1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



125 



that covers the triangle is less than half that of 

 the original. The entrance through the board, 

 connecting the triangle with the colony, can be 

 as I have it, or three or four l}-2-iuch holes, as 

 you see fit to make them. 



You will also see that I have attached the 

 excluder D to the front mid of the board, with 

 entrance there, and discarded the old-style 

 separate piece. This is much better, as it not 

 only does away with loose parts but affords 

 better ventilation. It is impossible for this to 

 become clogged by drones or rubbish. Drones 

 will work to the extreme front end, and fuss 

 them out of the way until they become exhaust- 

 ed and fall down on the Dottom-board, to be 

 scooped out occasionally through the lower 

 entrance G, which is kept blocked up tight. It 

 matters not how many drones a hive may con- 

 tain, the excluder will never be found so stop- 

 ped up that there is not ample passageway for 

 the full working force, and for complete and 

 perfect ventilation. 



PJJATT'S 1803 SELF-HIVEK. 



Another advantage in having the excluder as 

 it is here is this: A free and open entrance, 

 with no zinc to pass until the bees are inside 

 the hive (a great advantage, I find), affording 

 excellent opportunity for rapid passage to and 

 from the hive, besides aiding perfect ventila- 

 tion and a direct and short path to either hive. 



The little strips of wood, F, F, shoved into 

 the entrance, are oh pivots, to open like gates, 

 as shown. These are to support the zinc and 

 wood while in the mail, and are to contract the 

 entrance for any cause when necessary. After 

 a swarm has been hived, these gates can be 

 closed entirely, and the lower entrance opened 

 to them, when the board will act as a bee- 

 escape to reinforce the swarm as the young bees 

 hatch out. E. L. Pkatt. 



Beverly, Mass., Jan. lu. 



[When Mr. Pratt first sent the new device 

 for 1893 we were not favorably impressed with 

 it, and wrote him to that effect. However, we 

 instructed our artist to make a picture of it. 



and the result is shown above. Subsequently, 

 in following the description through more care- 

 fully, we found that Mr. Pratt had still pre- 

 served the vital principle of his other hivers 

 that were so successful with us last summer; 

 viz., that the bees on returning go back through 

 an entrance to which they have long been ac- 

 customed, but into a different hive, preceded by 

 the enieen. If the reader will understand that 

 the lower entrance, G, is supposed to be closed, 

 he will readily see that the bees are obliged to 

 use the entrance E only. Of course, before they 

 have swarmed they pass through the entrance E 

 upward to hive No. 1. After swarming they 

 return to the same entrance, and thereafter 

 pass downward to hive No. ~', because the main 

 attraction — the queen — lias gone down below, 

 into an empty hive, affording those conditions 

 that are supposed to satisfy the swarming 

 mania. 



The device above differs from the one of last 

 year, in that the perforated zinc in front of the 

 entrance, as at D, was, in the 1892 hiver. placed 

 before the entrance G. This seemed to be ob- 

 jectionable to some (although we never so re- 

 garded it), that the bees should travel through 

 an empty hive ('Very time in order to get to the 

 brood-nest in hive No. 1, from which it was ex- 

 pected they would swarm. Mr. Pratt, contem- 

 plating this objection, has, in the 1893 hiver, 

 placed the entrance centrally, so that it affords 

 • ■qual access to both hives. 



Although Mr. Pratt says nothing about it, 

 we assume that the apiarist, at his convenience, 

 after the swarm has issued, say within two 

 or three days, or a week or even two or three 

 weeks, removes the parent or upper hive, opens 

 the entrance G, and for a time at least allows 

 the bees to have access to both entrances. After 

 they have become partly accustomed to the 

 lower entrance, this special swarming-device is 

 to be removed, and the cover replaced, when of 

 course the entrance G will be used exclusively. 

 There will be, of course, a little confusion for a 

 day or two, but the bees will very readily adapt 

 themselves to the change. 



We see no reason why this latest pattern 

 should not work as well as the one of last year; 

 and as it is simpler, and avoids the long bee 

 travel, it will doubtless be preferred to the 

 others. The queen also will be more likely to 

 get into the lower hive because the light from 

 the entrance E is so close to the apex C of the 

 zinc cone. This may make all the difference 

 between success and failure in the case of Ja- 

 cob Nixon above.] 



WE OUGHT TO BE BETTER ACQUAINTED. 



DK. C. C. MILLEK TELLS WHY, 



I am expecting the World's Fair and the 

 North American convention next year, among 

 other things, to do some good in the way of 

 bringing nearer together the bee-keepers of the 

 world. I don't mean merely to bring them 

 together at Chicago, but to get them so inter- 

 ested in each other that they will have a better 

 understanding, and a better " appreciation of 

 each other. This will help to bring about a 

 community of interests, and thereby the well- 

 being of all will be advanced. 



In a late number of Illustrierte Bienenzeit- 

 ung, the editor takes Frank Benton to task 

 for saying, at the Illinois State convention, 

 that Europeans were behind the times. Possi- 

 bly there is just a little tendency on each side 

 to think, "We have it all." Now and then, in 

 the Britislt Bee Journal, some one speaks in 

 not the most complimentary terms of Ameri- 

 cans US coming slowly to some view or practice 



