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4T5 



■^ * -^ -^ -" r '^ * 



far from here, aiul obtained his hives 

 direct from Mr. Heddoii, recently made 

 a thorough test of the " shake out 

 function" of the hive. Aided b_y 

 another expert bee-keeper wlio had 

 cliarge of the hives the attempt was 

 made to shake out the bees and cpieens 

 from several hives without success. 

 The attempt wa.s also made to drive 

 the queens down on the bottom- 

 board with smoke witli no bettor suc- 

 cess. One colony of hybrids were so 

 enraged by the -shaking, that the api- 

 arists were driven out of the apiary. 

 At last, our friend, unable to find a 

 ipieen, or to shake out the bees, gave 

 up the experiment in di.sgust, and de- 

 clared that the would transfer the bees 

 to other hives. 



The experience of these gentlemen 

 is the same as my o^yi, that the 

 •' shake out function" is a humbug. 

 Add to this the dilficulty from brace- 

 combs, and the divisible brood-cham- 

 ber has not a thing to i-ecommcnd it. 

 It becomes at once a complicaled, ex- 

 pensive and worthless contrivance. 



But Mr. Heddon claims that I have 

 not used his hive, but instead a modi- 

 fied one, and not a divisible bruod- 

 chamber at all. Let us see about that. 

 The idea was given out bj" Mr. Heddon 

 that there was no need of handling 

 brood-frames, but instead, hives. I 

 would make the most of this valuable 

 (?) function of the new hive. So I 

 made it the exact capacitj" of the eight- 

 frame Langstroth hive. The cases 

 were made very light, of |-inch .stuff, 

 aud the frames ] an inch more shal- 

 low than Mr. Heddon's. Besides, to 

 make sure of the "shake out func- 

 tion" the top and bottom bars were 

 made only 'i of an inch wide. These 

 cases were illustrated in Gleanings. 

 But after all my care in the matter, 

 and numerous trials, I found the 

 " shake out function" to be impracti- 

 cable to a man of ordinary strength 

 and endurance, even with my little 

 cases. 



Mr. Heddon is fond of alluding to 

 what he is pleased to call my " mis- 

 takes." But my mistakes, if I have 

 made an)-, are trivial indeed as com- 

 pared with the grand mistakes of Mr. 

 Heddon in his unfortunate hive theor- 

 ies. It is human to err, but I must ob- 

 ject to one of the mo.st signal failures 

 in the history of apiculture; being 

 paraded before the public under the 

 false guise of "success." Charging 

 me with mistakes will not 1)lind the 

 public to the fact that the principle of 

 his new hive is wrong, and that his 

 theories regarding it are highly decep- 

 tive and misleading. 



In conclusion I must observe, that 

 Mr. Heddon has made no improve- 

 ments in bee-hives as alleged ; at least | 

 not in the so-called new hive. The ! 



Heddon-Langstroth hive with the Hed- 

 don-More super have met with favor, 

 but as an "original inventor" we 

 shall hope that our friend may yet 

 distinguish himself. 



New Philadelphia, Ohio. 



[It is difficult to find the right place 

 to stop a discussion when once begun. 

 We thought we had terminated the 

 controversy about the merits of the 

 Heddon hive some months ago, but 

 some persons imagined that an injus- 

 tice Avas done to Dr. Tinker in .stop- 

 ping it there, and we now admit the 

 above just to show that no injustice 

 was intended. As the essay of Dr. 

 Tinker's opened the " ball," if Mr. Hed- 

 don desires to make a short reply, that 

 will positive!}' close the discussion in 

 our columns. We hope this will satisfy 

 all the friends of both parties, While 

 many are tired of the discussion and 

 desire to see it terminated, we will not 

 give either side the advantage. — Ed.] 



WINGS CLIPPED. 



Thoughtlessly Clipping: Wings of 

 a Virgin Queen. 



Written for the American Bee Joun\al 



BY JOHN CADWALLADER. 



On June 14 a swarm was cast bj' a 

 colony having a queen with her wings 

 clipped, which was properly hived. 

 To my knowledge none has issued 

 from that hive, until to-day one came 

 foi'th. While thej" were issuing I dis- 

 covered the queen in the grass in 

 front of the hive. I captured her, and 

 before reflecting I clipped her wings. 

 1. Is it likely that she is a virgin 

 queen ? 2. As she cannot take wing, 

 will she ever become fertile ? 



On May 27, I was examining a col- 

 ony which I had known to be strong, 

 and finding no eggs, but an abundance 

 of brood and numerous queen-cells, I 

 concluded that the colony had sud- 

 denly- become queenless. So on the 

 following morning I began to cut out 

 a lot of the queen-cells which were 

 chiefly in one frame. As fast as the 

 cells were taken lliey were placed in a 

 wooden butter-dish. When I had 

 finished, the comb had been so weak- 

 ened b)- the removal of the queen-cells, 

 that it broke loose from the frame. I 

 at once began to repair this, but be- 

 fore I had finished it, the queen-cells 

 in the butter-dish began to hatch, and 

 the queens to crawl away. I hurriedly 

 caught and caged six, but two got 

 awa}- ; one I afterward found dead un- 



der the hive with a lot of bees around 

 her, trying to bring her to life. 



I then fixed some nuclei in which to- 

 place this flock of queens, which were 

 threatening to cut their way out of the 

 cages. The hive had been smoked and 

 all broken up for an hour. It was 

 about II o'cloc^k. I had in the mean- 

 time hived a first swarm which had 

 issued with a wing-clipped queen, 

 when the swarming note was again 

 heard by a swarm issuing from this 

 hive which had been smoked and 

 broken up for an hour, which had 

 yielded me six bright queens, and the 

 two which " got away." This swarm 

 was hived, and both it and the parent 

 colon^i have had laying queens for 

 several weeks. I therefore concluded 

 that the parent colony had become 

 queenless b)' having cast a swarm (the 

 queen's wing not being clipped) un- 

 known to me, which absconded. 



There seems to be little prospect for 

 white clover. Basswood is in l^loom, 

 alive with bees, but honey is not com- 

 ing in as it did from fruit-bloom, pop- 

 lar, and probably honey-dew. So far 

 all the honey stored is of a dark color 

 and bitter taste. 



North Vernon, Ind., June 30, 1888. 



[It is very likely that the queen you 

 found in the grass was a virgin, and if 

 so, in clipping her wings you destroj'cd 

 her usefulness by preventing her from 

 flying and becoming fertilized. — Ed.] 



fm t i iJ iiTSYTrrrmtltZl l JiZ S Z SSSZ 



CONVEl^ITIOBI DIRECTORY. 



1888. Time and Place of Meeting. 



Aug. ."H.— Ionia County, at Ionia, Micb. 



H. :}mith. Sec, Ionia, Micb. 



Aug. 14.— Colorado State, at Denver, Colo. 



J. M. Clark. Sec, Denver, Colo. 



Aug. 27.— Stark County, at Canton, o. 



Mark Tbomson, Sec. Canton, O. 



Sept. 8.— Susquehanna County, at Montrose. Pa. 



11. M. Seeley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



Dec. —.-Michigan State, at .Jackson, Mich. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton. Mich. 



S^~ In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- Bd. 





TSo While Clover Honey.— Geo. 

 W. Fair, Chrisuian, Ills., on July 9, 18S8, 

 says : 



I wintered 33 out of 34 colonies of bees, 

 coniiiig through in splendid condition, and 

 are now boilina over with bees ; but tliey 

 have not Katlif-red a pound of surplus 

 honey, and tliere is no prospect of any 

 soon. This is a Rood locality for white 

 clover lionev. but it is a complete failure 

 this year. What is in bloom seems to af- 

 ford little if any honey. 



