72 



THE BEE-KEEPERS ' REVIEW. 



honey flow turning one hive with its en- 

 trance to the rear, thus throwing all the bees 

 into the other hive ; then in six or seven 

 days changing it back and turning the other 

 hive in the same way. 



I have learned many new and strange facts 

 about bees in this work ; facts that upset 

 many old notions. I found that swarming 

 could be prevented with the greatest certain- 

 ty by this method, that is, by simply chang- 

 ing the hives every six days and removing 

 queen cells. But the unsealed bees would 

 sometimes die and turn black in the hive 

 thus robbed of its working bees. In nice 

 warm weather there would be no trouble, 

 but many times in bad weather there would 

 be great loss of unsealed larvie. My idea in 

 making the revolving hive stand was to avoid 

 this trouble. My experience in moving hives 

 led me to believe that daily changing the 

 bees would so upset all calculations that prep- 

 arations for swarming would never be 

 commenced, but last year's trial proved 

 that this plausible theory was not true, as 

 the bees, although changed to a new hive 

 and a new queen, kept right on building 

 queen cells, and swarmed all the same as 

 those left undisturbed. But I made an im- 

 portant discovery in this revolving experi- 

 ment that I now expect to utilize in making 

 a non-swarming system, and that discovery 

 is that the bees in any number of hives can 

 be worked as one colony in perfect, old- 

 fashioned, socialist style, without the least 

 disturbance of peace, and I have now in- 

 vented a hive to utilize this fact and make it 

 possible to work all the bees of two queens 

 together as one swarm, and prevent swarm- 

 ing by changing the bees every six days and 

 removing the queen cells from the depopu- 

 lated hive. Generally the bees will tear 

 down the cells themselves, but I have proved 

 that it will not do to depend on them in all 

 cases 



My hive is a double one for two colonies 

 with a thin board partition between them. 

 There is an entrance the whole width of both 

 hives, both front and rear, and these en- 

 trances are closed by heavy blocks extend- 

 ing the whole length of the width of each 

 hive, two in front and two in the rear of each 

 hive. 



When the bees are set out in the spring the 

 rear blocks will be moved together until the 

 rear of the hive is entirely closed. The front 

 ones will be placed so as to have the entrance 

 for both hives in the center of the double 



hive with only the % inch partition that di- 

 vides the two colonies between them. The 

 bees of both colonies thus use, as it were, 

 the same entrance, and will go into either 

 hive just as they happen to alight, and all 

 work as one colony so far as the bees are con- 

 cerned. This is not theory ; I know it to be 

 a fact. 



A, front entrance (open). 



B, back entrance (closed). 



C, entrance blocks. 



D, side walls of hive. 



E, thin division board. 



At the blossoming of white clover I will 

 push one entrance block up and entirely 

 close the entrance to that side of the hive, 

 compelling all the flying bees to go into one 

 hive. The supers, if any, being all moved to 

 that hive. At the same time the rear block 

 will be moved back and an entrance made to 

 the closed hive at the rear. On the morning 

 of the sixth day I will move the supers to the 

 other hive, open the entrance in front, close 

 it in the rear and close the entrance to the 

 other side in front and open it at the rear, 

 and when this colony is deserted by its 

 working bees, look for and destroy queen 

 cells, and repeat in six days, thus keeping 

 both queens laying all the time, and work 

 their bees in an undivided colony during the 

 season. 



The hive with only a thin board between 

 the colonies is intended to keep the deserted 

 hive warm and keep the brood from getting 

 chilled which was the main trouble here- 

 tofore. 



