1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



407 



from the specification of the U. S. pateut to be 

 issued to H. P. Langdon. of East Constable, N. Y. 

 At the beginning of the honey season, when the 

 bees are at work In tlie supei' cases, the device is 

 attaclied to the front of a series of liives, as shown 

 in Fig. 1. Tlie bees will then pass into and out of 

 their respective hives tlirouMh tlie entrance aper- 

 tures e and c' in the device. By inserting the slide 

 si in the end of the device, as also shown in Fig. 1, 

 the inner entrance of the dfvice will be closed at 

 hive A, iliereby excluding the bees from said hive, 

 the tiying bpes therein being permitted to come out 

 through the corneal screen exit ex. The super 

 cases of hive A are then placed upon hive B, as 

 shown, which latter hive then holds the super cases 

 of both hives. 



on 100 colonies last year, so I am not making my 

 statements at random. 



By following the description carefully, we 

 think most of our readers will be able to catch 

 the idea. The device itself is shown at D, in 

 the figure. It consists of a sort of chamber, 

 the mechanical arrangement of which is such 

 that the entire working force of one hive can 

 be turned into the other every few days by the 

 manipulation of a little slide; and the funda- 

 mental principle of the device, as we under- 

 stand it. is the moving of the entire working 

 force of the hive from one hive to another often 

 enough to prevent cell-building, or to remove, 

 for the time being, those conditions 

 that induce swarming. " For," says 

 Mr. Benton in Insect Life, " the 

 immediate condition w-hich incites 

 a colony of bees to swarm has been 

 quite well recognized as its general 

 prosperity — its populousness, the 

 abundance of honey secretion, and 

 crowded condition of the brood- 

 combs, or, in general, such circum- 

 stances as favor the production of 

 surplus honey, especially surplus 

 comb honey; and it has. of course, 

 been taken for granted that honey 

 could not be secured if these condi- 

 tions were changed." And then Mr. 

 Benton goes on to say that these 

 conditions would not be changed, 

 f'xcept for the very simple mechan- 

 ical device invented by Mr. Lang- 

 don; and yet the change is not such 

 as to interfere with the production 

 of honey. 



What the new device is expected 

 to accomplish is thus explained by 

 Mr. Benton: 



THE LANGDON NON-SWARMING DEVICE.— FROM 

 LIFE. " 



The working bees of hive A, finding their entrance 

 closed on their return, are attracted along the gal- 

 lery by the buzzing of tlie bees at the entrance e' 

 of hive B, and enter said hive. Tliis withdrawal of 

 the working bees from hive A so impoverishes the 

 nurse or brood bees left therein that they will not 

 swarm; meanwhile work is going on without inter- 

 ruption in the super cases on hive B, by the field 

 force of both hives. At the expiration of a few 

 days, the super cases on hive B are all placed upon 

 hive A; the slide s? is withdrawn from entrance c, 

 thus opening said hive, and is inserted in the op- 

 posite end of the devdce so as to close entrance c' to 

 hive B. The bees thus excluded from said hive will 

 be called along the gallery of tne device by the bees 

 at entrance c. and with said bees will enter hive A, 

 thereby causing the same conditions in hive B as 

 were previously induced in the closed hive A, the 

 flying bees in hive B escaping through the screen 

 exit f'. Within a week or so, the super cases are 

 again placed upon hive B, and said hive is opened 

 and hive A closed; then after a few days, said cases 

 are changed back to hive A, and so on alternately 

 between said hives during the honey-flow. 



This alternation in reciprocal succession of the 

 working bees between the hives, and the concur- 

 rent transfer of the super cases, so disturbs and 

 impoverishes the brood bees in the successively 

 closed hives, that organization for swarming can 

 not be effected, thereby obviating pi'ime swarming, 

 and enabling the field bees of each hive to work 

 without interruption through the entire honey sea- 

 son. 



And again, in a letter, Mr. Langdon writes: 



There you have the entire management of the 

 whole thing; and the simplicity of the plan in 

 practif al use is astonishing. 



Besides preventing swarming, more honey can be 

 secured, of a nicer, cleaner (juality; no bait combs 

 are needed; the benefits of contraction are realized 

 without extra work of contracting the brood-nest, 

 by expanding the bees, and other important points I 

 might name. 



This has all been proven by working the principle 



' INSECT 



The experienced bee-master will not 

 only readily see that this meets the 

 requirements mentioned in the first 

 part of this article as advantageous to secure, but 

 also that in many other ways it is likely to prove a 

 system of great value in the apiary. Mr. Langdon 

 has mentioned .some of these, and I will therefore 

 quote from his letter: 



1. Two lig'ht colonies that would not do miicli in sections if 

 woiking separately make one Rood one by running the field 

 force of both into the same set of supers. 



2. No bait sections are needed, as the bees can be crowded 

 into the sections without swunning. 



3. The honey will be finished in better condition, that is, 

 with less travel-stain, because the union of the field forces 

 enables them to complete the work in less time. 



i. There will be fewer unfinished sections at the close of the 

 honey harvest, for the reason just mentioned. 



5. Also for the same reason honey can be taken oflf by the 

 full case instead of by the section or holderful. 



6. Drones will be fewer in number, as a double handful will 

 often be killed off in the closed hive while the other is storing 

 honey rapidly. 



7. Artificial swarms and nuclei can be more easily made, as 

 combs of h)rood and bees can be taken from the clo.sed hive 

 in which the queen can be found very quickly. 



As there is, in carrying out this system of swarm 

 prevention, no caging of queens, cutting-out of 

 queen-cells, manipulation of brood-combs, or even 

 opening of the brood-chambers at all during the 

 honey season, and all tne vexatious watching for 

 swarms, and the labor and time involved in secur- 

 ing these are done away with, and instead of this a 

 simple manipulation attended to not oftener than 

 once a week is substituted, it is plain that very many 

 more colonies can be managed by one person; and, 

 indeed, Mr. Langdon informs me that lie "can care 

 for 300 colonies with one day's work in a week with 

 no help, instead of working all the time with 100 

 colonies." It will, therefore, prove a great boon to 

 all having numerous out-apiaries. 



I wish to say here a word in praise of Gle.4nings. 

 I am so fond of its contents that I can hardly wait 

 its arrival. No sooner does it come than it is eager- 

 ly read, not only by me, but by my wife and mother, 

 and I do not wish to have it discontinued as long as 

 I can pay for it, as it is \'ery cheap. 



West Braintree, Vt., Mar. 20. Perky W, Smith, 



