THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



369 



ever I have met bee men, whether in 

 convention or elsewhere, and I liave 

 come to the conclusion (mind t do 

 not state this to be a fact, as our 

 Langstroth frame men have what 

 thev have said about it ; and let me 

 here say that wlien a man makes a 

 statement for a fact, which he does 

 not Ifnow to be a fact, I consider it 

 but little better than though he knew 

 it was false) that not one-eighth of 

 the bee-keepers of the United States 

 and Canada use Langstroth 's frames, 

 and when I say Langstroth's frame, 

 I mean both of those sizes, that }^ 

 inch of which has taken up so mucU 

 room in the Bee Jouknal. 



I think the editor of the Bee Jour- 

 nal is as unfortunate as Mr. Doolit- 

 tle, when he tries to excuse Mr. A. I. 

 Eoot for such assertions, but I sup- 

 pose he wanted to keep up the repu- 

 tation of the editors for truth and 

 veracity. I really believe that not 

 one-fourth of those that use movable 

 frames, use what is today considered 

 the Langstroth frame, and that num- 

 ber is silently growing less in pro- 

 portion. 



Occasionally we find a man chang- 

 ing to that side, probably because he 

 thinks lie is getting on the popular 

 side. Mr. A. 1. Root boasts that he 

 has obliged some one to adopt the 

 Langstroth hive, not because it is the 

 best iiive, but because he cannot get 

 supplies for the best one. 



The many letters I have received 

 asking for samples of my hive, some 

 from men who have the Langstroth 

 hive, and my observation generally 

 convinces me that the "blow" is 

 over, and the swells are becoming 

 gradually less, and the undertow will 

 eventually carry the Langstroth hive 

 all out to sea. 



I would not wish to convey the idea 

 that these men wish to misrepresent 

 or state anything not true, for I think 

 they believe all they state, and the 

 reasons are these : They make and 

 keep on hand the supplies for the 

 Langstroth frame and hives, and say 

 " if you want any other you must wait 

 until we can make them." The re- 

 sult is, that those who use others than 

 the Langstroth frame supplies, either 

 make their own, as I do, or send else- 

 where for them, and the very few 

 orders that A. I. Root gets out of the 

 vast amount used, not of the Langs- 

 troth frame class, causes him to say, 

 " More Langstroth frames are used 

 than all others put together." Judging 

 probably from the orders he gets, I 

 presume that it is from them he 

 judges, for I have about concluded 

 that he sometimes thinks that him- 

 self and customers are iill there is left 

 of bee men. Considering his opinion 

 was formed as above (and I can ex- 

 cuse him in no other way), it proves 

 to me that the Langstroth frame is in 

 a very small minority of the whole. 



" They are so easy to manipulate." 

 Now, I will digress a little, and give 

 some comparative experience in the 

 manipulation. Having a large colony 

 in a Langstroth hive, I concluded they 

 must have some honey to spare, so 1 

 took my tools and went out to inves- 

 tigate. I removed the cover and 

 cloth from the top, and smoked them 



plentifully with my big smoker, 

 which is not of the simple or sim- 

 plicity kind, such as Mr. Root hires 

 debased men with to quit debasing 

 and try to be somebody, but one, that 

 after using the biggest Clark's I could 

 find for a year, the village tinner and 

 myself made one just to my liking. 

 I then attempted to raise a frame of 

 sections. I pried it one way and then 

 the other ; then tried to pry up and 

 pried off the top bar. I placed it 

 back, and then pried each frame sep- 

 arately as far as I could, from the 

 centre one, and I crowded that one 

 way and the other, until I thought I 

 had it loose. By this time the bees 

 had begun to come up. I gave them 

 a good smoking and then took hold of 

 the frame with both hands near the 

 ends, and pulled steady. But it did 

 not come, I pulled a little harder and 

 thought it came a little ; I tried again, 

 it appeared fast, jerked a little on 

 each end, wiggled it side wise, and by 

 wiggling, twisting, jerking and pull- 

 ing, 1 succeeded in raising it up, so 

 that I could see there was some very 

 nice honey in the sections. This 

 gave me new courage, and I went at it 

 with renewed strength. Just at this 

 time an investigating bee struck me 

 on the nose. I looked for my smoker. 

 It was sending forth a stream of 

 smoke sufficient to engulf the whole 

 colony in five seconds if I could have 

 directed it ; but I could not. Botli 

 hands were engaged, and if I let go 

 I would lose all I liad gained. But I 

 was not to be beaten out by one bee, 

 so I wiped him off on my arm and 

 continued the jerking, but as the bees 

 came out thicker and faster, and all 

 appeared to come directly for my 

 face, and sting immediately on ar- 

 rival, my thoughts were soon turned, 

 not ■' oil peace," but " war to the 

 knife," until I subdued the bees. I 

 dropped the frame, it went down with 

 a thub ; I seized the smoker and gave 

 them such a charge as sent all back 

 to the hive or somewhere else, that 

 were not busy on my face trying to 

 pull out their stingers. I covered up 

 the hive and left for the house. I did 

 not swear, but I said " Oh, my," fre- 

 quently ; and when I got into the 

 sitting room, and threw myself into 

 the big chair, I uttered an " Oh, my," 

 which gave all that heard it to under- 

 stand that I was not the happiest man 

 on earth. 



My wife came in, with a tear of 

 sympathy in one eye and a twinkle of 

 fun in the other, and commenced to 

 do what the bees, in their hurried de- 

 parture, neglected — to take out their 

 stingers. She got out all that she 

 could find, bathed my face with 

 ammonia.and advised me to go and lie 

 down. Well, I have long since 

 learned that it is sometimes better to 

 take my wife's advice (but I never 

 own it). So I laid down and there 

 considered the great pleasure and 

 ease in manipulating bees in the 

 Langstrotii hive, and after concluding 

 that if I could find a man fool enough 

 to invest .5 cents in such a hive with 

 at least 50 pounds of honey, I would 

 dispose of that colony. The pain de- 

 creasing as the swelling increased, I 

 soon went to sleep. Oh ! blessed state 



of unconsciousness. When called to 

 supper. I was enabled by rubbing, 

 pricking and piuicliing lo get one eye 

 open so as to find my way to the sup- 

 per table ; and I sat down a perfect 

 laughing stock for the whole family, 

 which amount to only ten when no 

 outsiders are present. Well, I got 

 over it ; but not so with the bees, for 

 I called to my aid some of that stufE 

 the good old minister used to use to 

 make us boys good, " fire and brim- 

 stone," and with it silenced the bees, 

 took away the honey, and with an axe, 

 made kindling wood of the hive. 



Again, I started for the apiary, 

 took my tools, and this time went by 

 the way of my wife's flower garden. 

 She was there pruning some, and en- 

 joying their beauty and fragrance. 

 She asked me to go in, but no, I was 

 in a hurry going to work at the bees, 

 and oljserved, I thought there was 

 too much time spent already with 

 fiowers. Yet I lingered until she 

 picked me a small bunch of sweet 

 scented roses and tied them together 

 with some striped grass, and as she 

 handed them to me said, "Now hurry 

 along or you will spend too much 

 time with the flowers." I took them, 

 took a sniff at them and passed on, 

 feeling a little rebuked, but said 

 nothing. 



As 1 passed along, I took up a stool 

 that I use when a little lazy, while 

 over-hauling a colony. I went to one 

 that I thought had some honey to 

 spare, sat down on my stool at the 

 back of the hive, took another sniff 

 at my flowers and laid them down on 

 a hive to my right, removed the cover 

 and cloth from tlie one before me, 

 blew a little smoke into the top, just 

 enough to inform the bees that I was 

 there, then removed the back end 

 board of the upper or section-honey 

 department of the hive. The first 

 frame of sections was not all capped, 

 so I took it out and put it on the 

 grass. The next I noticed was filled 

 and nicely capped. I also saw that 

 they had Duilt comb from the lower 

 side of the section frame to the upper 

 bar of the brood frame. I took my 

 long knife, that I use in uncapping, 

 and cut it loose, close to the section- 

 frame, then with my left hand took 

 the frame back and out, and with the 

 thumb nail of my right hand, pushed 

 off the separators (these are the sep- 

 arators that Root and Miller told me 

 would not stay. Well, if I used the 

 Langstroth hive, I should want them 

 spiked on, and the section frames 

 bolted together, but I do not). I put 

 the frame down on the ground, to let 

 the bees fly off, and in the same way 

 proceeded to take off four more 

 frames, which were all that were 

 capped over. I then cleaned off the 

 comb the bees had built between the 

 brood frames and sections, put in five 

 new frames with new sections con- 

 taining white clover comb, that I had 

 made to order by the bees last fall for 

 starters, and the same separators that 

 were on the others, then the first 

 frame and end board, the cloth and 

 top, and all was right again. 



I then took each frame of honey 

 that I had taken off, brushed off 

 what few bees remained on them, 



