Jan. 31, 1907 



American ^ee Journal 



the Secretary, being specially singled 

 out for nis efficient efforts. 



"The Non-Swarming Hive." 



!Mr. L. A. Aspinwall gave an address 

 on this subject which was listened to 

 with very keen interest. He thought he 

 would better confine himself to the ad- 

 vantages of such a hive, but many ques- 

 tions had to be answered as to the con- 

 struction of the hive, and so he briefly 

 described its construction, saying that 

 the principle was to prevent crowding 

 of the bees by means of slatted separa- 

 tors between the combs. 



Turning then to the advantages, in 

 an invention of merit the reality gen- 

 erally ran ahead of the expectation of 

 the inventor, he said ; this had been the 

 case with the steam engine, telegraph, 

 telephone, and many revolutionary in- 

 ventions, and in the invention of the 

 non-swarming hive certain things had 

 come to pass least looked for. Taking 

 an equal number of bees in the 8 or 

 10 frame Langstroth hive as ordinarily 

 made, and the same in a non-swarmer, 

 and the latter woula produce double 

 the amount of honey. Why? Put a 

 dozen men in a stone-quarry where they 

 were constantly elbowing one another 

 and they would do much less work than 

 when they did not interfere with each 

 -other. He had been testing this hive 

 for years, and in every test the non- 

 swarmer had given more than double 

 the surplus the 8-frame ordinary hive 

 had given. 



Another feature : Queen-e.xcluding 

 zinc need not be used with this new hive. 

 Out of 3000 sections taken this year, 

 only 2 showed any signs that the queen 

 liad been in the super. Why? The 

 queen will not venture into the super 

 until she is crowded out of the brood- 

 chamber. The queen-excluder then of- 

 fered no obstruction to the bees, and 

 free access to every part of the hive was 

 what is needed for a non-swarmer. Next, 

 he used drone and worker foundation 

 in the sections; by putting drone foun- 

 dation in the central sections, he pre- 

 vented the bees from storing pollen in 

 the sections. Each section-super con- 

 tained 45 sections. He was compelled 

 to do this because the warm currents 

 of air rushing mto the super on account 

 of the slatted separators between the 

 trood-combs. the bees would rush into 

 the supers more rapidly; but until he 

 used the drone-comb, tliere was trouble 

 on account of pollen. This had been 

 overcome. In reply to two questions, 

 he said the slatted separators were used 

 only during the honey-flow, and that 

 he preferred for market and use to have 

 drone section-comb. 



Mr. Fred Muth. of Ohio, thought that 

 honev in drone-comb would be objec- 

 tionable upon the market. 



Another member present pointed out 

 that sections with drone-comb at pres- 

 ent generally had worker-comb started, 

 and from that it was changed to drone. 

 A uniformly built drone-comb would not 

 have the objection that the mixture 

 would have. 



In handling the frames the end-lugs 

 ■of the frames were so far awav from 

 the bees that they were never in the way 

 when handling ; the frames have the slat- 

 ted system on the ends, and the outer 



piece was close-end, but to this other 

 piece the bees did not get, and none 

 would be crushed in rapid manipulation. 

 In handling this hive there would be 

 no propolis on the fingers. 



The bees from 15 to 18 days old 

 largely rule the hive. They take the 

 honey from the field-bees and store it 

 in the cells. The bees of this age are 

 also largely the wax-secreters. 



He could operate with the same out- 

 lay of labor more than double the num- 

 ber of colonies. He could get more than 

 double the quantity of honey. No one 

 in his neighborhood had averaged more 

 than30pounds per colony; he had aver- 

 aged luJ pounds to the colony. 



Outdoor Wintering of Bees. 



On this subject Vice-President Geo. E. 

 Hilton said that he combined bee-keep- 

 ing with other lines of business. Much 

 of bee-keeping had also locality to con- 

 sider. He wintered his bees outside, 

 and had tried below and above ground, 

 single and double walled hives, and 

 situated as he now was, he was obliged 

 to winter them above ground and out- 

 doors, and he had been obliged to use 

 double- walk d hive;. He fouuj doubli- 

 walled hives had m,r.iy virtues lor either 

 summer or winter. Where he lived, 

 they were subject to sudden change-; 

 in spring and fall. During intensely hot 

 weather he coi'id keep the bees in the 

 supers. People generally wanted to 

 know how to winter bees better ; two or 

 three persons within the sound ot his 

 voice had mastered the problem and 

 wintered bees inside. 



Plenty of stores were wanted ; at- 

 mospheric conditions alone were not 



enough. Quality, quantity, right stores 

 in the right place, were what was want- 

 ed. If the bees had plenty of stores in 

 the fall and few v.tcan: cells, they would 

 be lejs apt to gather fruit-juices (sweet 

 or sour), or honey-dew; and if there 

 were plenty of sealed stores, in any case 

 the percentage of injurious stores would 

 not be great enough to injure the bees. 



To save work, when the winter cush- 

 ions came off, the supers went on, and 

 vice versa — one wheelbarrow to a. load 

 of each, each trip. For wintering he 

 folded the enamel cloth half back, ex- 

 posing the rear half of the combs and 

 bees. Over these *he placed a piece of 

 burlap which allowed the passage of 

 moisture, and above this he placed the 

 cushion for the winter. The cushion 

 had a 4-inch rim, cloth at the top and 

 bottom, and wheat-chaff or cut straw 

 to fill the space between. Oat-chaff, or 

 straw, was more liable to mold. He 

 liked these cushions. They kept their 

 shape, piled nicely in the summer, and 

 could be kept free from mice. A gable- 

 end cover with a hole in each end al- 

 lowed the moisture to pass from the hive 

 as it was carried above the cushion from 

 the cluster below, by a slight circula- 

 tion of air. We must avoid the appear- 

 ance of moisture in the hive. In his 

 locality the temperature fell to 20 de- 

 grees below zero. He allowed snow to 

 remain as it fell on and about the hive, 

 only removing it as the temperature be- 

 came high enough for the bees to fly. 



A discussion followed, some thinking 

 that for one who would give his bees 

 care and attention, a single-walled hive 

 would be better. 



(Continued next week.) 



Conducted by E. L. Bier, Markham, Ont. 



Foreign Honey in Canada 



Possibly some might think, on read- 

 ing that item ou page 32, relative to 

 prices of honey in Ontario, that now 

 would be a good time for foreign honey 

 to gain a foothold in our markets. I 

 have a brother working with one of 

 the largest baking concerns in Canada, 

 and he informs me that they are im- 

 porting honey, but no great quantity, 

 from Cuba and Jamaica. Even at 

 present prices they prefer the Cana- 

 dian product, if they can only get it. 



Owing to the tariff wall that Uncle 

 Sam and Johnny Canuck have seen fit 

 to erect between the two countries, 

 there is a duty of 3 cents a pound on 

 all honey coming into Canada from the 

 United States. Cuban honey has to 

 pay the same, but Jamaica, under the 

 preferential tariff, pays 2 cents per 



pound. Considering a tax like this, 

 added to the freight over such a long 

 distance, it is surprising to know that 

 Cuban honey has been laid down in 

 Toronto for 7 cents. Surely, there can 

 not be much in it for the producer in 

 Cuba at that figure. I believe the 

 figure quoted is a little lower than or- 

 dinarily, but I have positive knowledge 

 of Cuban honey being sold in Toronto 

 for 7 cents, 3 or 4 years ago. 



Bee-Keeping-— Our 

 Calling 



Queer" 



In glancing over the " patent in- 

 sides " of one of our local papers a 

 short time ago, I noticed an item under 

 the caption, " Some queer callings that 

 have journals devoted to their inter- 

 ests.' Among the list submitted was 



