AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



241 



experiments with Self-Hiving 

 Arrangements for Swarms. 



Written for the AmeHcan Bee Journal 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



Last spring I decided to make 30 self- 

 hivers, and experiment with them. In 

 principle they were similar to the Pratt 

 hivers of 1892 ; that is, a box placed 

 before the hive and connected with the 

 hive-entrance by a queen-excluding zinc, 

 with a cone permitting the queen to 

 come into the hives, but not to go back. 

 In fact, they were merely queen-traps 

 transformed into hives. Another zinc 

 in the front prevents the queen from 

 going out of the hives. 



The first experience was a mishap. 

 My apiaries are both out of town, and 

 other business requires most of my 

 time. So one of the apiaries was a week 

 and a half without attention. When I 

 got there the people living on the place 

 told me that one colony had swarmed 

 every day for several days, and finally 

 the swarm went oflf. Investigation 

 showed five dead queens in the hives. 

 The theory is, that the old queen was 

 killed by the first virgin hatched, this in 

 turn by the next, and so on. Probably 

 the last one was reared from an old 

 larva, and, as usual in such cases, under 

 sized, and went through the zinc with 

 the swarm. 



Well, other swarms came, and were 

 found in the hives, or at least the queens 

 were, with more or less bees. The thing 

 to do is to move the old hive to a new 

 stand, and leave the supers, about one- 

 third of the brood, and the swarm, in a 

 new hive on the old stand. Thus used, 

 the self-hiver (except perhaps some par- 

 ticularity of construction) is certainly a 

 success. 



As a non-swarmer it is a failure. The 

 Dadauts say that if a swarm is returned 

 to the parent hive two days after 

 swarming, the swarming-fever being 

 over, the queen will be permitted to de- 

 stroy the cells, and the colony will not 



swarm, at least not until new prepara- 

 tions for swarming take place, if the 

 circumstances are favorable to it. Henry 

 Alley says that after a queen has been 

 three days in the trap, she will be per- 

 mitted to destroy the cells. Acting upon 

 these suggestions, I waited two or three 

 days, and then returned the swarms 

 from the hivers to the old hives. I soon 

 discovered that the majority were 

 swarming again repeatedly, even twice 

 a day. Investigation disclosed the fact 

 that only one queen had destroyed all 

 the cells, the others had only destroyed 

 a part. This was not entirely unex- 

 pected. It is obvious that the swarms 

 returned to the hive and left in the hiver 

 are not in the same condition as those 

 coming out with their queens, hived in a 

 new hive, and then returned. 



As to Henry Alley's assertion, I have 

 to say that so many conditions influence 

 the swarming of bees, that he may have 

 succeeded under soreie circumstances, 

 while he might have failed entirely at 

 some other times. 



Well, I then proceeded to destroy the 

 queen-cells myself. Only 3 colonies quit 

 swarming; all the others persisted in 

 swarming as long as they had either a 

 queen or some brood from which to rear 

 one. I persisted in returning swarms 

 and cutting cells, and the bees persisted 

 in swarming again and again. Finally, 

 four or five queens "turned up missing," 

 probably were killed. Then I acknowl- 

 edged myself "licked," as Mr. Hasty 

 would put it. I divided some colonies, 

 and removed the queens from some 

 others. 



Here I have gained an important 

 point. None of the colonies that had 

 been hopelessly queenless for some time 

 (from three or four days to nearly two 

 weeks) offered to swarm again. It seems 

 that when they find themselves without 

 queens or brood (except capped brood) 

 they give up all swarming notions and 

 go to work. After new queens were 

 given, they still kept on working regu- 

 larly. 



One or two points in regard to the 

 construction of the swarmer : Excepting 

 the one mentioned at the beginning of 

 this article, no queen, so far as I know, 

 has passed through the zinc. The cone 

 ought to be placed so that the bees are 

 not likely to cluster on the end of it, for 

 when there is a cluster, they cannot go 

 in and out easily through the cluster. 



The most serious objection to the self- 

 hiver, as I had it, was that it interferes 

 considerably with the ventilation of the 

 hive. My hives have ample entrances, 

 the zinc between the hive and hiver was 



