. Cook said : " Peo- 

 ple have several times told me that 

 their grapes had been destroyed by 

 bees, and I have offered to come and 

 witness the destruction ,if they would 

 let me know when it is going on, but 

 I cautioned them to first be sure that 

 they had a case ; I have never been 

 called. Bees do sometimes attack 

 grapes, however, but it seems when 

 the weather has first caused them to 

 crack, or something else has attacked 

 and opened the skins." At Aurora, 

 Ills., there is an experiment station 

 of ttie United States in charge of 

 Prof. Nelson W. McLain. The pro- 

 fessor, in his report, says that he 

 placed colonies of bees in a building, 

 deprived them of food, except fruit; 

 of different kinds which was placed 

 upon shelves around the sides of the 

 room. All specimens having cracked 

 skins, or that were intentionally per- 

 forated, were entirely consumed ex- 

 cept the skins ; but although these 

 bees were starved to death, not a 

 souQd grape, apple, peach or fruit of 

 any kind was injured. It is a physical 

 impossibility for a bee to cut open the 

 skin of a grape ; its mandibles are not 

 capable of cutting. 



Now, then, although I deny that a 

 bee can attack and destroy a sound 

 grape, I do not deny that bees are 

 sometimes a source of great annoy- 

 ance, and perhaps some loss, to the 

 grape grower. Even if the skins of 

 his grapes are cracked, or have been 

 pierced by wasps or birds, the grape- 

 grower may not wish them sucked 

 dry ; or if he does not care for the 

 loss of the cracked grapes, the pres- 

 ence of the bees is a great annoyance 

 in gathering the fruit. Bee-keep^s 

 should not ignore this; neither should 

 the grape-growers forget that the 

 bees are their best friends, inasmuch 

 as they fertilize the blossoms, and 

 thereby produce the fruit. In the 

 spring, when there are but few insects 

 to fertilize the blossoms, the bees are 

 very valuable. Both bee-keepers and 

 fruit-growers should learn to bear 

 and forbear. If I understand the 

 matter, the injury and annoyance 

 that grape-growers suffer from bees, 

 are often of short duration, only 

 lasting a few days, and, if all parties 

 would exhibit a' neighborly spirit, it 

 is probable that the bees might be 

 shut in their hives a few days, with 

 no great loss to the bee-keeper, as 

 bees never frequent cider-mills, nor 



suck the juices from fruit, unless 

 there is a dearth of honey, and the 

 loss of honey would not be great. If 

 the weather is warm, the hives would 

 probably require a great amount of 

 ventilation. 



But let us suppose that bees do in- 

 jure grapes or other fruits, and that 

 the bee-keeper cannot, or will not, 

 keep his bees at liome, can the fruit- 

 grower, in justice, ask the bee-keeper 

 to pay damages or to move his bees 

 away ? It may help us to turn the 

 telescope and look through it from 

 tlie other end. Let us suppose that 

 the juices of fruits were injurious to 

 bees, that when stored and used for 

 winter food it led to disease among 

 bees. Could not bee-keepers, then, 

 as consistently complain if a vineyard 

 was started near them, as fruit- 

 growers can now complain when an 

 apiary is brought into their neighbor- 

 hood y Bees have existed as long as 

 have fruits, and the keeping of one is 

 as legitimate and recognized a busi- 

 ness as the raising of the other, and 

 if there are times when the two in- 

 dustries clash, it is doubtful if the 

 difficulties can be settled by legal 

 proceedings. In my own opinion, 

 however, there is a moral law to 

 priority of location. If bees are the 

 cause of loss and annoyance to a 

 grape-grower, and this loss or annoy- 

 ance is not counterbalanced by the 

 benefits derived from the bees, then 

 the man who knows this and plants a 

 vineyard in the vicinity of an apiary, 

 is morally bound not to complain of 

 the depredation of the bees, while the 

 bee-keeper who brings an apiary into 

 a grape-growing district should feel 

 himself morally bound to keep bis 

 bees from annoying his grape-grow- 

 ing neighbors. 



Rogersville, d Mich. 



For the American Bee JournrjJ. 



Surplus-Cases— Doile-Walleil HIygs, 



J. H. ANDRE. 



On page 361 I mentioned a surplus- 

 case which had no division-boards. 

 As some of my writings have been 

 misunderstood, and fearing the above 

 would be also, I thought it might be 

 well to make it plain now. 



Suppose we have a hive that the 

 top- bar of the frames comes just even 

 with the top of the hive. Now make 

 tiie case to accommodate as many 

 rows of sections as you wish. Let it 

 rest on the edges of the top of the 

 hive, and tlie two sides of the case 

 that the sections come sidewise to run 

 down %• of an inch lower than the 

 others. Nail across the bottom of the 

 case, where the rows of sections meet, 

 a strip of tough timber one inch wide 

 and %-inch thick. Nail in short 

 pieces of wood on the two ends of the 

 case between the strips, and you have 

 a case of solid sections which will be 

 warmer, and the bees will not desert 

 it on cold nights half as soon as where 

 division strips are used, and which 

 with a little care may be riddled in 

 one-quarter the time that a case made 

 in the old way can. 



The case may be made even at the 

 bottom, and the strips gained in by 

 sawing notches in the sides of the 

 case, which stiffen it, and if required 

 a square block may be nailed in solid 

 at one corner of the case that will just 

 occupy the same space that one of the 

 sections does. 



By using this case, and % inch 

 lumber to make it, the hive mentioned 

 on page 3(;i may be made to accom- 

 modate the regular -tyx4>4 sections, 

 and thus do away with the objections 

 that some may have to had it — its 

 having an odd-size section. 



It seems to me, so far as my obser- 

 vation goes, that it is useless expense 

 in making chaff hives ; they are cer- 

 tainly worse than single-walled hives, 

 unless packed in a thorough manner. 

 As I remarked once before, if not well 

 packed,a long, cold spell will penetrate 

 through the packing, and one warm 

 day in winter will not warm them up, 

 and in a single wall it will. The only 

 advantage that I can see is in spring — 

 they maintain a more even tempera- 

 ture during sudden changes of 

 weather. I have seen chaff hives 

 used side by side with single-walled 

 hives, and I believe before I use them 

 I will try clear pine just 2 inches 

 thick. They will be cheaper and no 

 trouble to pack. 



I have read with much interest the 

 way some of the leaders manage to 

 get the hive full of brood in the 

 spring. Now, suppose just before the 

 apple bloom we take such a hive as I 

 have described on page 361, in fair 

 condition in regard to bees and brood, 

 take out the frames and put back 

 each five by turning them around, and 

 also put the inside ones on the out- 

 side—this would be the same as cut- 

 ting it into quarters and putting the 

 inside combs on the outside. The 

 hive and also the management of it 

 is less than a year old. My health 

 has been so poor that I have had no 

 chance to experiment with it, but it 

 seems to me that it is " the coming 

 hive " for rapid brood-rearing, for 

 comb honey, and safe wintering. 



Lockwood,9 N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



Queeu-Restrictors, 



C. W. DAYTON. 



I would like to describe a con- 

 trivance which was used a little dur- 

 ing the season of 1884, and which is 

 now being tested with improvements. 

 In my estimation it covers the ground 

 of sectional hives, reversible frames, 

 honey-boards, contractors, queen- 

 catchers and drone-traps combined. 

 I do not wish to verify this statement 

 on paper, but leave it to tests in the 

 apiary. 



The " restrictor " is adapted to four 

 frames, but there may be from two to 

 eight. The frame material should be 

 one inch in width all around ; as that 

 is the best width for both brood and 

 extracting. Material of any thickness 

 will do, so that the side-bars are 

 strong after having holes made 

 through them. It wants four frames 



