326 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



seasons, you will find a big crop somewhere 

 in just such a location as your latterly poor 

 seasons have had. No, sir, I say it is owing 

 to conditions of the atmosphere, which may 

 change from year to year, or may continue a 

 term of years, as has been exceptionally the 

 case during the past years ; what others say 

 I shall look for anxiously. 



Now I want to know, Mr. Editor, if you 

 are going to get scared out of the most 

 profitable part of bee keeping — honey pro- 

 duction — just as the tables are ready to turn ? 



What you mention regarding planting to 

 aid the honey flow, I agree to, provided said 

 planting is judiciously done. I have no 

 faith in buying or renting ground to use ex- 

 clusively for honey. I have materially aided 

 my honey flow by year after year scattering 

 in waste places the seeds of pleurisy, and am 

 now adding epilobium or great willow herb. 



But, see here, Mr. Editor, aren't you raising 

 most too many " bees and queens for sale " 

 in your leader ? Who will be left to buy ? 

 If there were nothing to be done except to 

 exchange cash for these bees, that might do, 

 but there is cost of packing and delivery, 

 risk and express charges to be whittled off 

 from the deal, and, at present prices, that 

 cost is sufiicient to make your proposed ex- 

 change of bees impracticable, I think. 



Again, by what right do you decide that 

 poor honey seasons may be made good ones, 

 or even better ones, by reducing the number 

 of colonies in a given field ? That is not in 

 keeping with my experience, observation or 

 reading. As James M. Martin said at one of 

 our N. W. conventions in Chicago some 

 years ago, " When the season is poor for 200 

 colonies, it is poor for four, and when good 

 for 200, it is good for 600, all in one yard, is 

 my experience." 



I am very glad to get a chance to quarrel 

 with you once over your errors. But you 

 redeem yourself in your advice to bee keep- 

 ers not to fuss around among farmers about 

 planting honey producing crops until every 

 farmer within five miles gets the bee fever. 



Again, I kick on your theory of " bunch- 

 ing" your bees to the apiary which is doing 

 good work, if you have several. That looks 

 all right after a season has passed, but do 

 you forget that it often happens that a good 

 yield lasts just long enough to get your 

 migratory colonies set down in the new lo- 

 cation, when up goes the sponge, and the 

 good flow ceases. I believe it pays best to 

 plant your guns and then stay by them, not 



only for the year, but for a term of years. 

 But if anyone thinks differently, I have a 

 good apiary and choice location for sale, 

 either with or without bees and implements. 

 DowAGiAc, Mich,, Nov. 10, 1891. 



More About the Self Hiver— How It may 

 Help in a Poor Season. 



O. H, DIBBEBN. 



fN the November number of the Review 

 I gave my experience with the self-hiver 

 as I have improved it, but so much was 

 left unwritten that I think some further ex- 

 planations will prove of interest to your 

 readers. I do not claim that the hiver is yet 

 entirely perfect, as I have already adopted 

 some improvements for the next year, and 

 have others under consideration, but that it 

 is entirely practicable, and that it will prove 

 of great benefit to bee keepers, there is not 

 a shadow of a doubt. 



THE DIBBEKN - ALLEN SELF - HIVEJJ. 



The cut shows the hiver attached to a hive, 

 ready to cast a swarm, with one super be- 

 tween the wood zinc honey board, and the 

 bee escape board, used as a bottom for the 

 empty hive, that is to receive the swarm. 

 You will notice that my hives are made with 

 a bee space in the bottom board, and to get 

 the bees into the empty hive, I remove the 

 front strip on the upper side of the bee es- 

 cape board. In fact this strip is cut into 

 three pieces, for the diflfereut uses I have for 

 it. Should it happen that the bees do not 

 swarm, and they need additional room, I add 



