AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



629 



most valuable additions to the list of 

 apiarian inventions that had appeared 

 for a long time — one that, after the 

 frame hive, would rank equal with or 

 ahead of the honey-extractor and comb- 

 foundation machine. 



Mr. Langdon has applied for letters 

 patent on his device in this and other 

 countries, and with the specifications as 

 a basis, a copy of which he has kindly 

 sent to me, together with permission to 

 make the matter public, I have written 

 the following 



DESCRIPTION OF THE DEVICE AND SYSTEM. 



At the beginning of the honey season 

 the non-swarming device, D, shown in 



front of the hive. The super cases S of 

 hive A are then placed on those of hive 

 B. 



The flight-bees of hive A finding their 

 hive-entrance closed on their return are,, 

 upon alighting at the entrance e, at- 

 tracted along the gallery by the buzzing 

 of the bees at the entrance e', of hive B, 

 and enter said hive. This withdrawal 

 of the field-bees from hive A leaves this 

 hive so depopulated, and so disconcerts 

 the nurse-bees left therein that they will 

 not swarm ; meanwhile work is going on 

 without interruption in the supers on 

 hive B by the field force of both hives. 



At the expiration of eight to ten days, 

 thus before the bees of hive B have 



Bee-hives with Langdon Non-Swarmer attached. A, B, hives ; S, S', supers ; D, non-swarming 

 device ; e, e', entrances corresponding to hive-entrances ; si, slide for closing en- 

 trance ; c, c', conical wire-cloth bee-escapes ; ex, ex', exits of same. 



the diagram, is placed at the entrances 

 of contiguous hives, each of which con- 

 tains a queen and a full colony of bees. 

 The continuous passage-ways, e and e', 

 on the underside of the device, corres- 

 pond to the entrances of the hives A and 

 B, respectively. The bees will then pass, 

 quite undisturbed, out of and into their 

 respective hives through these passage- 

 ways. By inserting the slide, si, in the 

 end of the non-swarmer until it occupies 

 the position indicated by the dotted 

 horizontal lines the passage-way leading 

 to hive A will be closed at its juncture 

 with the hive-entrance, preventing any 

 bees from entering said hive. The wire- 

 cloth cone exit, ex, still permits flight- 

 bees to come out of hive A, as a hole 

 through the non-swarmer connects the 

 cone exit with a corresponding hole in 



made preparations to swarm, the supers 

 S and S on this hive are all transferred 

 to hive A, the slide, si, is withdrawn 

 from entrance e, thus opening this hive, 

 and is inserted in the opposite end of 

 the non-swarming divice, so as to close' 

 the entrance, e', to hive B. The bees 

 thus excluded from hive B will be called 

 along the gallery of the non-swarmer by 

 the bees at the entrance, e, and with 

 these bees will enter hive A, thus bring- 

 ing about in hive B the same conditions- 

 as were previously induced in hive A by 

 closing the latter. At the same time the 

 field-bees of both hives were working 

 continuously in the supers on the hive 

 A, the entrance of wkich is open, and 

 the flight-bees in hive B are escaping 

 through the cone exit, ex', and joining 

 those of hive A. 



