lyos 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



655 



mcllifica and A. dorsata).*" How much 

 honey is there on the market stored by Ajns 

 dorsala'? Why leave out the other races of 

 bees? 



THE TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN TRAPS 



How to Know the Conditions by Looking at 

 the Trap; Managing Swarms With- 

 out Traps or Clipped Queens. 



BY R. L. TAYLOR. 



On p. 283 Mr. Halter makes reference to 

 some suggestions of mine with regard to the 

 use of the trap instead of clipped queens for 

 the prevention of the escape of swarms. 1 

 am at a loss to determine whether he is ani- 

 mated by a desire to make a "drive " at me, 

 even at the expense of the trap, or whether 

 he is without much experience in the use of 

 the trap for the purpose mentioned. If the 

 former, I have no objection to make. I shall 

 enjoy it as much as he so long as he avoids 

 misleading insinuations concerning useful 

 apiarian utensils. 



He asks: "How can you manage a given 

 number of yards with only one or two visits 

 a week, simply relying on queen-traps? Aft- 

 er an absence of five days you come to ex- 

 amine the apiary, is it not necessary to over- 

 haul every trap and let out the drones? If 

 you find a laying queen you are gratified: 

 but if you find a virgin, was it a case of 

 swarming or have you detained her from her 

 wedding-trip?" And then on another visit, 

 after heavy rainstorms and chilly weather he 

 imagines he would find the traps full of dead 

 drones and perhaps some dead queens. 



For his relief let me say that it is not nec- 

 essary to let out the drones unless he allows 

 his bees to rear an abnormal number of them. 

 Let them stay and die; or, if too many for 

 that, drown them and teach the chickens to 

 eat them. In either case it is a good rid- 

 dance. Nor is it necessary to overhaul eve- 

 ry trap for any purpose. It is only necessary 

 to glance at each trap in passing. If the 

 bees are simply hanging out they may lie in 

 front of the trap, or even cover it; but they 

 will not pack the trap itself. (It goes with- 

 out saying, that hanging out dui'ing a honey- 

 flow is the result either of ignorance or neg- 

 ligence; if after the flow, then swarms need 



* [We have been informed that Mr. Benton, then in 

 the Department, appeared before the committee and 

 requested that the race A. dorsata be added, as he was 

 expecting to make a trip to the East, secure these 

 bees, and introduce them in this country. Under 

 present conditions there will probably be very little of 

 their honey produced in this country.— Ed.] 



no longer be expected.) But if the trap is 

 found packed with worker bees, that shows 

 at once that a swai'm has issued and that the 

 queen is in the trap, and the colony can be 

 dealt with as desired, without delay. If a 

 trap is found with only a handful or two of 

 worker bees there will be found there a vir- 

 gin queen restrained from taking her wed- 

 ding-trip. If a trap should be found con- 

 taining a queen attended by no worker bees 

 worth mentioning, it would be a virgin es- 

 caped from a rival, and is not wanted there. 

 Thus the use of the trap is simple and effec- 

 tive, and swarming colonies quickly and 

 easily managed. 



Again, Mr. Halter fears the effect of heavy 

 rainstorms and chilly weather, after which 

 will be found, perhaps, traps with dead 

 queens and some full of dead drones. But 

 the drones are no deader than they would 

 be if dead without the storm — more's the 

 pity. Some of the bees may get wet in a case 

 where a swarm has issued, but not so wet as 

 in a case of simply lying out with no trap on 

 the hive. It may be set down as certain that 

 no bees will be injured by any rain or weath- 

 er we are likely to have during the swarm- 

 ing season; and as for queens, they are every 

 whit as safe from injury in the trap in such 

 cases as they would be in the hive itself. 



Not satisfied with condemning the trap, 

 Mr. Halter attacks my plan of managing 

 swarms with neither traps nor clipped queens, 

 and says, "How disastrous, when several 

 swarms with laying queens cluster together, 

 and the victorious queen destroys the others !" 

 Not at all. Such queens are not bent on de- 

 stroying each other. Even if the swarms 

 are only let alone they will often divide of 

 their own accord. In more than one case 

 where two swai'ms were hived together I 

 have had one of them come out, leaving the 

 other in the hive after they had been togeth- 

 er more than a day. At all events, if the 

 apiarist is "on to his job" it is very seldom 

 that a queen is lost. Even a virgin, though 

 she will be balled, is not often injured. 



For catching swarms I use light poles so 

 prepared that a basket may be readily hook- 

 ed on to the upper end. When several 

 unite, some of the bees are shaken into each 

 of several baskets— as many as there are 

 swarms or more. The baskets, as they re- 

 ceive bees, are hung on convenient branches 

 when those having queens are soon distin- 

 guished from those without by the conduct 

 of the bees themselves. Now, traps are ad- 

 justed to the hives prepared for swarms, and 

 the bees poured out of the baskets before the 

 traps, taking care to divide them equally. 

 Then we watch for queens, driving the bees 

 in with smoke. Whenever a queen is discov- 

 ered she is slipped into a cage till all have 

 been located; then those lacking queens are 

 supplied at once from the cages. Very sel- 

 dom need a queen be lost; and should one 

 be, she need not be deplored at that season 

 of the year. 



I have never recommended the trap as 

 equal to the personal attendance of an apia- 

 rist during swarming. It is not. But when 



