142 



American bee JOURisfAL. 



December, 1885, he published his book. 

 It was, therefore, impossible that he 

 should have had over one year and some 

 months' experience with, perhaps, a 

 dozen hives. 



The old Stewarton hive combined 

 every one of the so-called "new princi- 

 ples" except movable frames, and .the 

 same with the sectional hives of sixty 

 years ago in this country. They had 

 horizontally-divisible and interchange- 

 able brood-chambers, and would have 

 been serviceable hives for modern use 

 with movable brood-frames and the 

 queen-excluder. They were called 

 " sectional " or " storifying ■' hives. 



In making^se of new terms to define 

 old principles, Mr. Heddon has misled 

 many into thinking that he had invented 

 a new hive. Mr. Dadant is justly 

 credited with shrewdness, with ai3ility, 

 and, above all, a love for the truth. 

 Besides, his knowledge on the subject of 

 hives is not to be compared with any 

 other authority that I know of. If he 

 has intimated that Mr. Heddon has 

 given us nothing new in hives, I do not 

 doubt it. 



However, I have no objection to Mr. 

 Heddon laying claim to all hives of the 

 class described in his patent. Others 

 may, but I do not, as I am not interested 

 in closed-end frames. 



As the Langstroth hive could not, by 

 any stretch of the imagination, be 

 included in the "described class" of 

 hives indicated in his patent, he has no 

 claim upon it in any form, or in any 

 combination with or without a queen- 

 excluder. His patent distinctly limits 

 his combination claims to hives of the 

 class described. 



In describing the hive I now use, I 

 have not been slow to indicate that it 

 was modeled after the simplicity and 

 Cowan bee-hives. In general construc- 

 tion, it is identical with the latter, 

 which was illustrated and described in 

 Mr. Cowan's invaluable work, published 

 in 1881. It is a storifying Langstroth 

 hive, and involves no principles not 

 characteristic of. the above-named hives 

 when used with a queen-excluder. 



As the space between the zinc in my 

 queen-excluder and the top-bars of the 

 brood-frames in my hives in only about 

 5/16 of an inch, I fail to see the point 

 Mr. Heddon tries to make about 3^ 

 inch spaces. 



Since my last article the following 

 from one of the leading bee-keepers and 

 supply manufacturers of the West has 

 come to hand: "We endorse your 

 article on page 748. Bro. Heddon gets 

 way off the track on so many things. 



We have discarded the wood-slat honey- 

 board." 



Also the following from an extensive 

 bee-keeper and well-known correspon- 

 dent of the Bee Journal, who has had 

 experience with both two-rowed and 

 one-rowed zinc : "I cannot agree with 

 Mr. Heddon that 8 rows of holes in our 

 queen-excluders are better than 16 

 rows. A free communication and close 

 connection between the parts of a hive 

 has surely much to do with the energy 

 and encouragement of the workers, and 

 the more open space we can have 

 between the brood and surplus apart- 

 ments, the more honey we will get under 

 like circumstances." 



New Philadelphia, Ohio. 



[As both Dr. Tinker and Mr. Heddon 

 have now been given space in the Bee 

 Journal, to elaborate their views upon 

 the subject of queen-excluders and 

 honey-boards, and as it seems to us 

 impossible that a prolongation of the 

 controversy can result in any good to 

 either of these gentlemen, or to bee- 

 keepers generally, we hope that neither 

 of them will ask any further indulgence 

 at our hands. While we are always glad 

 to receive communications having for 

 their object the benefit or enlightenment 

 of bee-keepers upon any subject of 

 general interest, we deem it our duty to 

 ourselves, and to our subscribers, to de- 

 cline to publish such as savor of 

 personalities, however much we may 

 esteem the writer. — Ed.] 



Honey from Wllil Parsnip Bloom. 



WM. 



BARCLAY. 



This morning I concluded to trace my 

 bees to the source from which they 

 gathered honey so rapidly, as they have 

 been doing for the past few days. I 

 knew that the chestnut and the sumac 

 were in bloom, as well as the white 

 clover, but was satisfied from the hum 

 of work, and the action of the bees, that 

 the nectar did not come from either of 

 these sources. 



The course of the bees led me to the 

 banks of the Ohio river, which flows 

 past our quiet village, and there I found 

 vast numbers of bees busily engaged 

 upon the bloom of the wild parsnip with 

 which the river bank was literally 



