THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



821 



honey flow they are not as liable to 

 leave the sections and go below. An- 

 otlier point in lavor of wood, for some 

 wlio are a little tardy in removing the 

 sections as soon as capped, is that the 

 bees will run upon the wood instead 

 of tlie oai)ping; when, if tin is used, 

 being colder, they will run upon tlie 

 capping, soiling it soon, and injuring 

 tlie sale in marl<et. Tlie wood will not 

 kink in cleaning and will stand more 

 careless liandliiig tlian tin. 



While some contend that bees will 

 brace from separator to capping more 

 with wood tlian tin, my experience 

 does not prove it to be a fact. , 



Since I began using wood for sepa- 

 rators, in 1880, I have iiroduced from 

 7 to 10 thousand boxes of comb honey, 

 and not one in oOO was braced from 

 cap to separator. 



1 do not know the amount of dem- 

 onstration necessary to prove that 

 wood is practical, better, and cheaper 

 than tin, but if you, Mr. Editor, will 

 come to my place", I will take you into 

 my cutler and we will visit a few of 

 our best and most successful comb- 

 honey producers, such as Messrs. New- 

 man & Son, and C. K. Isliam, of Peo- 

 ria, N. Y.; W. S. Benedict, Moscow, 

 N. Y.; R. B. Rians and Van Eten, of 

 York; M. Dodds and R. Buck, of 

 Warsaw, N. Y.; Stanley Bros, of Wy- 

 oming, and many others, and if it is 

 not demonstrated to your satisfaction, 

 we sliall feel glad to liave met you and 

 we will " kill the fatted calf " and eat 

 the salt of friendsliip just the same. 



My closing advice to those who wish 

 to make any change in their surplus 

 arrangement, where wood can be sub- 

 stituted for tin, is to do it, by all 

 means ; for to get the best results, 

 financially, we must invest on that 

 which is the most practical for the 

 least money, and still have that which 

 will aid lis in producing a first class 

 article, for that will command a good 

 price. 



In my next I will have something to 

 say of our surplus arrangement and 

 the use of separators. 



Perry Cenler, N. Y.. Dec. 9, 1882. 



[ We have had some very flattering 

 reports from those who have used the 

 wood separators. We should be glad 

 to lake the sleigh- ride with Mr. B. but 

 must forego the pleasure now.— Ed.] 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



The "Coming Bee." 



S. A. SHUCK. 



I do not wish Mr. Heddon to infer 

 that I never (ind any inferior or worth- 

 less queens ; but, as Mr. Doolittle tells 

 us of having destroyed so mauy in one 

 season, and, as Mr. Heddon speaks of 

 inferior queens without mentioning 

 this fearful slaugbterby Mr. Doolittle, 

 why sliould it be thought a thing in- 

 credible, if I, or any one, should liave 

 imagined tliat Mr. Heddon liad found 

 more tlian 3 or .5 wortliless queens 

 each spring, in his apiaries of 150 to 

 200 or 300 colonies'? 



To say that I am surprised. Is a very 

 feeble expression of my thoughts 



concerning Mr. Heddon's statement, 

 that he " finds from none to 3 or •'5 

 worthless queens eaoh spring." 



In my report, I had no thought of 

 superannuated ipieeiis ; for all queens, 

 if permitted to live, must, eventually 

 become worthless. Queens that are 

 permitted to live, on account of the 

 superior quality of their offspring, 

 until they become too old to be prolit- 

 able, I do not consider as belonging to 

 that class called inferior. What I 

 understand by inferior queens, are 

 those tliat fro'm the time they com- 

 mence to lay, manifest feebleness, 

 sluggislmess or a lack of prolificness; 

 or whose progeny show a lack of some 

 of the traits necessary to place them 

 on a high standard of excellence, such 

 as productiveness, hardiness, etc. 



I have had so few of this class of 

 queens, (except where they have mis- 

 mated, thereby producing inferior, 

 and sometimes worthless workers,) 

 during tlie past three years, and as all 

 of my queens proved to be from fair 

 to very good for productiveness this 

 season, I do not see why Mr. Ileddon 

 takes exception to the yellow bands on 

 my bees, so longas these (yellow-band- 

 ed) bees are bringing in more lioney 

 than any others I have been able to 

 pick upduring the past seven years. 

 I have had blacks and hybrids for four 

 years, and Italians and hybrids for 

 three years, and I have become so 

 dissatislied with hybrids that I de- 

 stroyed every queen in my apiary this 

 tall, which did not produce three- 

 banded bees. 



No. 20, in my report, is the best 

 colon V of hybrids! ever owned; but as 

 they were no better than many of my 

 Italian colonies, I destroyed their 

 queen and gave them a young one. 



Mr. Heddon says, " as tliere is no 

 comparison made between Mr. Shuck's 

 strain and any other, we have no evi- 

 dence that the large yield of honey 

 reported, is at all due to the strain of 

 bees." He also suggests the inference 

 that their honey less condition on June 

 1st, is evidence of a worthless strain. 

 If their honeyless condition at so late 

 a date in the season, is evidence of a 

 worthless strain, then I am puzzled to 

 know how it is tliat, from these bees, 

 with an expense of $45, and my own 

 labor, I have honey to the value of 

 over $500, valuing comb honey at 

 15 cts. per lb., and extracted at 10 cts. 

 My average yield is larger than that 

 of any other apiary in this section of 

 country, so far as I can learn, and 

 from two to four times greater than 

 that obtained by farmers in this com- 

 munity. 



Mr. Heddon characterizes my yield 

 with the phrase "honey shower," and 

 says:— "I know what these honey 

 showers are." Does not Mr. Heddon 

 see tliat his efforts in this direction, 

 plainly show tliat, if I had a " honey 

 shower," his "shower" was only 

 twice or three times as "big " as mine ? 

 I am willing to admit that we liad a 

 good season, all things considered. 



Our lioney was obtained from white 

 clover, red clover, basswood and 

 heartsease. If Mr. Heddon could 

 have stood as I did on the lirst week 

 in September, in a large Held of red 

 clover and beheld his bees in every 



direction, and heard that hum of 

 " business," he would again have 

 " thrown his hat " through the columns 

 of Ihe Bkk JouiiNAL, as he did in 

 August, and the faint echoes of 

 'Eureka! Eureka!!" would have 

 sounded in our ears, as we read hia 

 description of how those leather-color- 

 ed bees sipped the nectar, and of the 

 tons of comb honey that would soon 

 be completed. 



Mr. Ileddon says : " It is ray opinion 

 that he who leaves out the brown 

 bee, thus breeding for yellow-bands, 

 will get away beliind in the race," 

 and mention the points of excellence 

 given the German bee over the Italian 

 by Mr. L. L. Langstroth. 



While I respect Mr. Heddon's 

 opinion very much, and I am willing 

 to admit that the points of excellence 

 mentioned, do exist with many strains 

 of the German bee, I am not willing 

 to admit that all brown bees possess 

 all these points of excellence; nor am 

 I willing to admit that all strains of 

 Italian bees are lacking in all these 

 points of excellence, and as nine- 

 tenths of the practical apiarists of this 

 country have declared and still claim 

 that the Italian bees are the most 

 superior race ever had in this country. 

 I wish to say that it is " my apinimi " 

 that he who looks for " the coming 

 bee " through the best strains of a 

 superior race, will far outstrip the one 

 who strives to And it by incorporating 

 into a superior race the blood of an 

 inferior one. 



Mr. Ileddon desires to cultivate the 

 good qualities of the two races, and 

 leave off the bad. This appears very 

 nice on paper, but in practice presents 

 quite a different picture 1 So much 

 had been said of imported stock, that 

 in July. 1880, I purchased a selected 

 imported queen, and I reared a few 

 queens from her that season, and a 

 few in 1881, and although she main- 

 tained one of the most populous col- 

 onies in my apairy during the past 

 season, I did not rear a single queen 

 from her. And if such queens are 

 considered the highest standard of im- 

 ported stock, (which they must be,) I 

 am not surprised that Mr. Heddon 

 should have a strain of hybrids that 

 are superior to them. 



While I esteem the Rev L. L. Langs- 

 troth and his judgment very highly, 

 I recognize the fact that apiarists at 

 the present day have many advan- 

 tages that Mr. L. did not possess. Mr. 

 L. had but few intellects equal to his 

 own to consult, and a less number of 

 strains of bees to compare with each 

 other ; while we have the experience, 

 not only of this great and go<id man, 

 but of scores of others, and all the ap- 

 pliances that American genius could 

 devise; coupled with a constant impor- 

 tation of foreign bees, and all the im- 

 provements that American industry 

 could accomidish. • If, with all these 

 advantages, a strain of Italian bees 

 could not be found that is superior to 

 those possessed by Mr. Langstroth 

 during his experiments, then I cannot 

 see how it is that Mr. Heddon can 

 have produced a superior strain of 

 iiees in so short a time by crossing the 

 Italian bee with an inferior race. 

 Bryant. 111. 



