632 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



and would stick to their combs as well 

 as any Italian ; that led rae to believe it 

 is very easy to breed the Italian coal- 

 black and leave all their good traits 

 with them. 



The business bee is what we all want, 

 and it is as easy to combine business 

 and beauty as not, especially in the bee. 



Aurora, Nebr. 



The Pratt Hiver Tested in an 

 Experiment Apiary. 



Reaidts of Experiments at the MicJdgan Ajjiary, 

 BY R. L.. TAYLOR, APIARIST. 



As stated in a former article, the Pratt 

 Hlver was included in my plan for a 

 series of experiments to be conducted 

 during the white clover honey season. 

 Five of them were used, the first of 

 which was put in place June 16th on a 

 hive which I shall call No. 1, while a 

 swarm from it was in the air. 



As the entrance to this hive was not 

 guarded by a queen-trap, and no queen 

 being found in front of the hive as was 

 to be expected since I clip my queens, I 

 put a trap to the lower entrance and 

 caused the bees to enter through it that 

 I might find and determine the charac- 

 ter of the queen. The result was that I 

 found two or three virgin queens, show- 

 ing that the swarming was probably 

 caused by the rearing' of queens to super- 

 sede the old one or on account of her 

 death. The young queens were removed 

 and the trap left in place to enable me 

 to determine the purpose of the next 

 queen that should attempt to try the 

 open air. A few days later a young 

 queen was found in the trap, no swarm 

 having issued. She accordingly was re- 

 turned, the trap removed and the lower 

 entrance left open for the convenience 

 of the queen. 



The history of No. 2 up to July 2nd 

 was given in my article in the July num- 

 ber of the Review. Upon the 13th of 

 July it swarmed again, being the fourth 

 time, but this time I discovered the 

 queen was a virgin, showing that the 

 old queen had probably been killed on 

 the return of the swarm July 2nd. 



The remaining three hivers were also 

 put in place June 17th. 

 No. 3 was the only other one of the 

 five from which a swarm issued and 

 from it, first, on the 20th of June. On 

 the next day I found that the queen had 

 been killed by the bees of the returned 

 swarm, so a trap was placed at the 

 lower entrance. After this a swarm 



issued on each of the following dates : 

 June 30th and July 2nd, 4th and 8th. 

 In the last case the swarm was hived- in 

 another hive and given the queen in the 

 trap. In all the previous ones the 

 swarm was returned and the queen re- 

 moved. 



In studying results it should be re- 

 membered that these five colonies were 

 of more than average strength and were 

 selected on that account because I was 

 anxious to test the hiver by actual 

 swarming. 



If the percentage of loss of queens in 

 these experiments is to be taken in any 

 way as a criterion of what it would be in 

 general practice, quite a serious diffi- 

 culty is presented to the practical work- 

 ing of the hiver, for it would mean the 

 ruin of all colonies that throw ofif 

 swarms unless constant watchfulness is 

 exercised, and if there must be such 

 watchfulness there would seem to be 

 little necessity for hivers. Though I 

 should not expect that the percentage 

 of loss would be generally so large, yet I 

 fear it would be sufficiently so as to be 

 till a serious matter. 



Of perhaps even greater interest than 

 the loss of queens is the effect of the 

 hiver upon the amount and value of the 

 honey produced. At the time the hivers 

 were adjusted all the colonies in ques- 

 tion were working in the sections except 

 No. 1, though no great progress had 

 been made except in case of No. 3, 

 which had nearly filled the first super of 

 28 sections. This was an exceptionally 

 strong colony and was composed of ex- 

 cellent workers. Judging by what 

 other colonies did, it should have pro- 

 duced 75 pounds of comb honey had it 

 been managed as the others were. In 

 the same way the other four would have 

 about one-half as much, or 225 pounds 

 for the five. 



The actual results so far as comb 

 honey was concerned were all contained 

 in three cases, none of which were very 

 well filled, certainly not to exceed 60 

 pounds all told, and this was all pro- 

 duced by No. 3 and by Nos. 4 and 5 

 which did not swarm. At once on the 

 close of the clover season the extra hives 

 — those not containing brood — were re- 

 moved and would yield about 150 

 pounds of extracted honey. Even the 

 colonies that did not swarm had pretty 

 well filled the hives below the hivers. 



Of course I appreciate the unsatisfac- 

 tory character of the comparative result 

 founded as it is upon an estimate of 

 what the colonies would have done under 

 other cirturastances, but with a desire 



