302 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



I fed them whenever there was any danger 

 of their starving, but still they swarmed. 

 The following are a few of their tricks : Fol- 

 lowing the queen when she Hew out to mate; 

 absconding a few hours after I had shipped 

 their queen; absconding if I did not take 

 the queen out before she had all the combs 

 full, and refusing to accept virgins— killing 

 twice as many as larger nuclei. 



I shall remodel the bodies of those small 

 hives into feeders, melt the combs, and use 

 the frames for kindling the fire. 



The next hives I have made will be four- 

 frame Langstroth, and I claim that with 

 them I can rear more queens from a certain 

 number of colonies with less work, and when 

 fall conaes two or three of these nuclei will 

 make a colony, while the small ones will not 

 be worth uniting. 



It is a waste of bees and loss of money to 

 use these small hives. A good nucleus will 

 gather ten to fifteen pounds of honey in 

 September here, and seal it up so that it 

 makes good winter stores. 



No man can yiv3 me any more of those 

 small hives, even if he fills them with bees, 

 provided I have to use them one season. 



SWEDONA, Ills. Oct. 14, 1891. 



I well know that weak nuclei cause all the 

 troubles that are mentioned by Mr. Trego, 

 but two Langstroth combs as thoroughly 

 covered with bees as they are in a full colony 

 would furnish sufficient bees for two nuclei 

 if tlic two combs could only be transformed 

 into four combs, the area remaining the 

 same. The introduction of an odd sized 

 frame into an apiary is objectionable for 

 many reasons, and in a locality where there 

 is a probability of a good honey harvest it 

 may be well to use only regular sized frames 

 for nuclei, keeping the nuclei quite strong 

 with bees, and depending upon a crop of 

 extracted honey from the nuclei as a recom- 

 pense for making them so strong. 



Mr. Heddon's Views on Closed End Frames. 



Mr. Heddon puts himself on record in re- 

 gard to closed end frames by means of the 

 following article in Gleanings: 



" I believe we all entertain a just pride in 

 forming correct conclusions. I am very 

 glad there have been bee journals through 

 which we may not only aid each other, but 

 on whose pages I miglit place my opinions, 

 v/hich I believe to be advanced opinions, on 

 record. You know, Mr. Editor, that the man 

 who really believes himself a true prophet, 

 really capable of laying down such truths to- 

 day as, although not accepted now, will 

 surely be in the future, desires to make liis 

 prophesies public. 



The above thoughts are suggested by the 

 article of brother Stachelhausen, on page 

 .^>i)2. You know very well tliat the mechani- 

 cal construction and devices of apiarian fix- 

 tures and implements, especially of the hive, 



have been my hobby for twenty years; and 

 probably from the great importance of hav- 

 ing a good hive have flowed forth the bitter 

 jealousies between inventors. I desire to 

 make this article short, although devoted to 

 a very long subject. 



While for fifteen years a user and admirer 

 of the laterally movable suspended L. frame, 

 never for a moment did I cease to study into 

 and look after the merits of close-fitting 

 frames. I have gone slowly and carefully, 

 and made my experiments on a comprehen- 

 sive scale: and I desire now to go on record 

 for the following: 



1. The Hoffman frame will never come 

 into general use and remain so. It is not as 

 worthy as the L. frame. If I must use a 

 Hoffman frame or a Langstroth frame, I 

 will have the latter. 



2. A closed-end frame in a close-fitting 

 case is the only arrangement that will super- 

 cede the L. frame with practical honey pro- 

 ducers. As you say in your foot-notes on 

 page .562, such an arrangement works more 

 perfectly in shallow cases like those used in 

 my divisible brood-chamber; but, please 

 place me on record, here and now, as affirm- 

 ing that this same arrangement in a case 

 ten inches deep makes a more worthy hive 

 than the L. hive with the suspended frames; 

 and don't fail to record me as saying that no 

 other close-fitting style of frame does. 



Some of your readers may say that some 

 of the above are strong statements, and 

 savor of conceit in the writer, to which I 

 take no excel ition. I meant to make them 

 strong; for, when I go upon record, I desire 

 to go squarely so, and I think I know that 

 every statement above is true: and have I 

 not a right to some conceit? I think that, 

 as long as ten years ago, and perhaps longer, 

 I foresaw that the practical, money-making 

 bee culture of the future must desert the 

 rules laid down in text books and bee jour- 

 nals; that the future bee keeper who would 

 succeed in honey producing must abandon 

 all work except that absolutely necessary, 

 and this he must be able to accompli h in 

 the shortest space of time. This demanded 

 a different system of management, and that, 

 in turn, different implements, especially dif- 

 ferent hives. Then I began making and ad- 

 vocating lighter hives, recommending the 

 manufacture of the brood chamber and 

 supers of thinner material. Of course, I 

 was met with plenty of opposition. My 

 lumber was 'too thin for winter' and ' too 

 thin for summer.' My recommendation of 

 eight instead of ten L. frames was also 

 heresy. Very few, at least, agreed with me, 

 even if Adam Grimm did use eight frames. 

 ' Handling hives more and frames less ' is 

 also a part of the reform above referred to, 

 and was the title of an article of mine nub- 

 lished more than ten yeai'S ago, and yet I did 

 not get on record in letters large enough and 

 ink black enough. 



Let me refer you to many numbers of the 

 American Bee Journal and Gleanings, away 

 back as above mentioned. Please get me on 

 record strong, this time, Bro. Root, and 

 record me as saying that there is nothing 

 superior to or eoual to the L. hive system 

 except the close-fitting frame as arranged in 



