J*ab7is22etJ Weekly, at ^1,00 per anntim* 



Sample Copy sent on Applioatlon, 



36th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JUNE 4, 1896. 



No. 23 



fii(5£ 



New Kind of Oueeu-Trap — FiMdiug Queens. 



BT C. DAVENPOKT. 



As mentioned in my last article, I will describe a trap that 

 catches a queen, but does not prevent the drones from leaving 

 or re-entering the hive. But before I do so, perhaps it v^ould 

 be of interest to some for me to explain how I came to think 

 about making it. 



I was in the yard one day last summer when a swarm 

 issued from a box-hive. I was busy at the time, and as there 

 was a trap attached to the hive, I did not pay any attention 

 to them until soon after the swarm had all issued, when I 

 stepped over to the hive and saw that the trap was out of 

 place, and lacked about a quarter of an inch from being close 

 up against the hive. I supposed, of course, that the queen 

 had escaped, but upon looking closely I saw that she was still 

 down in the lower part trying to get through the zinc in front. 



Soon after, I made a number of traps 8 inches long, S 

 thick, and as wide as the hives to which they were to be at- 

 tached. The front end and the entire top, except }^ inch next 

 to the hive, was covered with ordinary queen-excluding zinc. 

 The sides were made out of thin boards, and the bottoms of 

 tin. On the inside, about 2>^ inches from the end next to the 

 hive, a piece of zinc was fastened across this strip, which 

 reaches clear across. The trap was made out of three pieces. 

 The two end pieces were ordinary zinc but the center piece. 

 which is about 5 Inches long, is zinc, which will exclude 

 drones, but allow queens to pass through. A wire cone of 

 such a size and shape that it will entirely cover this center 

 piece is attached to it in front, so that If a queen passes 

 through this piece of drone-excluding zinc at any place, she 

 will be in the wire cone, and if she follows the cone and passes 

 out at the small hole in the end, she will be confined in the 

 chamber in front instead of overhead, as in an ordinary trap. 



Now, if I have made this description plain, the reader 

 will understand that the trap, when attached to a hive, pro- 

 jects out in front, instead of up and down, and that there is a 

 space Ji inch wide clear across on the top of the trap next to 

 the hive, which is not covered with zinc, but there is no space 

 left at the sides. 



Last summer I had three of these traps attached to hives 

 from which swarms issued ; in each case they caught the 



queen. Two of these swarms were accompanied by laying 

 queens ; the other was an after-swarm, and I found three 

 virgin queens in the trap. Another one was also discovered 

 with the swarm ; this one might not have gone through the 

 cone into the chamber in front, or she may have done so, and 

 then got through the zinc. I have had virgin queens escape 

 in this way when using common traps. 



Now, when one of these traps is attached to a hive when 

 a swarm issues, of course there is nothing to prevent the 

 queen from walking up the front of the hive and escaping 

 through the open space there, but it seems that instead of 

 doing so they go straight ahead, and when they meet with 

 some obstruction in front, instead of turning back they try to 

 get through it. Whether they will do so invariably remains 

 to be seen. 



One of these traps was also attached to a hive, the bees 

 of which superseded their queen. While the trap was there 

 this queen got out, mated, and returned all right. The only 

 way I can account for this is, that a virgin queen, when she 

 comes out to mate, does so in a more leisurely manner, and 

 instead of rushiug through the cone, escapes through the open 

 space overhead. 



When one of these traps is attached to a hive it is hardly 

 any hindrance whatever to the bees, for they soon use the 

 top for an alighting-board, and then pass through the open 

 space into the hive. It bothers the drones some to get out, 

 but it does not bother them any to re-enter the hive. If I had 

 all frame hives, it is very little interest I would have in any 

 kind of trap, for I much prefer clipped queens; and although 

 I practice dividing, or artificial swarming mostly, with colo- 

 nies that are in frame hives, I keep these queens clipped, for 

 with me an artificial swarm sometimes tries to abscond. 



It used to be a good deal of bother for me to find queens 

 in populous colonies, sometimes, but it is not much now, for I 

 can find a laying queen in an S or 10 frame hive with 4 or 5 

 minutes' work, no matter how populous the colony, or what 

 kind of a queen it is ; and although the method I practice has 

 been described before, perhaps it might be of interest to some 

 beginners for me to give it again. 



As I remove the frames from the hives I look them over 

 for the queen, and if she is not found readily (and with me it 

 is seldom) the frames with the bees are all placed in an empty 

 hive close by, or hung on a low rack made for this purpose. 

 If there are many bees left in the hive, they are shaken out in 

 front; an entrance-guard is now placed at the entrance, and 

 the bees on the frames are all shaken off in front of the hive. 

 As the bees on each comb are shaken off, the comb is placed 

 back in the hive, and when all are in, the cover Is put on, and 

 the next hive containing a queen to be found is treated the 

 same. If one has a number of queens to find, by the time the 

 last hive has been gone over, the queens of the first hives 



