1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



411 



or g^alvanized iron rolled up like the cut at C, 

 tacked on to the back end of our box. These 

 rods are for weights so the box will just tip up 

 enough to let the heu get into the nest. You 

 can get the rods at any old iron heap. Have 

 a blacksmith cut them off a foot or 1-4 inches 

 in length. I would use these instead of one 

 weight, because with a hen sitting you need 

 more " ballast " than when there is only an 

 egg or two, or three eggs, laid in the trap nest 

 every day. You need not say it will not work, 

 for it has been working to perfection for the 

 past two weeks. 



E and V are openings large enough for you 

 to put your hand in to get the eggs every 

 night ; for I have found by experience that it 

 is rather tiresome reaching over the front 

 board I to get the eggs just above R. When- 

 ever a hen is on the nest, the box tips down 

 and is closed. No other hen can get in until 

 this one gets off. When a sitting hen is off, 

 some other hen might get in and lay an egg, 

 it is true. But that is the case with any trap 

 nest. The only remedy is to have tke sitting 

 hen let loose in a little yard or pen for her ex- 

 clusive use. For my part, however, I like to 

 see a sitting hen get off and have a good run, 

 and have exercise as well as food and drink. 



Some of you may say right here, "But, 

 hold on, Bro. Root ; this is not a trap nest at 

 all ; " to which I own up ; but it is just such 

 a nest as Fred Gundy describes, or perhaps, 

 rather, it accomplishes the same result, and 

 his nest costs a dollar to "know how." Be- 

 sides, you can make a trap nest of this kind 

 in almost no time. 



You will notice the hook-shaped shelf near 

 the letter C has an opening between the lower 

 edge and the box. Select a single iron rod, 

 just heavy enough to bring up the box nicely 

 when the hen is off. Now bend the lower edge 

 of the tin shelf so this rod will drop down on 

 the ground as soon as the weight of the hen 

 tilts the box down in the closed position. In 

 this case the hen stays under the box until 

 her owner picks the rod off from the ground 

 and lays it on the shelf again. You might 

 have a latch at P to snap on the box and catch 

 it when it shuts down. But with this you 

 would need to fit it on a permanent floor. 

 With my arrangement you can pick the box 

 ^^p and move it wherever you like, and set it 

 on some smooth ground or on the floor. In 

 order to avoid having a heavy weight to raise 

 the box up, the box should be of very light 

 stuff — ^4-inch sides, with all the rest % or ^, 

 will do very well. In fact, a box made of 

 veneer is as good as any thing. If you make 

 a box on purpose you might round off or bev- 

 el the corners SN. Or instead of a box you 

 could use a light basket. But a basket usually 

 costs more than a box. I found an oblong 

 bushel basket that makes a splendid trap nest. 



Now, when you use a basket that is hardly 

 deep enough, or if the grocery-box you get 

 hold of is hardly deep enough, there is anoth- 

 er way that will enable you to use your shal- 

 low box without cutting it at all, and this 

 same arrangement is used for the basket. To 

 do this, get two triangular pieces of wood like 

 DBC in the diagram above. 



Place them the right distance apart, then 

 nail thin boards between the two, at C, B, and 

 D, making the bottom of the nest. The 

 boards at C, B, and D are lapped over the two 

 side boards. The piece at I will need to be a 

 little heavier, so you can nail through D, B, 

 and C into the end of I. Now this arrange- 

 ment is to be nailed secure to the open side of 

 your box. Tip the box over, and you have 

 your trap nest as first described. If you use 

 a basket, this arrangement in Fig. 2 is to be 

 fastened to the sides of the basket. Tip the 

 basket over, and your trap nest is all complete 

 like broken line over Fig. 2. 



r 



^ 



FIG. 



2. — TRAP NEST WITH BASKET INSTEAD 

 OF BOX FOR TOP. 



In Fig. 2 the diagram represents the angle 

 at B rather too sharp. It wants to be just right 

 so that, when the nest rests on the base CB, D 

 will be just high enough for the hen to stoop 

 down and get under. You may say a hen 

 will not go into such a place. That is because 

 you do not know hens and do not know how 

 to manage them. They are the easiest ani- 

 mals to teach any sort of trick, in the whole 

 wide world, if you just take them right. 

 When your nest is new, prop it up with bricks 

 so that the hen can go under the edge of the 

 box without ducking down at all. After she 

 has got on the nest and laid one egg, she will 

 do it next day sure. Then drop the box down 

 a little, and she will be willing to stoop a little 

 lower each time. Make the angle at B so that, 

 when the nest is set ready for the hen, it will 

 be just as low as she can get under D without 

 too much squeezing. She will like it all the 

 better if it is a little bit difficult to get into. 

 The objection to having the box raised up too 

 high is that changing from one base to the 

 other makes too much "jostling " for the eggs. 

 When you get this angle at B just right, it 

 does not disturb the eggs at all when the hen 

 steps on top of the threshold at I. Somebody 

 will be sure to say a spring will be better than 

 the weight I have arranged. Yes, it is a very 

 easy matter to have a coiled spring of just the 

 right tension from A to N, Fig. 1. But you can 

 not move the nest around where you wish, 

 and you have got to have a floor board under 

 it at AB. If you do not want to bother with a 

 coiled spring, just take a springy hickory 

 stick and push it in the ground along the line 

 CN; but I prefer the weight. 



If you prefer a spring instead of a weight, 

 in order to make it trap the hen, you must 

 arrange so the spring will slip off or let go 

 when she steps on the edge of the nest. At- 

 tach the basket to the nest proper with four 

 pieces of annealed wire. 



