450 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



Trade Notes. 



AIKIN BROTHERS & KNIGHT S NEW HIVE; AN- 

 OTHER SYSTEM FOR PREVENTING 

 SWARMING. 



Some three or four years ago. as our readers 

 will remember, the writer was very much in- 

 terested in closed-end frames; and his enthu- 

 siasm was fired up none the less after visiting 

 Mr. P. H. Elwood, and observing him, on a 

 number of occasions, manipulating these same 

 closed-end frames with ease and dispatch. 



Mr. Elwood and Mr. Hetherington. and 

 others who use the frame in the East, in the 



AIKIN BROTHERS & KNIGHT'S NEW HIVE. 



summer time use only panels to cover up the 

 exposed sides of the brood -nest, the ends of the 

 frames answering as the end of the brood - 

 chamber proper. But it seems that Aikin 

 Bros. & Knight have devised a h've some- 

 what on the original Quinby plan, to take 



No. 1 is a reversible bottom-board and feeder. 

 Deep side up for winter and feeding-. No. 3 is the 

 brood-chamber. It takes a closed-end standing 

 frame 9x17. The bee-spaces are in the bottom- 

 board and honey-board. Both sides and ends are 

 compressed upon tlie frames by the nuts and rods. 

 When released for manipulation, the frames rest 

 upon the bottom-board rim ends. The chamber is 

 reversible. 



Tlie alighting-board (6) is a part of and attached 

 to the honey-board (4), while the entrances (8 and 9) 

 lead respectively under and above the lioney-board. 

 The queen-trap i6) coveis the brood-chamber en- 

 trance. No. 10 is tlie super, held together by the 

 rods— neither super nor brood-chamber is nailed at 

 the corners— and both sides and ends compressed 

 upon the section.s. By compression and spurs, the 

 super sides and separators support the sections 

 perfectly, without T's, slats, followers, or wedges. 

 The bi and Id franie hive supers take respectively 2 

 and 3 separators, and 24 and 32 I's-wide sections. 

 They may be full separatored by adding plain wood 

 or tin separators, ur by spur separators. For ex- 

 tracting, the super takes 8 1%-inch-thick frames in 

 place of tiie sections. Nos. 12 and 13 are the inner 

 and outer cover. 



The two- colony, non -swarming combination 

 brood-chambers (B and C, cut No. 2) each contains 

 a colony of bees. K is the separating-board dividing 

 the colonies. J is the alternator that passes the 

 bees out f lom the lower hive and returns them to 

 the upper, thus working two colonies in one set of 

 supers. To prevent swarming, both the colonies 

 are reversed rn maxse once a week in the swarming 

 season. The hives are clamped together by the 

 appliance M, elevated by the bolster (L), and revolv- 

 ed as a wheel on its axis. Thus, once a week thp 

 qupen-cells are upset and the bees alternated. 



Loveland, Col. Aikin Bros. & Knigbt. 



Just how far this means of producing side 

 and end compression may prove to be practi- 

 cal, we are not able to say. In the sample hive 

 we now have at hand (evidently one of the first 

 models), some modification should be made to 

 make the principle work perfectly, as we find 

 there is notsnfficientend and side play. With the 

 varying conditions of our weather there should 

 be considerable take-up. The manner of pro- 

 ducing the compression will be perfectly evi- 

 dent, we think, from the engravings. The 

 lateral compression is eifected by an old device, 



THE HIVES PREPARED FOR NON-SWARMING. 



closed-end frames, but differing in this respect, 

 that the compression feature closes up on the 

 ends of the frames as well as on the sides. 

 How this is accomplished is better described 

 from a brief description tak(>n from Aikin Bros. 

 & Knight's adv(!itising matter. 



and one that, we believe, is in use by Henry 

 Alley and some others whose names we do not 

 just now recall. The end compression is effect- 

 ed by a bridge-shaped cleat. As the rod is 

 drawn up. it squeezes on the highest part of 

 the cleat, thus pressing the end-board against 



