202 



T^wM mwmmmi^MM mwrn jQ^mmmi^, 



I believe I have never felt a finan- 

 cial interest in the invention in ques- 

 tion, which rose paramount to my en- 

 thusiasm in the great improvement I 

 have ahvays believed it to be. This 

 may be a bit of news to the Doctor, 

 and to some others, but it is true, and 

 how plain all will see it when, in the 

 future, they learn the worth of the 

 new hive. The reason why it does 

 not look that way now is because all 

 are looking ahead at something not 

 yet fully conceived of ; but if we read 

 up the attacks upon Father Lang- 

 stroth's great improvements, and the 

 howl against the practicality of his 

 hive, by those who, like the Doctor, 

 had not yet caught a conception of its 

 worth, and then take a look at both 

 the hive and the inventor to-day, all 

 seems clear enough. 



At the time when Father Langstroth 

 was being robbed, how many bee-keep- 

 ers in this country do you think there 

 were that did not think that he wrote 

 his book, "The Hive and Honej'-Bee," 

 " for no other purpose than to sell 

 hives and rights ?" that every time he 

 tried to explain the grand improve- 

 ments which he knew that he had 

 made (and no one could explain them 

 so well as he) — improvements that he 

 knew would benefit this world thou- 

 sands of times more than himself 

 alone, some one called it " Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's interests," just as Dr. T. now 

 mentions: "Mr. Heddon's interests." 

 From whence did the Doctor get such 

 groveling ideas of the person he was 

 praising only one j"ear ago ? I do 

 hope that he will give the names of 

 the prompters of that essay. If not, 

 will the prompters themselves do it ? 



The Doctor says this hive is not the 

 first of my failures, any more than 

 were his "continuous passage-ways" 

 the first of his failures. But this hive 

 is no failure, either with me or with 

 others who have tried it, even so short 

 a time as to only half understand its 

 advantages. 



Will the Doctor be so kind as to tell 

 where I ever pronounced a thing good, 

 and that too for years, and then pro- 

 nounced it bad and threw it away for 

 something that existed before it. But 

 the Doctor threw away his continuous 

 passage-way hive at once when my 

 hive came to the public ; and first 

 claimed my invention, then acknowl- 

 edged that it was mine, and procured 

 a right to use it, and used it a little so 

 "Tinkered" as to half destroy its 

 functions ; and now he recommends a 

 hive made paitly on my plan, but 

 enough dift'erent so that (he claims) it 

 does not infringe the letter of my in- 

 vention, even if it does the spirit. 

 Time will tell about that. 



The Doctor speaks truly when he 

 says that a long-time trial may bring 



out defects that less time and theory 

 did not discover. I am aware of this, 

 so I have more than almost any one 

 else, tested my theories on a large 

 scale, and with many repetitions. Be- 

 cause I was aware of that fact, I tested 

 the new hives two years — all the patent 

 law would allow. 



When we get answers to the call 

 that I have made — answers from act- 

 ual experience, I shall be glad to see 

 how the experience of honey-producers 

 agrees witli that of the Doctor, who 

 used a mongrel hive, and who is a 

 very good workman, good writer, but 

 poor inventor, I think. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



[With the two articles on each side 

 which have now appeared, the per- 

 sonal controversy between Dr. Tinker 

 and Mr. James Heddon is closed. The 

 Bee Journax has too many other sub- 

 jects waiting a chance for discussion, 

 to give any more room to it. — Ed.] 



WINTERING BEES. 



Season of 1§§7 — Temperature of 

 a Bee-Cellar. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY JOSEPH BEATH. 



My report for 1887 is as follows : On 

 Dec. 5, 1886, 1 put 30 colonies of bees 

 into the cellar, and on April 20 I took 

 out 29 colonies alive ; but they began 

 robbing, and I lost 2 colonies, so I had 

 27 colonies to commence with on May 

 1. They were mostly in good condi- 

 tion, but as I made the prophecy in 

 May, that there would be less bees in 

 the spring of 1888 than there was then, 

 I cut out queen-cells to prevent early 

 swarming. 



In June there was a fair honey-flow 

 from white, Alsike and red clover. 

 They were working on all at the same 

 time, being about 2 bees on white 

 clover, 4 bees on Alsike, and 1 bee on 

 red clover ; my bees being all hybrids, 

 and two-thirds of them filled their su- 

 pers, and increased to 40 colonies. 



As I was very busy with my farm 

 work, I only extracted about 50 pounds 

 of honey, so that when the drouth 

 came they had plenty of honey. 



Now comes the queer part : Although 

 they had worked on the first crop of 

 red clover, not a bee was to be seen on 

 the second crop, although the bumble- 

 bees were working right along on it, 

 and it was just the same with the sweet 

 clover, smart-weed or heart's-ease. I 

 did not see half a dozen bees at work 

 on them, never a bumble-bee. 



We had fair rains in August, so that 

 we had good fall feed for cattle, but no 



honey until the last half of September, 

 when the strongest colonies filled up 

 their hives again. 



About the middle of September I 

 took from the surplus departments of 

 those that had it to spare, and gave to 

 those that needed it, as I thought suf- 

 ficient for winter, and I did not take 

 off the balance until the middle of 

 October, when I found those that I had 

 fed, were again short, and some that 

 had the upper story full before, were 

 entirely empty below. So, after mak- 

 ing them even again, I onlj' took off 

 200 pounds more honey, making 250 

 pounds in all. 



I then let them alone until Dec. 15, 

 when in the morning I began to carry 

 them into the cellar. But I carried 

 onlj' 6 colonies in, when they became 

 too lively. The sun shone brightly, 

 and they had a good flight. I carried 

 the rest in at night and the next morn- 

 ing, except 6 colonies that had again 

 become too light ; for those I made 

 candj', and put it on top of the frames, 

 using about 40 pounds of sugar. 



My cellar was at a temperature of 

 about 40°, until the blizzard in Jan- 

 uarj-, when it fell to 32°, 30°, and on 

 one day 28°. The bees had been very 

 quiet, just giving forth a contented 

 hum ; but as tlie temperature fell, the 

 hum was less and less, until at 28° I 

 had to put my ear close to the hive in 

 order to hear a sound ; this being in 

 direct opposition to the theory that, as 

 the temperature falls below 40°, the 

 bees fan their wings, thrash around, 

 and raise a racket like a man thrashing 

 his hands, in order to keep warm. 

 Have others noticed anything similar 

 to the above ? 



I thought best, however, to raise the 

 temperature, and did so by placing a 

 lamp in the cellar ; the next day it was 

 32°, and the bees made more noise 

 than they have any other time during 

 the winter. But I think that was 

 caused by the lamp's smoking. I 

 remedied that, and kept it there for 2 

 or 3 days, until it was again 38°, and 

 they had their natural hum. It has 

 remained so to tlie present time (Feb. 

 13.) CZl 



I wish to thank those who answered 

 my queiy about "bees working on red 

 clover." But to get any value out of 

 it, we should know what kind of bees 

 they have. 



Corning, Iowa. 



Pliotograplis ot Bce-Keepers. — 



The " medley " gotten up by E. 0. Tuttle, 

 containing the faces of 131 representative 

 apiai-ists, and a printed sketch of each one, 

 will be sent with the Bee Jot'RNAi, for one 

 year for 81.7.5; or we will present it free, by 

 mail, to any one, for a club of three subscri- 

 bers and $3.00. 



