THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



97 



after the swarm has been hived. This is not 

 so with my '!)S pattern, for they may be left 

 the entire season or until every bee hatches 

 out of the upper story, ^\■ork will go along 

 in the hive just as well, besides the bees will 

 fill the combs in the upper story as fast as the 

 young bees hatch out of them, thus giving 

 eight frames of honey that would have other- 

 wise been lost. I have had hives tiered two 

 stories high, having more or less brood iu 

 both, and the bees were at work in boxes at 

 the top of them. 



You made a great mistake when you said : 

 "There is one point in favor of the Taylor 

 plan, there would be no break in the work 

 being done in the sections, whereas, by the 

 self- hiving arrangement, work is stopped in 

 the super until the apiarist appears to make 

 the change necessary to get the bees at work 

 again in the super." 



There would be no break in the work in the 

 supers with the '93 pattern : on the contrary 

 it would be resumed with the vigor of a new 

 swarm. 



It matters not how many swarms cluster 

 together, if there is no queen among them 

 they will separate and return to their differ- 

 ent hives. I have had many swarms cluster 

 in this manner and I find that when they 

 would not separate, a queen of some kind 

 was with them. I have seen a little virgin, 

 so small that she could pass the zinc, hold 

 two or thi-ee swarms together. 



P. S. You perhaps' had in mind my front 

 method of self-hiver, which wo\ild require 

 changing at once, but with the 1893 self-hiver 

 the above is true of its workings. 



Bbvekly, Mass. March 10, 1893. 



[As I wished, if possible, to finish up in this 

 number the discussion of self-hivers, I sent 

 a proof of the articles of Messrs. Dibbern 

 and Pratt to Mr. Taylor. His reply will be 

 found below. — Ed.] 



Some Strong Arguments in Favor of Queen- 

 Traps Versus Self - Hivers. 



B. L. TAYLOB. 



" These newly hatched inventions. 

 May fascinating be. 

 But ' Moses and the prophets' 

 Are good enough for me." 



<%g» HAVE examined the article of Mr. Dib- 

 ^ bern and also that of Mr. Pratt wliich 

 «^ were submitted to me for comment and 

 I am greatly surprised at some of the argu- 



ments used. Mr. Pratt surely cannot be se- 

 rious where he speaks of the bees filling the 

 combs of the hive from which a swarm has 

 descended: " Thus giving eight frames of 

 honey that would otherwise have been lost." 

 The fact is, if the bees had been properly 

 hived that honey would have gone into the 

 sections, and you may be sure none would 

 go into the sections while there was room in 

 the brood combs, and to that extent there 

 would be a break in the work in the sections. 



My assertion that swarms coming out at 

 the same time in the same yard will unite 

 and return to the same hive, Mr. Dibbern re- 

 fers to politely as an " old chestnut," but 

 neither its age nor its being a "chestnut" 

 prevents it being true in these parts. Mr. 

 Pratt also seems to think I am at fault here ; 

 out in my apiaries, although no queens are 

 out, the one thing that I can rely on above 

 every thing else, is that two or more swarms 

 out at the same time will unite and return 

 to some hive together unless prevented. The 

 hiver to be practical must provide against 

 the idiosyncracies of all bees in all seasons. 



Then, as to the trap, why should I not 

 cling to it, so long as it does all that Mr. D. 

 claims his hivers do. without a tithe of the 

 expense, fussing and labor. He admits he 

 has to exchange hives, shake off bees "»tc." 

 to get good swarms, and I, at most, do no 

 more. 



Yes, suppose a swarm issues from a hive 

 with a trap which is not visited for four or 

 five days, why a suflicient cluster protects 

 the queen for that time beyond peradven- 

 ture. I have never known a case in which 

 drones were sufficiently numerous or rains 

 sufficiently cold to do any injury : and a trap 

 is less fatal to a virgin queen because she 

 is discovered at once and the proper remedy 

 applied. 



It is a significant comment on the success 

 of the hiver that Mr. Dibbern seems to give 

 up his own invention, his own child as it 

 were, and puts his reliance on the Pratt " '93 

 pattern." Mr. Pratt does the same, and yet 

 the '93 pattern has never been tested ! It 

 seems to me that it will not prove to be so 

 good as the old pattern, for Mr. Dibbern 

 well says the '"natural direction" of the 

 queen is upwards. In the old pattern she 

 was carried dow n with the swarming bees, 

 but in the new one. if she goes down, she 

 must practically go alone which I should ex- 

 pect her generally to fail to do. But if it 

 works as Mr. Pratt desires, it still preserves 



