144 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



ments during four years, I do not see how he 

 can ever make his plan a success. 



I will now mention some of the difficulties 

 that I have encountered, and that must be over- 

 come in the perfect hiver of the future. In the 

 first place, the drones are very much in the way; 

 and the only way to dispose of them is to trap 

 them in some way. Where drones are confined 

 in the empty hive with a considerable number 

 of workers, they are fed by the bees at swarm- 

 ing time, and do not die as in a trap. Then 

 every afternoon they make a great fuss to get 

 out, and keep the bees in a constant uproar, and 

 it is needless to say but little work will go on in 

 the old hive. Some bee-keepers seem to have 

 lots of trouble on account of the queens passing 

 through the excluding zinc; but I have had al- 

 most none at all, and use only the common sort, 

 as sent out from the Root factory. There is a 

 great difference, however, how the excluders 

 are placed on the hive. If placed on the Pratt 

 principle, with only I4 in. between the top of 

 frames and the zinc, the queens seem to stand 

 on the frames with their hind legs, and push 

 themselves through. In this way I lost several 

 good swarms last year, before I could under- 

 stand how queens could pass the zinc in that 

 position, when they could not pass it in the or- 

 dinary drone-trap. Perhaps this may explain 

 why so many have trouble with the excluder 

 zinc. I have a very few small virgin queens 

 pass the zinc, but that is about all. One point 

 on which bee-keepers have expressed a great 

 deal of fear, and which at first troubled me 

 greatly, was the idea that two or more swarms, 

 coming out about the same time, would double 

 up, and all return to one hive; or, perchance, 

 should some puny virgin queen get out, the 

 whole business would go to the woods. Happi- 

 ly this fear has proved entirely groundless, and 

 during four years' experience I have had almost 

 no trouble at all. I well remember the trouble 

 I used to have "in the good old times" when I 

 allowed the bees to swarm at will, when per- 

 haps the first swarm would go to the highest 

 limb in the vicinity, and, before it could be se- 

 cured, perhaps two or three more would swarm, 

 and, of course, form one bunch, often as big as 

 a barrel. Now, it may be just fun for some to 

 hive and separate such swarms, but I want no 

 more of it in mine. 



The most practical form of the self hiver that 

 I know of is that described by me in Gleanings 

 for Oct. 15, 1893. It consists in placing the emp- 

 ty hive in front of the one expected to swarm. 

 My hives are loose bottoms, and strips are nail- 

 ed on the sides and rear of bottom to make a 

 bee-space under the frames. I remove the rear 

 strip on the bottom for the empty hive, and con- 

 nect the entrance of the swarming hive with 

 this bottom by means of a bridge made of tin 

 or wood, so the bees must pass out over this 

 bottom. Place a wood-zinc honey-board on it, 

 and the empty hive on that, leaving a bee-space 



between the bottom and honey-board, for the 

 bees to work through. The hiver is hooked on 

 in front of this entrance, and the bees pass 

 through the two lower rows of zinc. Above the 

 two lower rows in the zinc is a wooden division, 

 with wire-tube escapes for queens and drones to 

 pass up to the front of the empty hive. The 

 back of the device above the division also con- 

 tains excluder zinc, with a part with perfora- 

 tions large enough to allow the queen to pass 

 into the new hive, but retaining the drones in 

 the trap. I think it best to get rid of all sur- 

 plus drones as soon as possible. 



Now, when the bees swarm out, the queen 

 and drones will be surely trapped in the upper 

 part of the device; and, if I am present, I sim- 

 ply put a square strip securely against the hiv- 

 er, shutting off the direct entrance to the old 

 hive, and compel all the returning bees to go 

 into the new hive with the queen. Thus I get 

 a good working swarm in the new hive. Should 

 I be absent, the bees will cluster on the device, 

 where the queen is, and more or less take pos- 

 session of the new hive. I can usually deter- 

 mine what hives have swarmed by the large 

 number of drones in the trap, and I have then 

 only to cut oflf the direct entrance to the old 

 hive, with that square stick, which will throw 

 all the workers into the new hive. If it is de- 

 sired to boom the new swarm, they can be left 

 any time as they are, up to nearly two weeks, 

 when the old hive must be removed to a new 

 place. Of course, the surplus cases should be 

 changed to the new hive at swarming time, or 

 when discovered. 



The advantages of my system are many, and 

 must be apparent to all intelligent bee-keepers. 

 In the first place, the bees in their ordinary 

 work pass through but one perforation, in plain 

 sight, and are not liable to become clogged with 

 drones. Swarming can be easily determined by 

 lifting covers, not hives, supers, and all. Drones 

 are trapped where they will die, and can be 

 readily shaken out through a hole at end of 

 the device. The empty hive should be filled 

 with worker foundation; for if many combs 

 are used, the bees seem a little " previous" in 

 taking possession, and store honey there. If 

 only guides are given, the bees often commence 

 to build drone comb in warm weather. All 

 communication is not cut off fi'om the old hive, 

 as the bees have simply to pass up through the 

 honey -board and out. In fact, a good many 



