SWARMING. 



438 



SWARMING. 



to the wood and complete each section. And 

 right here Mr. Hand chiims to Ite able to pro- 

 duce all fancy lioney, because, by his process 

 of feeding back, he can have every section 

 nicely completed, with no unfinished boxes 

 at the close of the harvest, the honey being 

 so nice because finished with a rush. Ihere 

 is no slow work and no travel-stain: and, 

 what is more, he has a lot of extracted honey 

 that is not all taken up by the feeding-back 

 process. For the principles involved, see 

 Feeding and Feeders; sub-head, Feed- 

 ing Back. 



the aspinwall non-swarming hive. 



All systems thus far described relate to ;i 

 method or methods of management of the 

 colony to prevent swarming; but Mr. L. A. 

 Aspinwall, of Jackson, Mich., has been di- 

 recting his thought to the construction of a 

 kive to accomplish the same purpose. lie 

 lias devised one embodying some new prin- 

 ciples which experts believe will effectually 

 handle the swarming problem without any 



ASPIJ><WALL HIVE CLOSEU. 



shaking or brushing of bees— cutting-out of 

 queen cells, caging of queens, clipping of 

 queens' wings — in fact, witlutut the employ- 

 ment of any methods formerly used for the 

 purpose. 



We are not prepared to pa.'S an opinion 

 yet, but believe Mr. Aspinwall has a princi- 

 ple that is good, relating to a scheme for sep- 

 arating the combs during the swarming sea- 

 son about one inch ainirt by a series of bee- 

 spaced slatted dummies inserted alternately 

 with the frames. These dummies have per- 

 pendicular slats I inch wide, a bee-space 

 apart, held together in a suitable frame. 

 The brood-frames proper have three perpen- 

 dicular slats at each end, which some might 



call a series of extra end-bars bee-spaced 

 apart. This breaking-up of the brood-nest 

 or brood cluster so that the brood frames 

 are spaced an inch apait, it is thought, has 

 the effect of keeping the bees quiet and al- 

 laying excitement so that a whole apiary of 

 hives of this kind will go through the sea- 

 son without any swarming. Thus, it is ar- 



ASI'INWALL lUVE WITU COVER REMOVED. 



Showing- slatted dividers between frames, and bee- 

 space strips over tlie ends of the frames. 



gued, the energy wasted in getting ready to 

 swarm, building queen cells, and finally 

 throwing off half the force of the bees into 

 another hive, is all concentrated as one force 

 in one hive, where the bees seem disposed to 

 devote all their resources to the supers. 

 While this hive has not been tested more 

 than two or three seasons, yet results thus 

 far have been very favorable; but, like a 

 good many other things that have promised 

 much, it may fall short of the anticipations 

 of its friends. 



Details of construction are shown in the 

 illustrations herewith. Each comb, it will 

 be noted, is surrounded on each side and 

 each end by a series of bee-spaces made by 

 perpendicular slats. If the bees would al- 

 low combs an inch apart, and occupy this 

 space without building comb, the same re- 

 sults might be secured; but as they fill up 

 any space larger than I inch with comb it 

 becomes necessary to put in a scheme of bee- 

 spaces which they will not fill. It therefore 

 comes about that the hive is nearly twice the 

 size for the same capacity c f an ordinary 

 hive. 



It has no shell, or outer case, but employs 

 the well-known principle of closed-end 

 frames and panels to enclose the brood-nest 

 the same as the Quinby hive (see Hives); but 



