Nov. 1, 1906 



913 



American Ttee Journal 



united without hunting up queens or 

 queen cells. This process is exten- 

 sively used in Europe, where box-hives 

 are yet very common, and in spite of 

 all that has been written to the con- 

 trary, can give very good returns if 

 managed properly. 



My idea was to have a swarm-hiver 

 on each hive ; let the swarm hive it- 

 self, and 8 days later turn it back in 

 the hive and remove the seif-hiver. 

 There is no question that some kind of 

 apparatus that would do that work sat- 

 isfactorily, and almost automatically, 

 would be a great advantage. In the 

 different processes now in use, con- 

 siderable time is wasted in hunting up 

 queens or queen-cells, or shaking or 

 brushing bees and removing hives. 



Two patterns gave me pretty good 

 results, and very likely could be im- 

 proved and made to work satisfactorily. 



In the first the entrance to the hive 

 is covered with perforated zinc, and 

 a cone permitting the queens and 

 drones to come out, but not to go 

 back. In coming out the bees get in 

 the self-hiver. When a swarm comes 

 out the queen remains in the self-hiver, 

 begins to lay there, and soon most of 

 the bees stay there, leaving the old 

 hive practically in the same condition 

 that it would be if it had been moved 

 away. (In the figure the dotted lines 

 indicate perforated zinc.) 



If a young queen emerges before the 

 self-hiver is removed, she will usually 

 destroy the remaining queen-cells, as 

 there are too few bees to prevent her 

 from doing it. If she swarms out she 

 will destroy the old queen in the hiver 

 and take her place. 



That apparatus had two disadvan- 

 tages. The drones congregated on 

 the perforated zinc placed at the en- 

 trance of the hive. That can be reme- 

 died easily. Just remove the hiver, 

 smoke them off, and replace the hives. 

 The other is that the arrangement in- 

 terferes seriously with the ventilation. 

 An additional opening covered with 

 wire-cloth, either under or behind the 

 hive, might remedy the trouble, but I 

 did not try it. 



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other, but did not fulfil the object 

 sought very well. The reason was that 

 nearly all the incoming bees alighting 

 on the bottom-board projection went 

 into the hive instead of going up into 

 the upper story of the hive, and kept 

 it as clogged as before. I think some 

 slight change in the construction could 

 remedy the defect, but I did not try. 



Turning the Bees into the Supers. 



About that time the Eangdon appa- 

 ratus for the prevention of swarming 

 was invented. The hives are placed in 

 pairs. With each pair goes a kind of 

 long box arranged so that the bees can 

 come out of both hives all the time, 

 but can, whenever it is desired, be 

 made to go into only one. The idea was 

 to throw into one hive all the bees long 

 enough to cause the other colony to 

 abandon all swarming notions when 

 depleted of its bees. Then reverse the 

 process so as to cure the swarming 

 fever in the other colony. 



I did not try it. I " calculated " that 

 the bees of both colonies thrown in one 

 would surely start the swarming fever 

 there on account of being too crowded. 

 Then when turned into the other colony 

 they would begin preparations for 

 swarming at once, since they have 

 already the swarming fever. At least, 

 I thought that would be the result, but, 

 as a matter of fact, I can not tell posi- 

 tively. 



At that time I already knew that a 

 lot of bees left without unsealed brood 

 for a few days will lose the swarming 

 fever. In thinking the matter over, I 

 conceived the idea of turning the bees 

 out of the brood-nest into the supers 

 instead of turning them into another 

 brood-nest. 



The second model was like a queen- 

 trap with the upper apartment large 

 enough to admit 3 combs across the 

 hive. It has none of the defects of the 



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Side View. 



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Front View. 



The apparatus consisted of a double 

 board placed between the supers and 

 the brood-chamber, so as to close the 

 brood-chamber completely, but admit 

 the bees to the supers ; a slide closing 

 the regular entrance to the brood- 

 chamber altogether, except that a cone 

 escape permitted the bees to come out, 

 but prevented them from going back. 

 A kind of box or chute conducted the 

 outside bees from the alighting-board 

 to the super entrance. When the ap- 

 paratus is placed, the brood-chamber 

 loses its bees rapidly. On the third or 

 fourth days they begin to carry out 

 the immature queens and the drone- 

 brood. By that time the queen has 

 destroyed the sealed queen-cells that 

 might be present, the swarming fever 

 has disappeared, and the apparatus 

 can be removed. It was described in 

 the American Bee Journal for Dec. 14, 

 1893, page 757. 



The only feature that I did not like 

 was that the outside bees, instead of 

 working in the supers as I had hoped 

 they would, spent their time in worry- 

 ing themselves in frantic efforts to get 

 back into the brood-chamber. Perhaps 

 this could be avoided by separating the 

 supers from the brood-chamber with a 

 wire-cloth instead of a solid board, so 

 the bees could communicate with each 

 other. 



At that time, in inspecting the colo- 

 nies, I found 2, each with 2 supers com- 

 pletely filled, while none of the others 

 had more than one. Examination 

 showed that somehow or other they 

 had lost their queens. That changed 

 the direction of my mind entirely. I 

 dropped self-hivers, Langdon appara- 

 tus and all, like so many hot potatoes, 

 and began experimenting on caging 

 and removing queens. Finally, I set- 

 tled down on my present management. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



Burying Bees for Winter 



BY C. H. BENSON 



Since I have been keeping bees the 

 question of wintering had been the un- 

 solved one until I came here 3 years 

 ago. I had no cellar, and the best that 

 I could do, the winter loss was always 

 heavy. 



Three miles from my place is a man 

 who has kept bees for 20 years, and his 

 father was a bee-keeper before him. 

 He taught me a way to winter bees 

 that is simple and satisfactory, for 

 those who have no cellar. His way is 

 simply to bury them as you would 

 potatoes or apples. For 2 years I have 

 buried my bees, and I am well pleased 

 with the result, though I made some 

 mistakes last fall that cost S or 6 colo- 

 nies of bees. One of the mistakes was 

 this: 



I put 45 colonies in one trench, and 

 as the ground was uneven, in order to 

 make the bottom of the trench level, I 

 got one end too deep. I do not think 

 it makes any difference how many 

 hives are put in one trench, if the 

 ground is right for it, but it is easy to 

 get them too deep, especially if the 

 ground is clay, as I have here. 



The way to do is to dig a trench 6 

 inches wider than the length of the 

 hive. I dig deep enough so that with- 



