THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



49 





H. F. STRANG. 



(The following arflcle came to me as part of a 

 private letter. It contained several points that are 

 fair ones for profitable discussion, and 1 asked and 

 received permission to send it to Mr. Townsend for 

 his reply, and then to publish the whole— Editor.] 



Hesperia, Mich.. Jan. 22, 1907. 



Friend Hutchinson- A short time ago I 

 read in one of the bee journals the advice 

 to save all the bee papers, and when the 

 stormy days in winter came, to get out 

 the journals and go over them again. 

 Now, I have been doing this the last few 

 days, and 1 wish to make a few remarks 

 about S. D. Chapman's article in March. 

 1906. Also to comment upon some 

 issues I heard discussed at our late 

 Michigan State convention, "on the side." 



1 will say, first, that 1 have always been 

 a warm supporter of your ideas of keep- 

 ing more bees, and making a specialty of 

 bee-keeping, but 1 heard some ideas 

 brought out at the convention "on the side," 

 that shows me, at least, that there are two 

 sides to every thing. 



In regard to the system of bee-keep- 

 ing that E. D. Townsend follows, any- 

 body can plainly see that, with his system 

 of management, he doesn't get more than 

 half the honey that he could by a little 

 more attention to his bees; at the same 

 time he shuts others out from reaping the 

 reward that he is allowing to go to waste. 

 The way in which he does it is by allow- 

 ing his queens the full swing of the hive, 

 thus using up thousands of pounds of 

 honey every season in raising a great 

 horde of useless workers that come on 

 the scene of action so late that they are 

 only consumers. 



Then, of course, he occupies a great lot 

 of territory more than he would need to 

 if he took better care of his bees. The 

 men who commented on his management 

 said it was like the great Cattle Barons 



of the West, who fenced in millions of 

 acres of the public domain, and shut out 

 actual settlers from getting homes. 



Now, of course, we all know there is no 

 law in regard to these things, still, if a 

 man should come, next season, and place 

 a yard of bees down by the side of one of 

 yours, asserting that, by your manage- 

 ment, you were occupying territory from 

 which you were getting only half the 

 honey that might be secured by more 

 careful attention, you would think at least 

 he had lots of "gall." 



I talked with several of the leading 

 bee-keepers of the raspberry region, and 

 they all say that first-class locations are 

 getting scarce there. 



Now, Friend Hutchinson, in making 

 these remarks, I haven't intended to be 

 personal in the least. Of course, there is 

 one principle involved in them that will 

 probably never be settled, and my ideas 

 haven't changed in regard to a man run- 

 ing out-yards and adopting all the short 

 cuts he can, still, 1 feel as if he ought to 

 fully occupy his territory as long as good 

 bee locations are so scarce. 



I will say in regard to Mr. Chapman's 

 article in the Review, of last March, that 

 on the whole, I think he has the best of 

 you; still 1 think he could, by using a 

 larger hive, get the same results with a 

 good deal less labor. 



But say, his examination of hives beats 

 my time. He couldn't mean that he 

 made such time when they were tiered 

 up. I have often been over 100 hives in 

 an hour when only a few of them had the 

 second super on, but when they get three 

 and four supers on why I can't see how 

 he can do it. 



So hoping you will receive this in the 

 friendly spirit 'tis meant. I remain. 



Yours truly H. F. Strang. 



