e (§ee-Keepeps J^eviea^ 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 

 Devoted to th|e Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR, 

 W. Z. HOTCHnJSON, Editor and ProDiletor. 



VOL. VIII, FLINT, MICHIGAN, MAR. 10. 1895. NO. 3. 



Work at IVEicliigaii's 



Experimental 



-A.piarv. 



r. l. taylor, apiarist. 



the management of swarming. 



conser's hive. 



niHIS hive was 

 'T' seut to me in 

 1898 too late to 

 be put to any test 

 that season, but 

 during the last 

 season it was 

 given such trial 

 as the character 

 of the year in re- 

 spect to the flow 

 of nectar permit- 

 ted. It is neces- 

 sary by way of explanation to say that this 

 so-called hive is not properly a hive in the 

 usual acceptation of the term, but is rather a 

 device used in connection with hives con- 

 taining bees for the purpose of preventing 

 swarming. The device which outwardly has 

 much the appearance of a hive except that 

 it has two round holes upon each side and 

 also upon one end, internally three com- 

 partments each of the capacity necessary for 

 three combs. Into each of the compart- 

 ments are two passage-ways from the out- 

 side which are formed by the holes just men- 



tioned. One device is calculated to answer 

 for three colonies. When in use it is ar- 

 ranged with a hive at each side, and one at 

 the end having the opening, at a distance of 

 two or three inches, each hive being con- 

 nected with one of the compartments of the 

 device by means of a tube passed into one of 

 the holes already referred to and also into 

 a corresponding one in the hive itself in such 

 a way that the bees can pass back and forth 

 from the hive to the compartment to which 

 it is attached, but the queen is excluded 

 from the device by means of a piece of per- 

 forated zinc fixed in the tube. Each of the 

 other openings serves as an entrance to its 

 compartment. 



The theory upon which the success of the 

 device rests is that a colony, so long as there 

 is empty comb in the brood nest for the re- 

 ception of eggs, will not contract a desire to 

 swarm, and in order to secure this condition, 

 the apiarist in sufficient time to forestall the 

 desire, takes three combs of capped brood 

 from the brood nest and puts them in the 

 adjoining compartment of the device and in 

 their stead in the center of the brood nest 

 places three empty combs or frames of 

 foundation. This operation is to be repeat- 

 ed in whole or in part as circumstances may 

 require until the danger of swarming is past. 



As already intimated, I made a trial of 

 this invention in June last. Early in that 

 month the device was connected with the 

 hives of three good colonies and somewhat 

 later, before the hives became at all crowded, 

 three combs of brood were removed from 



