THE AMERICAJSI BEE JOURNAL. 



215 



supposed that every reader of the bee- 

 papers hail read many times tliat drone- 

 comb sbiiidd l)e rut out. and. to prevent 

 the bees from buiklini; more in tlie same 

 pUiees, a piece of worker brood -eomb 

 shouUi be inserted i.i its place. I liave 

 practiced tlie same thins for '27 years, and 

 a long time before foundation was thouKht 

 of. 



\gain they say : " Our instructions to 

 our men are, as soon as tlu;y detect some 

 drone -cond) in a hive, to put it at the 

 outside of tlu^ (itlier combs, so as to have it 

 on hand wlien preparing bees for winter, 

 or at the s|priug visit." How many of the 

 l.'iO.OOO In-e-kcciHTs in the country can af- 

 ford to employ men in the apiary? All 

 bee-keepers are not situated as the Messrs. 

 Dadant & Son are, and as they camiot af- 

 ford to employ help to destroy the drones 

 or droue-condj, the next best and practical 

 thing is a drone-trap, the use of which 

 miglit save tlie washes of one or more men 

 dm iui; tlir season. Tiny also say : "Some- 

 times when a iiueen is old or sick, or when 

 she lays her first eggs, she lays drones in 

 ■worker cells; but the small drones reared 

 w uld pass through the holes of a drone- 

 ti-ap." I will say" that drones reared in 

 ■worker-cells, whether the eggs are from a 

 barren queen or a fertile worker, are wortli- 

 less so far as fertilizing a queen ; there- 

 fore if such drones do pass through the 

 ti-ap, no damage will be done. 



I believe as they do, that " the removal 

 of drone-comb is worth many dollars to the 

 bee-keeper;" I always recommend and 

 practice it ; but as to my being "reluctant 

 about it," I will say this : I stated that 

 "bees will rear drones when they need 

 them," and the use of foundation will not 

 prevent it, even when placed in the boxes 

 or brood-frames. Now . let us see how it 

 ■works : Last spring 1 wanted some Italian 

 drones to use early in May. Mr. Pond 

 ■wrote me that lie had one tine colony which 

 had plenty ( if dn nies in it, and the colony 

 was sent to me. When it came, I examined 

 the hive and touml tliat the combs were all 

 built on nice wired fomidation, and the hive 

 contained a large number of drones. They 

 were reared in cells near the top-bars (1 

 think a V-shaped top-bar was used), down 

 through the bottom of the frame, and 

 through the middle of the comb where the 

 wire was pressed into the foundation. I 

 will cite another ease : A bee-keeper in 

 North Carolina sent infe 12 3 -frame nuclei, 

 and each one contained .3 combs of nice 

 wired foimilatiou, and in many of the combs 

 ■were little jiatrhcs of ilniiii-lirodd right ill 

 the ceiitiT of each frame, as well as consid- 

 erable near the bottom and the corners. 



The above may not be sufficient evidence 

 that bees will rear drones when foundation 

 is used, so 1 will give still another case : 

 I received a 3-frame nucleus from a bee- 

 keeper in Ohio, and I wanted this nucleus 

 for a special kind of drones, ami the combs 

 containing ilrone-lirood were built of work- 

 er foundation. Now, 1 most positively and 

 plainly assert that bees will construct 

 drone-cells by removing worker-cells or 

 foundation wiien they need drones, though 

 they say that they will not. 



They also say that " Mr. Alley rears four 

 kinds of bees in the same apiary;" so far 

 they are correct, but if they intend it to be 

 uiKierstood that I rear four "races of queens, 

 and have them fertilized in the same apiary, 

 tlii-y have been wrongly infoniK-d. There are 

 no iicc-^ within i; miles of my apiary except 

 what 1 own. and all the dittV-rent kinds are 

 kept by themselves, several miles apart. 

 How could I keep the drones of all the four 

 kinds from going into any of the hives, ex- 

 cept by the use of a drone-trap ? 



One of the best things about the trap is, 

 tliat such a large space can lie given for 

 ventilation, and still leave the liive pro- 

 tei-ted from the annoyance of robber bees, 

 toads or mice, as well as the bumble-bee 

 and hornet which cause so much ti'ouble to 

 bees during the summer. 



They say that " a few years ago, we had 

 all iHire l)ces; oiieof our neighbors liroiight, 

 in May. 4r, colonii-s of black hers to within 



m miles from our ajiiary, anil s e of his 



thousands of didiies met with our young 

 queens." Now. suppose that the neighbor 

 had used the ilroue-tiaii. as he might, had 

 lie known the benelit to br derived from its 

 use, would tlii'V not have derived some 

 benetit from it'iheii '.' If the black bees 

 were I'.,' miles Iriiiii their apiarv. 1 do not 

 belie\-e 'that one in lUO of their queens 

 would have met one of the black droues of 

 the neighboring apiary. 



In a recent nimiber of the Bee JornNAi, 

 1 gave a inartical, easy and quick way to 

 Italianize an apiarv wliere tlie trap is used. 

 I will now gi\e a few of the many good 

 features which a good drone-trap com- 

 bines, to prove that it is a gi-eat boon and 

 aid to apiarists, ami that the reasons given 

 by Messrs. Dadant & Son are founded on 

 mere theory. 



The drone-trap is not a " nuisance : " 



I. Because it effectually entraps and de- 

 stroys every drone. 



•2. Because a hive cau be more easily and 

 better ventilated when the trap is used than 

 by any other method, and it will not be nec- 

 essary to raise the hive from the hottom- 

 board or move the boxes back ; and all hives 

 can he ventilated at the entrance — the 

 proper place. 



3. Because queens can be mated by the 

 drones from any colony desired, and fertili- 

 zation is completely under the control of the 

 apiarist. 



4. Because when a swarm issues the queen 

 will be entrapped and returned to the hive, 

 and there is not a case on record where a 

 i]iieen was ever injured under such circum- 

 stancrs : and no queens having defective 

 wintsa will Im lost in the grass, as is the case 

 ofti'ii wlii'U a swiinii issues. 



.■). liucause tlie trap can be placed at the 

 entrance of anj- liive, and the bees will not 

 be in the least annoyed thereby, as it does 

 not prevent them from passing out and in 

 freely ; and, if placed on the hive at night or 

 early in the morning, the bees will mark the 

 location, and not one will enter a neighbor- 

 ing hive. 



G. Because the trap, when placed on the 

 hive, needs no attention oftener than once a 

 month. 



7. As the first cost is comparatively 

 nothing, and the advantages gained each 

 season by using them, are worth many times 

 the cost. 



8. Because* the.v are a sure protection 

 against the enemies ot bees, and a great pro- 

 tection a^^aiiist rnbliing. 



i>. lieeaiisc thi' apiarist, when he desires to 

 go from home, can do so with no fear of 

 losing his bees in case a swarm issues, as the 

 bees will return to the hii-e in a short time. 



10. Because the apiarist is not obliged to go 

 up into a tree 'M or more feet to secure the 

 bees when they swarm ; and for this reason 

 old people, whether men or women, can keep 

 bees and not run the risk of life or limb to 

 hive them in such a case. 



II. Because it the apiarist is busy at work 

 and the bees swarm, he will notbe obliged to 

 run at once to hive them, but cau act at his 

 own pleasure about it. 



1*3. Because a colony when it issues can be 

 compelled to settle just where the apiarist 

 desires them to. 



13. Because when placed at the entrance 

 of a hive wherein a swarm has just been 

 placed, the bees cannot decamp to the woods. 



14. Because when a swarm issues, the bees 

 can be easily and quickly hived by removing 

 the parent colony to a new location, and 

 placing the new hive on the old stand, when 

 the bees, missing their queen, will return 

 and enter the new hive, and all trouble is 

 ended, as soon as the queen is liberated. 



1.'). Because it one desires a few fine drones 

 from a distant apiary for evperiment. he cau 

 place a trap at the eiitranee of a hive, and in 

 an hour have several hundred of the desired 

 drones. 



le. Because the trap is a perfect non- 

 swarming arrangement. 



I might extend this list of reasons, but 

 let this suffice. The readers now have both 

 sides of the trap question, and I will leave 

 them to judge as to its being a nuisance. 



Wenliam, Mass. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



The Season of 1884. 



.1. M. HAJIIJAUGn. 



The season of ^HHi was one of cold 

 comfort to tlie bee-fraternity in this 

 section, especially back from the 

 river liottom where the prairie bloom 

 was not accessible. The bees built 

 up early, and made a fair showing of 

 success, but this fair promise was of 

 short duration, their labors ceased 

 with tlie clover harvest, and a very 

 small part of the colonies stored suf- 

 ficient to last them through the fall 

 and winter; hence, many bee-keepers 

 were compelled to feed through the 

 fall in order to keep them from starv- 

 ing, and where this was neglected, 

 the bees went into winter quarters in 

 bad condition to withstand the rigors 

 of the past long, cold -ft'lnter. and 

 that coupled with bee-diarrhea, which 

 has been very prevalent throughout 

 the country, has played sad havoc 

 among the bees. 



As to my own experience dimng 

 the past season : I began the season 

 with •5.> colonies, 23 of which were set 

 off and prepared for the production 

 of extracted honey, and t^lie balance 

 for comb honey. I had to transfer all 

 of my colonies from 8-frame hives to 

 10-frame ones, and alter every frame, 

 as they had been made nearly ^ of 

 an inch too deep; this was to make 

 a uniform frame throughout the yard, 

 and to meet the exact standard dimen- 

 sions, 175-8X918 inches ; to do this I, of 

 course, had to furnish every hiye 

 with two extra frames tilled with 

 foundation. The 2.S colonies were 

 prepared with a second story, the 

 dimensions of which were exactly 

 the same as the brood-chamber, with 

 ten frames wired and filled -with full 

 sheets of foundation. 



All the colonies built up very rap- 

 idly, and appeared to be none the 

 worse off from the transferring, which 

 was done prior to fruit bloom, and 

 before the white clover harvest came 

 in the hives were overflowing with 

 bees, readv to improve every oppor- 

 tunity. The surplus arrangements 

 were put on about May 20, and to 

 cause the bees to enter the upper 

 story more readily, I put a frame of 

 brood from below into the upper 

 story, which insures their acceptance 

 of the situation. For comb honey, I 

 use the " tiering-up " system with 

 skeleton honey-board, etc., inside of 

 an upper story, the same as for ex- 

 tracting ; by this means I can use the 

 half-pound, one-pound and two-pound 

 sections in the same hive, and can 

 utilize the same hive for extracting, 

 with the standard-size brood-frames, 

 the advantages of -which are obvious. 



During the season I extracted at 

 four different times, and from. the 23 

 colonies I obtained 2,."90 pounds of 

 extracted honey; and from the bal- 

 ance of the apiary I secured about 

 1,600 pounds of comb honey in one- 

 pound and two-pound sections, mak- 

 ing my total harvest nearly 4,000 

 pounds. I also increased my apiary 

 to fil colonies by natural swarming. 



Have I not done pretty well V My 

 neighbors look upon my figures with 



