82 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



which colonies have cast swarms, ivith- 

 out opening a /iiue." 



Further on I present the reader an 

 illustration of a self-hiver devoid of all 

 objectionable features enumerated by 

 Mr. D. ; and, what is more important, 

 is the fact that this arrangement not 

 only catches every bee that issues and 

 hives them in the box, but it catches 

 and destroys every drone that attempts 

 to leave the hive for a flight. They 

 cannot clog the entrance at all. This 

 swarmer is placed at the entrance of 

 the hive the bees occupy, and, as it has 

 such "a wide entrance, the bees are not 

 in the least hindered in going out and in 

 when at work. 



The box is provided with two covers — 

 one is solid wood, and the other is a 

 light frame covered with wire cloth. 

 The all-wood cover keeps out the wet 

 and light, the other keeps the bees from 

 flying out when the wood cover is raised 

 to see if the bees have swarmed. 



For a person absent from home one or 

 more days at a time, this swarmer will 

 be found just the thing. On returning 

 home, all the apiarist needs to do is to 

 raise the cover of the box. If the bees 

 have swarmed, the box will be found full 

 of bees, and working nicely, as there is 

 room in each box for five Langstroth 

 frames. The box can be made as large 

 as the person using it desires. 



Now, to show that I am making no 

 idle claims, I am ready to pay $5 for 

 every swarm this hiver fails to self-hive. 

 I do not mean hiving the queen and a 

 few bees, I mean all the bees that come 

 off with the swarm. I feel warranted in 

 making this offer, with the experience I 

 have had with it this season. 



Below is a brief description of a per- 

 fect self-hiver : 



The trap (Fig. 1) is made nearly twice 

 as wide, from end to end, as those 

 usually sold for drone-and-queen catch- 



Ftg. 



1. — Combination Drone-and-Queen 

 Trap and Self-Hiver. 



ers. It is also provided with four tubes, 

 and the luckless drone or queen that 

 sallies forth to leave the hive is sure to 

 be trapped. The trap has a metal front 

 and back. This provides the needed 

 ventilation to the largest colony of bees. 

 In fact, this self-hiver is a superior 

 drone catcher, as no drone returns to 



the hive after once leaving the brood- 

 chamber ; nor are they fussing at the 

 entrance a long time trying to escape. 

 Hardly does the drone go to the en- 

 trance when he discovers one of the 

 four tubes, and, before he knows it, is 

 in the trap. It is the same with the 



Fig. 2. — The Perfection Self-Hiver. . 



queen. As surely as she leaves the 

 combs with a swarm, she is trapped. 



Figure 2 illustrates the swarmer com- 

 plete, ready to catch a swarm. The box 

 is 18 inches long, 10% inches wide, and 

 10 inches deep. This is large enough 

 to give the largest swarm all the room 

 they need to cluster in for awhile, at 

 least. 



Half of the front of the box is cut 

 away, and the trap is pushed in to fill 

 the space, and so that the front of Fig. 

 1 is " flush " with the front, or face of 

 the box. The bottom of the metal where 

 the bees pass through, is depressed, so 

 that the bees enter the hive easily, and 

 with as little delay as possible. 



The trap is provided with a small 

 swinging door at one end, so that the 

 queen can be taken or shaken out, also 

 for removing dead drones, etc. The 

 trap can be used separately for catching 

 drones when not used as a self-hiver. 



When a swarm issues, the queen en- 

 ters the trap. The bees, after circulat- 

 ing about in the. air, return, or they 

 may settle on some tree and hang there 

 for awhile, and then return to the hive. 

 As soon as they reach the entrance they 

 discover their queen, the very object 

 they returned for, and the bees at once 

 cluster in the box. This arrangement is 

 a self-hiver in every sense of the word, 

 as it catches the entire swarm. 



Now, is not this an easy and interest- 

 ing operation, as well as a labor and bee 

 saving device. Just think how happy a 

 person can be when he leaves home in 

 the morning, to know that on his return 

 he will find his bees already in a box 

 ready to be hived, if they have swarmed 

 during his absence. His wife or attend- 

 ant will not have a chance to say when 

 the bee-keeper returns home, " The bees 

 have swarmed and decamped." No, 



