1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



131 



or laid down anywhere, the same as if she was in any kind of 

 a cage. When the large end of the cone is placed over a 

 queen, one does not have to wait for her to crawl up. She 

 can, with this wire cone, be picked right up off a comb out of 

 a cluster, or any other place where she can be seen and got at. 



The tin bottom to the cone is made and hung in such a 

 way that it is impossible to injure the queen when bringing it 

 in its position to close the cone. 



The cone itself being made spiral, and of steel wire, is a 

 very delicate spring up and down, so that in placing it over a 

 queen, if it is purposely brought down quite hard upon her, it 

 will not injure her; but the cone is large enough at the large 

 end so that it can be easily placed over a queen without 

 touching her, and the wires are so close together that when a 

 queen is inside she can never get her head between them. 

 The cone is worked, and the queen caught, with one hand, 

 and this can be done with a heavy glove on. 



After the queen is in the cone, another part of the device, 

 which, for the want of a better name, we will call a "fol- 

 lower," is inserted between the bottom wire of the cone and 

 the tin bottom. This follower is padded with soft cloth, and 

 with it she is gently urged up towards the small end of the 

 cone. By holding the cone with the small end up, a queen 

 will almost always, of her own accord, go up into the small 

 end. If she does not, by touching her gently with this fol- 

 lower she will, and then when she is confined in the small end 

 in a space about her own length, the follower is stopped, and 

 with a small hook any one or all four of her wings are pulled 

 out between the wires, and with a knife or scissors they can 

 be cut off any way desired. After her wings are pulled out 

 between the wires, she cannot get them back again, neither 

 can she throw her legs up in the way. The wires of the cone 

 do not press against her in the least — she is merely kept from 

 moving backward or forward much, and, as I have said, the 

 follower, as well as the front of the cone, is padded with soft 

 cloth, so she will not injure herself in trying to back or go 

 ahead. 



After her wing or wings are clipped, the small end of the 

 cone is removed, and she is allowed to walk out. 



Now, from reading this, one might think that to catch 

 and clip a queen with this device is a long and complicated 

 operation; in reality it is very simple. With this device, in 

 the presence of a number of witnesses, I caught and clipped 

 a queen in 20 seconds. But it sometimes happens that in 

 catching a queen one or more workers are caught at the same 

 time. This causes a slight delay, for then it is better to re- 

 move the small end of the cone and let the workers out that 

 way, or the hook can be run between the wires and with it 

 they can be pulled out between them ; the wires being steel 

 they will spring apart enough for this. 



There is nothing about the device that will get out of 

 order, or wear out, except the cloth, which can be easily re- 

 placed by any one. One of them will last many years, even if 

 it was used every day. 



Some Suggestions oh Several Subjects. 



BY .1. C. WAI.LENMETER. 



Catnip Honet. — W. J. M., of Cedarville, Mo., asks on page 

 53, what quality of honey is obtained from catnip. Dr. Miller 

 says he does not know that anybody ever had a pure sample 

 of catnip honey. During 1894, my supply of comb honey ran 

 short, and I bought several hundred pounds of catnip honey 

 from G. F. Muth & Son. I had several grocers waiting for 

 comb honey, and immediately delivered to each of them, seve- 

 ral cases from the depot without examining it. In this way it 

 was all sold four hours after arrival here. 



I began to receive complaints in a few days, which kept 

 up, until I had all the " beautiful" catnip honey returned to 

 me, as being strong, dark, of sickening odor, and other bad 

 qualities. Everyone knows how strong buckwheat honey is — 

 well, it is not half as bad as catnip. I used to think catnip a 

 very fine honey-plant, seeing my bees work on it all the time, 

 but since getting hold of such a bad mess, I condemn it. 



Liquefying Honey. — R. C. Aiken, on page 55, speaks of 

 the consumer doing his own liquefying of extracted honey, 

 having printed instructions with each package. My experi- 

 ence is that consumers do not want candied honey, will not 

 even try to liquefy it, and any amount of talk is wasted on 

 otherwise intelligent people. Although I offered $100 to a 

 grocer here if my honey contained a particle of any adultera- 

 tion whatever, he stubbornly persisted in saying I fed my bees 

 sugar. As long as I supplied him with honey that did not 

 candy, he sold lots of it to his customers. So I made a round 



of all grocers every once in a while, and replaced the candied 

 jars of honey. I used No. 50 glass jars, and found they candy 

 more readily than a jar with a cork pushed in tight and tin- 

 foil pressed around it. I can now keep all my honey from 

 candying by pouring hot beeswax on top of it, and corking 

 tight while hot, and it will candy only on very rare exceptions. 

 This is best done by using Muth's square jars, as they have a 

 small " mouth " and do not require much wax. 



Bees Stakving with Plenty of Honey. — On page 54, 

 E. B. T. asks Dr. Miller the cause of a large colony of bees 

 dying with plenty of honey in the hive. The Doctor suggests 

 queenlessness, and gradual reduction in numbers until a cold- 

 snap finished them. If the good Doctor looks closer, he will 

 see that E. B. T. says " the colony was a large one, and they 

 were 'all dead'." A more probable cause than that given by 

 the Doctor would be, that they starved on account of not be- 

 ing able to reach the honey without breaking cluster. We 

 hear so much of bees starving with plenty of honey. If a 

 Hill's device were laid across the frames, I claim all bees will 

 live as long as there is a pound of honey in the hive. I have 

 learned this by experience. Only the other day I discovered a 

 large colony starved with at least 30 pounds of honey in the 

 hive, while a little nucleus by its side, with only a pound or so 

 of honey, came through the cold-snap all right. 



The nucleus had a Hill's device over the frames, covered 

 with enameled cloth, and a super put on full of clover leaves, 

 which retained all the warmth. The large colony had noth- 

 ing but the enameled cloth, which was glued down to the top- 

 bars, thus keeping the bees from passing over the frames to 

 the much-coveted stores. All our packing will amount to 

 nothing if we do not allow a space for the bees to pass over 

 the frames. Evansville, Ind. 



Large vs. Small Hives Once More. 



by W. J. DAVIS, 1st. 



On page 84, Dr. Miller says: "Chas. Dadant certainly 

 makes a strong showing in favor of plenty of room in the 

 brood-chamber," etc. 



I have read Mr. Dadant's articles on the size of hives with 

 much interest, and while I give him credit for giving his 

 views correctly, just as he views the matter, and in accord- 

 ance with his experience, yet I regard his views as very mis- 

 leading to a majority of American bee-keepers. 



I am not unmindful of the fact that he can prove his faith 

 in large hives by results, for, if I am not mistaken, he has 

 made a financial success of bee-keeping, and may be one 

 of those -'bloated bond-holders" — (a class, by the way, which 

 seem to be increasing of late.) But I opine that his success is 

 due more to location than size of hive, and also to the produc- 

 tien of extracted instead of comb honey. I infer, also, from 

 his enormous yields, as reported on page 44 — viz., 400 pounds 

 from a single colony in one year. I notice, also, that most 

 of the reports of larger yields reported on page 44 are from the 

 State of Illinois. I very much question whether a single col- 

 ony in the state of Pennsylvania ever in all her history pro- 

 duced such an amount in a single season. If such a thing has 

 ever occurred and was reported, it has escaped my notice, for 

 I have every volume of the American Bee Journal from No. 1 

 to the present time. 



Though not as old as Mr. Dadant, I have kept bees longer 

 in this country, and kept them in the same locality, and I have 

 tried hives of different sizes, from one holding 24 Lang- 

 stroth frames, to 12, 10 and 8, the latter of which I now 

 use with the brood-frames shortened five inches in length from 

 the standard Langstroth frames. The favoring condition we 

 lack in western Pennsylvania — the lack of nectar for the bees 

 to gather, the almost total absence of basswood, and the 

 high price of land in the valley of the Brokenstraw, leave but 

 little land for grazing purposes, hence a limited amount of 

 white clover, and no sweet clover to speak of. We would not 

 secure any comb honey one year in five with larger hives. 



But notwithstanding all this, we have the advantage of no 

 year being an entire failure, and we have no such thing as 

 foul brood, or bee-paralysis. If I had lived at Hamilton, Ills., 

 I have no doubt I should have used larger hives, and if Mr. 

 Dadant had happened on coming to this country, to have set- 

 tled in western Pennsylvania he would now be advocating 

 small hives, and his $300 worth of big hives would be cast 

 aside as mine are. 



There is the whole thing in a nutshell. Bees are bees, 

 no matter in what latitude or various surroundings they are 

 kept. But all localities are not alike, neither do all localities 



