1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



617 



Something About the Old Skep Bee-Keeping. 



BY W. U. MORSE. 



Mr. Abbott invites all having experience v?ith the skep 

 (the name of the old straw hive) to speak out. And his re- 

 marks imply that the hive may have some good points in it 

 after all. Now if I had more than one of these hives I should 

 burn them, or otherwise get rid of them. 



Before going farther, I will explain what the skep is, as 

 there are thousands that never have seen one. It is made by 

 forming a rope of straw without twisting it, one inch in 

 diameter, and coiling it so that the coil measures 18 inches 

 across, and each coil lying on the top of the other, and laced 

 tightly to the one below until the coils reach 12 inches high, 

 and then the coil is shortened at every round until it runs out, 

 thereby forming a dome. Now such an arrangement, no mat- 

 ter how well it is done, has plenty of crevices for ventilation, 

 and the bees fi.\ it up to suit themselves, and they make no 

 blunders about making it water-proof. We all know that 

 straw Is a bad conductor of heat or cold, and propolis is, as far 

 as my knowledge goes, non-porous, which gives a warm hive 

 in winter, and large, deep combs which are so essential to the 

 perfect wintering of any colony, especially if wintered on the 

 summer stands. Now, these are the good points of the old 

 straw hive, but now for the bad points. 



First, the bee-keeper is powerless over his colonies. Of 

 course, such deep combs are perfect for the production of 

 large quantities of brood, and the hive soon becomes densely 

 populated, and excessive swarming is the result. I have 

 known cases of Bve swarms in one season from the parent col- 

 ony. Then, we see that the combs are 10 inches deep by IS 

 in the center of the hive, getting less in size as they near the 

 outside, and the only support the combs have are two sticks 

 thrust through the hive so as to cross each other, and the bees 

 seem to realize the danger of breaking down such combs, for 

 they thicken the outer ring of their cells much more than my 

 bees do on the Langstroth frame. If wax were more valuable 

 than honey, that would be all right. But we keep bees for 

 the honey they produce, and with the skep hive the only way 

 to profitably obtain it is by sulphuring the bees, and the combs 

 generally are in the worst shape to get a fine quality of honey 

 from them, even if they contain it, as they have had brood in 

 patches all over them, and as a natural result pollen is stored 

 wherever brood is being reared ; but the sulphur pit is the 

 worst of all, and in the hands of a man ignorant of the work- 

 ings of the bees, it is awful. I will explain whv. 



First, the heaviest colonies were always doomed, which 

 meant the best queens of the lot lost forever. Next came the 

 ones that had not enough to pull through the winter, which 

 meant the young laying queens of the season ; and the ones 

 generally left were the medium weight ones, which were gen- 

 ■erally the first swarms with the old queen at the head of the 

 hive. So we see that the only thing that kept the bee-keepers 

 of old from exterminating the honey-bee, was the God-given 

 instinct to the bees to supersede the aged or worn-out mother ; 

 had it not been for this wonderful provision in their little 

 brains, we should have known the honey-bee only from an- 

 cient writings. And if the nations of the world watched our 

 American bee-literature as closely as theirs is watched in 

 America, the skep and sulphur pit would be banished forever, 

 and be read of as curiosities by future generations, as any per- 

 son that can use a saw and square can beat the skep for a 

 hive; but it is essential that every person managing a colony 

 of bees in a wooden hive, should have a true knowledge of the 

 principles of heat, andapply them to the bees he is managing 

 in winter and summer', and then no one will regret having 

 discarded the old for the new. Florence, Nebr. 



The Alsike Clover Leaflet consists of 2 pages, 

 with illustrations, showing the value of Alsike clover, and 

 telling how to grow it. This Leaflet is just the thing to hand 

 to every farmer in your neighborhood. Send to the Bee Jour- 

 nal office for a quantity of them, and see that they are dis- 

 tributed where they will do the most good. Prices, postpaid, 

 are as follows : 50 for 25 cents ; 100 for 40 cents ; or 200 

 for 70 cents. 



The McEvoy Foul Brood Xreatment is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " Foul Brood ; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands oJf every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for $1.10. 



^-»-^ 



See " Bee-Keeper's Guide" offer on page 624. 



CONDUCTED BV 



Rev. Emerson T. Abbott. St. »Josepli, Afo. 



Ordinance No. 30. — Be it Ordained by the 

 Board of Trustees of the Inhabitants of the 

 Village of Fairfax, as Follows : 



Section 1. No person or persons shall keep, permit or 

 maintain bees inside the corporate limits of the village of 

 Fairfax, and it is hereby declared a nuisance to keep or main- 

 tain bees inside said corporate limits. 



Sec. 2. Any person keeping or maintaining within the 

 corporate limits of this village any nuisance as hereinbefore 

 described, shall, on conv'iction thereof, bo fined in the sum of 

 not less than one dollar ($1.00), nor more than one hundred 

 dollars (.$100). 



Sec. 3. This ordinance to be in full force after its ap- 

 proval. 



Approved this 2nd day of September, 1895. 



F. E. EuDDELL, Chairman. 



Attest : G. Seideman, Clerk. 



And now it is in Missouri where the city government has 

 gotten to know " more than the law allows." I should like to 

 gel at the "Honorable Board of Trustees of the Inhabitants 

 of the Village of Fairfax," Missouri, in body assembled, for 

 about one hour, more or less. I trust that some of them 

 would know some things, at the end of that time, which seem 

 to dwell very faintly, if at all, in their craniums at the pres- 

 ent time. I think it well that all such ordinances should be 

 published, that bee-keepers may know what to expect, and be 

 prepared for it. I want to offer this hint to bee-keepers, es- 

 pecially in towns and villages. Insist on giving in your bees 

 to be taxed the same as any other property. The tax will not 

 be much, and then when they confront you with such an or- 

 dinance, simply say : 



" Gentlemen, my bees are property, a,nd you cannot de- 

 clare them a nuisance as a whole any more than you can 

 horses and cattle, if kept in the proper way on my own premi- 

 ses. If you go to fooling with my bees, some of you will get 

 into trouble. If you will proiK that my special bees have com- 

 mitted a nuisance, then I will move them ; but it you do not, 

 you would better have a care how you fool with me or them." 



It is about time that city aldermen and village trustees 

 learn that they are not above the law and the constitutional 

 rights of individual citizens. The right of property is older 

 than any set of village trustees, and the sooner they are made 

 to understand this, the better. They tried the moving-out 

 business on me once in St. Joseph, but I read the riot act to 

 them, and gave them a short chapter of the law and gospel 

 combined, and I have not heard any more of it since, and the 

 presumption is I will not, as this was several years ago. 



Mr. Joseph Blivens, of Fairfax, seems to be the party 

 against whom the above ordinance is directed. If any of our 

 bee-keeping friends, who are near him, can lend him any aid 

 in his fight for hvman liberty, it is to be hoped that they will 

 do so. — [If Mr. Blivens is a member of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Union, he can get plenty of help. — Editor.] 



Caijjadiat;) Bccdon)^ 



The Importance of Longevity in Bees. 



It is somewhat surprising that this quality is so seldom 

 given any prominence by writers in our bee-journals, when 

 upon it, to a very large extent, devolves the interesting ques- 

 tion of " profit or loss " in bee-keeping. That it is of such 

 vital importance may be denied by some of the " older heads " 

 and " bigger lights " in bee-culture, but no one is bound to co- 

 incide with the opinions held by others when such opinions 



