622 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



it abroad, as we are a practical people, 

 and live in one of the finest beet sugar 

 growing countries in the world. 



Now, then, we, as apiarists, should 

 not be loth to see these things, nor slow 

 to employ time and labor-saving ma-, 

 chines. This is no time to tarry hours 

 and days in the apiary, waiting for a 

 swarm to issue. A great many people 

 do not depend upon bee-keeping as a 

 bread-and-butter pursuit, on account of 

 the uncertainty of good honey seasons, 

 and therefore carry on bee-keeping in 

 conjunction with some other pursuits, 

 and cannot afford to be in the apiary all 

 the time. They do not feel like going 

 into the more experimental part of clip- 

 ping wings, using queen cages, and all 

 the other clap-trap of self-hiving devices. 

 If we could devise means whereby we 

 could know to a certainty when a swarm 

 will issue, we would have accomplished 

 one of the greatest attainments in bee- 

 culture. 



I am an exponent of natural swarming 

 to the extent of letting each colony cast 

 one swarm, and no more. If divided arti- 

 ficially or kept from swarming, I be- 

 lieve they lack the energy contempora- 

 neous with natural swarming. Alley's 

 swarm-catcher and self-hiver I believe 

 have been weighed in the balance and 

 found wanting, along with the rest of a 

 kindred nature. 



For some time past I have been turn- 

 ing my thoughts in the direction of 

 electricity. I do not say that I have 

 solved the swarm question. I was not 

 born an inventor, but I give my ideas 

 for what they are worth, and trust 

 that some one will be able to exhibit a 

 complete, successful and practical 

 model at the World's Columbian Fair, at 

 Chicago, in 1893, or before that time if 

 possible. 



It must consist of a standard hive 

 now in use, so arranged on an apparatus 

 as to allow two electrical terminals to 

 come together when a certain number of 

 pounds of bees leave the hive, thereby 

 closing the circuit and ringing the bell 

 in the house. The hives could be num- 

 bered and wired upon the anunciator 

 plan, or in the cheap system connecting 

 all the hives in multiple, using one bell 

 and the earth for return circuit. In this 

 way any number of hives could be con- 

 nected up on one bell with a couple of 

 batteries. 



Suppose now, we have wired on the 

 annunciator plan, and then if colony 

 No. 10 casts a swarm, down goes the 

 coinciding dial on the annunciator, and 

 the servant brings the information to 

 the master in the library, who is reading 



Doolittle on "Queens and Queen-Rear- 

 ing," with as much stoicism as though 

 she were only handing him the daily 

 paper. 



He now proceeds to colony No. 10, 

 which he removes to a new location, 

 and hives the swarm in a new hive with 

 full sheets of comb-foundation on the 

 old stand. The partly-filled surplus 

 receptacles of the old hive are now 

 transferred to the new hive, and we 

 have " let nature take her course," and 

 have two good working bee-armies at 

 our command. 



You may make light of this, as people 

 have of other great changes before, but 

 still I believe the time will come when 

 we will know for a surety, when a 

 normal prime swarm issues from a 

 healthy normal colony. The above 

 problem presents many intricate per- 

 plexities, which I have not as yet been 

 able to solve. If we calibrate the dis- 

 tance between the two terminals at a 

 distance of 3^ of an inch under a pres- 

 sure of 100 pounds (and this we will 

 assume to be a fair load for a hive and 

 its contents) for bringing the terminals 

 into contact when the weight has been 

 decreased 10 pounds, we see that that 

 distance should vary as the weight of 

 the hive fluctuates. We should so fix 

 the distance between the two plates as 

 to allow for a medium sized swarm under 

 a pressure of 100 pounds. 



Now, it is manifest that if we main- 

 tain the distance the same under 200 

 as 100 pounds, our circuit will fail to 

 close, and we will lose our swarm. 

 What we want is an inexpensive me- 

 chanical device for the hive to rest on, 

 which will graduate the difference be- 

 tween the terminals in proportion to 

 the weight. In other words, when 10 

 pounds of bees leave the hive under a 

 pressure of 200 pounds, the distance 

 will be so diminished in proportion to the 

 increase in weight, on account of the 

 less lifting power of the springs, as to 

 be able to make contact, and close the 

 circuit. Now, the same thing should be 

 attained under a pressure of 100 

 pounds, albeit the distance between the 

 springs is greater, but we see that we 

 have a greater lifting power in the 

 springs. 



I recognize the plexiform ramifications 

 in the above, yet I remember that 

 great inventions have had their obsta- 

 cles to overcome, which I need not 

 recite, as they are now revolutionizing 

 the world, and are too multifarious to 

 mention. 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 



