DKONEvS. 



147 



DKONE8. 



TINKER ZINC. 



through this, reports, as well as our own ex- 

 perience, convinced us that this size was 

 too narrow. It not only proved to be a great 

 hindrance to the workers when their honey- 

 sacs were empty, but, when gorged with 



Full size. 



smaller than the foreign. The reports, as 

 well as our own experience in regard to the 

 perforated zinc as so made, have led us to 

 believe that this size of perforations is about 

 right. 



In 1908 there was put on the market a new 

 form of queen-excluder consisting of wire 

 bars held at tlie required distances apart by 

 means of soft-metal cross-ties at every two 

 or three inches. These bars consist of No. 



g2= 



S===SS 



worker combs; but the beginner will not be inter- 1 honey, they were scarcely able, if at all, to 

 ested in this artificial way of makin- increase, for p^gg through. More recently, perforated 



he should stick to the natural-swarming- plan for . , , ,-., -^ 



his increase until such time as he has had experi- ^"^^ has been made m this country on a 

 ence and made a success of getting- a crop of honey, different pattern, but with perforations ex- 



In fact, tiiere are many things to be learned before I actly ,^'',f„ of an inch in width, or a trifle 



a beginner should take up aitiflcial w;iys of making 



increase. 



RESTRAINING UNDESIH.VI'.LE DRONES. 



Drones undesirable for breeding purposes 

 may be prevented from going out to meet 

 the queens, by keeping them +'roni going out 

 of the hive, or by letting them go out into a 

 cage through which workers can pass and 

 they can not. This is done by taking advan- 

 tage of the fact that a worker- bee will pass 

 readily through slots in perforated metal 

 where a drone can not. In the figure shown 

 we give the form of the perforated metal. 



Zinc is the material generally used, be- 

 cause it is cheap and will not rust. Some 

 attempt was made to perforate tin as above, 

 but it proved to be very unsatisfactory. 



THE PROPER SIZE FOR THE PERFORATIONS. 



The oblong holes, as shown below, must 

 be of such a size as to permit the easy pass- 

 age of workers, but exclude not only drones 

 but even queens (see Comb Honey and 

 Swarming). It is no great task to make 

 the perforations drone - excluding ; but to 

 make them queen - excluding at the same 

 time, and yet not hinder the easy passage of 

 workers, requires a very nice adjustment in 

 the width of the perforations. The first 

 sheet of perforated zinc was cut in England, 

 and imported to this country. This had 

 perforations jJffo of an inch in width. While 

 this answered a most excellent purpose, a 

 few claimed that queens would occasionally 

 get through it. To obviate this, zinc was 

 made with the perforations a little narrower. 



The width of this was /j or i\% of an 

 inch. While no queen succeeded in getting 



WOOD AND WIRE HONEY-BOARD. 



14 hard drawn galvanized wire that has been 

 straightened in a wire-straightener so that 

 it is true as a die. Contrary to what one 

 might expect, the spaces between these 

 bars are more exact than the width of the 

 various perforations in sheet metal. In the 

 process of making, the bars are laid in metal 

 forms having grooves that are spaced exact- 

 ly right, and then a soft metal in a molten 

 state is made to flow in certain cross-grooves 

 of the metal form. As the metal cools al- 

 most instantly, the wires are held at the ex- 

 act right intervals. The smooth, rounding 

 edges of the bars afford less obstruction to 

 the bees passing and repassing, and it is be- 



