556 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



was remaining in the hive. Another colony 

 sent out a swarm Tuesday, clustering on a 

 limb. I hived them half an hour afterward, 

 but they left the hive and entered the old 

 hive. On Wednesday they swarmed again. 

 I stopped them five or six rods from the hive, 

 and they clustered on a limb. I cut the limb, 

 and laid it on the ground in front of the hive. 

 They all entered at 10 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing ; by 7 o'clock in the evening not a bee 

 remained in the hive. How would you ac- 

 count for such an occurrence ? they were all 

 large swarms. Chris. Kinsel. 



Dysart, Iowa, June 13. 



[Such a case as you mention happens occa- 

 sionally, although not very often. If you 

 have the A B C of Bee Culture you will notice 

 we recommend giving every new swarm a frame 

 of comb containing a little unsealed brood. 

 This unsealed brood will almost in- 

 variably hold the colon)' in any new 

 hive. Sometimes the bees desert the 

 hive because it is put right out in the 

 hot sun. It is possible that the queen 

 was missed in one of the cases you 

 mention ; therefore the bees left the 

 hive as soon as they discovered she 

 was not with them ; but in such a 

 case unsealed brood would hold them 

 just about as well as the queen. In 

 practice I should give every swarm put 

 into any hive at least one comb con- 

 taining brood. Then they will stay, 

 no matter whether they have a queen 

 or not ; and if they have a queen, she 

 will go to laying at once ; and I think 

 they always work better if they have 

 the comb. Another thing, if this brood 

 is present you will know at once when 

 the queen is missing by finding queen- 

 cells started inside of a few hours. 

 Thus you see, unsealed brood, be it 

 only a little patch in the comb, ren- 

 ders it unnecessary for you to get 

 sight of the queen at all to be sure she is with 

 the bees.— A. I. R.] 



of the impurity of the goods), the practice in 

 question certainly can't be too strongly con- 

 demned. B. Walker. 

 Battle Creek, Mich., May 10. 



AN IMPROVED DRONE-TRAP. 



The inclosed drawing is a queen and drone 

 trap that I have made. I work my hives for 

 extracted honey, so of course I do not have 

 any swarms — at least not for the four seasons 

 I have owned bees. It catches the drones all 

 right, from the fact that, in their first flight, 

 they do not discover the side entrance, but go 

 toward the light in the front of the hive. I 

 have concluded the queen would do the same. 

 The field bees (the majority) use the side en- 

 trance as an exit too. They are not bothered 

 with the perforations, and the pollen is not 

 brushed off their legs. In comb honey it 



CANDIED COMB HONEY ; USING SECTIONS 

 CONTAINING CANDIED COMB HONEY. 



I meant to drop you a line before, bearing 

 on the position taken by Doolittle with refe^ - 

 ence to the use of sections containing candied 

 honey, but have, as usual, been too much 

 rushed to spare time for the purpose. I wish 

 to say here that I am greatly astonished at 

 such teaching from such a source, and wish to 

 enter an emphatic dissent to the views ex- 

 pressed in the article referred to. I will say 

 that I have had occasion to handle a great 

 many lots of honey in past years, containing 

 sections having more or less old and candied 

 honey in the combs, and there is no question 

 that either this honey does not become liquid 

 to any extent while on the hives, or else it re- 

 candies (as one would naturally expect), after 

 removal ; and as the sale of such honey on a 

 city market does as much as any one thing to 

 prejudice purchasers against the use of comb 

 honey (as they are quite sure to regard the 

 presence of the candied part as a sure proof 



FRICK'S OUEEN AND DRONE TRAP. 

 AA, entrance. 

 BB, wire cloth. 

 C, guard. 

 ED, trap for drones. 



would send them up the sides into the super, 

 which, I understand from your journal, is an 

 important factor. Henry N. Frick. 



North Wales, Pa. 



[The object of this improvement, as I un- 

 derstand it, is to make it unnecessary for the 

 field bees to go to and fro through perforated 

 metal. To accomplish this the incoming bees 

 go through that part of the entrance (the two 

 sides) that are not obstructed at AA, pass un- 

 der the wire cloth BB, finally reaching the or- 

 ifices at the corners, or as indicated by the ar- 

 rows in Fig. 2, and by A in Figs. 3 and 4. The 

 drones and queens would, of course, rush for 

 the first time (as do the workers also) toward 

 the light, and there would be barred by the 

 perforated metal, when they would be trapped 

 by the cone opposite E in Figs. 3 and 4. The 

 ivorkers soon learn the trick of going through 

 the unobstructed way, and, of course, would 

 not pass the metal. 



