280 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apkii, 15. 



mentby the Root establishment at Medina, so 

 that, as now constructed, it is without objec- 

 tion, and fulfills every function claimed for the 

 closed-end frames, and yet is about as readily 

 movable as the old style of the L. frame. How- 

 ever, in a hanging frame only 7 inches deep, 

 which I use. I prefer to space and fix the frames 

 by a very light form of the Van Deusen metal 

 corner, as it spaces exactly V^h inches from cen- 

 ter to center, and does not interfere with the 

 ease with which the frame may be taken from 

 the hive. It is. therefore, my opinion that, be- 

 tween these two methods, the public need not 

 look further for a practical means of keeping 

 the Langstroth frame in its place. The prefer- 

 ence, then, must be given to brood-fraraeS' with 

 open end -bars. Du. G. L. Tinkek. 



New Philadelphia, (). 



[The first sentence of the last paragraph gives 

 the true statement of the case. So many have 

 inferred that, because we do not recommend the 

 loose frame, therefore we argue for the closed 

 end. Not so; as the doctor well states, .some 

 method of accurate spacing is demanded: and 

 that, for the L. size frame, the Hoffman end- 

 bars seem to meet the requirements. As to a 

 seven-inch frame, the Van Deusen may be bet- 

 ter.] 



AUTOMATIC SELF-HIVERS. 



PRATT S I)p;VICK ( HITICISEI). 



As I invented the first self-hiver, it is quite 

 natural for me to take quite an interest in all 

 that is said about them. In Gleanings, page 

 199, I see that Mr. Pratt illustrates and de- 

 scribes a device for self-hiving bees, which he 

 claims as his own invention. Well, it may be 

 that it is all his own. I waiit to say that Mr. 

 P. and myself have talked a good deal about 

 self-hivers in the last two years. 



Last season I remarked to Mr. P. that I did 

 not know but that I should have to arrange my 

 swarmer so as to compel the bees to pass out 

 through the new hive in order to hive nii the 

 bees that issued with the swarm, as, by being 

 compelled to enter a new enti-ance on their re- 

 turn, not all the bees that come off with the 

 queen would find hei- and enter the new hive. 

 I also stated that there were strong objections 

 to placing one hive before another, and thus 

 compelling the bees to travel such a long dis- 

 tance in order to reach their combs on return- 

 ing from the field. 



I will describe and illustrate, in P'ig. 1, the 

 most practical self-hiver tested; and this has 

 been thoroughly tested, and does its work well. 



FIG. 5— FULL COLONY. FIG. fi— DEf'OY HIVE. 



A and B represent the self-hiver. 



The hive at the left is supposed to contain 

 the colony; the one at the right hand is a sort 

 of skeleton (or decoy) hive. In the decoy hive 

 should be placed one dry, clean brood-comb. 

 Several days befoi'e a swarm issues, the bees 

 will be busily working on the comb; and when 

 the swarm issues they enter the new hive. The 



queen quickly enters box B, and is followed by 

 more or less bees; and when the swarm returns 

 the bees readily find their queen and settle 

 down to business. In case there are not bees 

 enough to make as large a colony as is desired, 

 the parent hive should be removed. Now. no 

 one can reasonably object to this: as the old or 

 new swarm should have a new location, and 

 experienced bee-keepers would advise making 

 the young swarm as strong as possible, it is cer- 

 tainly a great advantage to do so. I consider 

 the above arrangement for a self-hiver the 

 most practical of any yet described. In work- 

 ing for a practical self-hiver I kept in mind the 

 fact that the entrance should be as free of any 

 sort of obstruction as it is possible to keep it. 

 and at the same time have a swarmer attached 

 1o the entrance, which, in my opinion, is of it- 

 self all the obstruction that should be there. I 

 also kept in view ihe fact, that thp swarmer, in 

 order to come into general use, should be sold 

 at a low price. 



I have no doubt that the Pratt device will 

 hive the bees. It seems to me that he has 

 adopted the same principle for trapi)ing the 

 queen that I have been granted a patent . for. 

 Therefore the Pratt swarmer, like all the 

 others, is an infringement on my claim. 



Some time within six months my good friend 

 Dibbern took considerable space in this i)aper 

 trying to make your readers believe he had de- 

 vised a swarmer that would hive a swarm of 

 bees every time. Before Mr. I), got through it 

 was found that his swarnu>r had never hived 

 even one swarm of bees. All that he could 

 claim that it had done was to catch the queen 

 and a few bees. I should say that it catches 

 about as many bees, and works about the same 

 as the drone and queen trap. By the way. Dr. 

 G. L. Tinker says the queen -trap is as good a 

 swarmer as he wants. Well, if one is in the 

 apiary most of the time there is no better ar- 

 rangement for managing swarms when one 

 issues than by using the trap. Where the trap 

 is used, the bee-keei)er is not obliged to droi> 

 his work when the swarm comes off: he can 

 take his time to hive them. If no hive is ready 

 when a swarm passes through the trap, just 

 place a box near the hive the bees issue from, 

 so that the trap will be about the same dis- 

 tance fi'om the ground as when on the hive, 

 and I will guarantee that not one bee will re- 

 turn to the old hive, but all will go to the trap 

 and cluster with the queen. The trap should not 

 touch the parent hive. On the other hand, 

 place a new hive at the side of the one the bees 

 issue from: and as soon as the queen is seen in 

 the trap, place it on the new hive and every 

 bee will enter it and thus hive themselves. 

 Release the queen when the bees begin to go in. 



Wenham. Mass. Henry Alley. 



[We sent the above to Mr. Pratt, who replies:] 



All honor to Mr. Alley for inventing the first 

 self hiver I Even if he did not perfect it, great 

 credit is due him for starting the thing. I ad- 

 mit that his first device caused me to take 

 great interest in the matter, as it did bee-keei)- 

 ers all over the country. 



Mr. Alley and myself have talked a good deal 

 about self-hivers. and it was during some of 

 those talks that I suggested the i'oim and make 

 of the box B connecting box A and C, which 

 caused him to abandon the zinc tube used on 

 his first device and adopt the improvements, 

 although it was hard at first to convince him 

 that the round connection was not the thing. 

 Then after it was found tJiat would not work I 

 gave him the point of letting light into B B, 

 over the cone, which proved a success in call- 

 ing the queen into box B. 



