AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



143 



customed. The new hive to receive the 

 swarm, instead of being placed in front 

 of the old one, was placed below. This 

 simplified the arrangement to the extent 

 that it required only one bottom-board, 

 and made it less difficult to adjust the 

 hives so as to be perfectly bee-tight as 

 far as communication from one hive to 

 another was concerned. 



The plan that we used so successfully 

 was this : The old hive-body was taken 

 temporarily off from the bottom-board. 

 Another body, precisely like the other, 

 was set in its place. Into this was put a 

 full set of empty combs. On top of this 

 was then placed a board having a couple 

 of holes, on the under side of which, 

 and communicating with said holes, was 

 a sort of queen-escape, made of perfor- 

 ated zinc, like the sample I herewith 

 show you. This is so arranged that the 

 bees can readily pass up and down into 

 either compartment of the hives ; but 

 the queen can pass only one way, and 

 that downward; and having gotten into 

 the lower hive she is prevented from get- 

 ting out into'the air by means of per- 

 forated zinc. When preferred, the 

 queen's wing may be clipped, and the 

 zinc omitted at the entrance. 



The mode of operation is simple. The 

 bees, in working, pass through the new 

 hive not yet occupied, crawl up into the 

 hive above, through the perforated zinc. 

 This seems as if it might be an objection 

 in that the bees are compelled to travel 

 so far before entering the hive proper. 

 This objection exists more in imagina- 

 tion than in actual practice. In a few 

 days, the swarm issues; the queen, be- 

 ing below, is trapped ; the bees return, 

 and finding their queen below, seem to 

 accept their new quarters as their new 

 abode. This, in brief, is the Pratt 

 method of self-hiving. 



I am not prepared to say that the 

 Pratt automatic hivers will prove to be 

 as successful in the hands of others, be- 

 cause bees do not always follow an in- 

 variable rule, especially when their 

 owners try to make them do just as they 

 plan they ought to do, or as they do for 

 others under like circumstances ; so it 

 will probably take another year or so 

 before we can speak definitely with re- 

 gard to its success in the hands of bee- 

 keepers in general. 



But an implement may be a success, 

 and yet not be practical. This may be 

 the case with the automatic hiver. At 

 present I fear they are rather too expen- 

 sive to be used generally by bee-keepers, 

 even if their success as, to actual opera- 

 tion is assured. -Bee-keepers cannot 

 afford to pay more for self-hivers than 



it costs to hive swarms in the old-fash- 

 ioned way. By a little more experiment- 

 ing I am in hopes that their mode of 

 construction may be simplified enough 

 so as to permit of their general use. 



Automatic hivers are old — very old — 

 in principle. Mr. H. A. King used a 

 device that was very similar in princi- 

 ple to the automatic hivers of to-day. 

 But as he did not then have perforated 

 zinc, it could not be made to work suc- 

 cessfully. 



The late Moses Quinby also used a 

 similar device. Henry Alley, I believe, 

 was the first one to revive the idea of 

 any connection with perforated zinc. 

 Although his was the first, it seems not 

 to have been a complete success, as it 

 hived only a part of the bees — at least I 

 judge so from the reports I have re- 

 ceived. 



Mr. E. L. Pratt took one step further, 

 and gave us the automatic hiver which I 

 have described here to-day. It remains 

 for some one else now to make It 

 cheaper ; and, last of all, for some en- 

 terprising editor — if they are a success 

 — to get bee-keepers to use them. 



Ernest R. Root. 



Frank Benton — I fear that in count- 

 ing the cost of the hiver, Mr. Root for- 

 gets that a hiver lasts several years. It 

 lasts as long, or longer, than a hive. 

 The cost is but little more than the in- 

 terest on the money. 



W, Z. Hutchinson — At our late Michi- 

 gan State Convention, Mr. Heddon said 

 that as soon as a hiver was brought out 

 that was practical and successful, he 

 would put one on every hive, though 

 they cost as much as hives. The great 

 cost, in his estimation, in the production 

 of honey, is the labor, and any arrange- 

 ment that will allow a man to manage 

 his bees without constant attention will 

 eventually be adopted, even if it does 

 cost something. Instead of a trap at 

 the entrance, Mr. Heddon would use a 

 queen-excluder under the hive. 



R. F. Holtermann — The honey-boards 

 would be needed for other purposes at 

 that time. 



E. R. Root — One objection to the use 

 of honey-boards under the hive is that 

 they become stopped up by the drones 

 getting their heads fast in the zinc and 

 dying there, and there is no way of re- 

 moving them without lifting up the hive. 

 When an entrance-guard becomes stop- 

 ped up in this manner, a stick can be 

 run over it in a "jiffy," and the drones' 

 heads rubbed off, and thus the entrance 

 is kept clear. 



