AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



821 



C, M and S will always necessitate ex- 

 planations, which may be misunderstood 

 or forgotten, and thus cause confusion, 

 dissatisfaction and loss. 



NET WEIGHT ON HONEY-CBATES. 



Another point I wish to bring up for 

 discussion, although it may not have 

 much to do with grading, is this : It 

 seems to answer all purposes to just 

 mark the net weight upon each crate. I 

 have done this for years, and find that it 

 is all that is necessary. Would it not be 

 well to have an understanding all 

 around, while we are about it ? 



The sooner we have this grading 

 business settled, the better ; and if we 

 could come to an understanding before 

 the next crop is to be marketed, it would 

 be a great advantage. Still, it may be 

 advisable to content ourselves until the 

 North American Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion meets again. 



Naples, N. Y., Jan. 25, 1892. 



Drone-Exclnler Perforated Zinc. 



DE. G. L. TINKER. 



Quite a number of bee-keepers in the 

 last few years have expressed a desire 

 for a perforated zinc that would allow 



Drone-Excluder Zinc. 



the passage of the queens and workers, 

 but would exclude the drones. 



Zinc of this kind is best used in the 

 common queen and drone trap instead 

 of queen-excluder zinc. Its principal 

 use is on colonies having objectionable 

 drones where a virgin queen must be 

 allowed to fly out to mate. There are 

 few bee-keepers but have one or more 

 such colonies where it is desired to 

 change the colony and queen, as in 

 Italianizing, and in the superseding of 

 hybrid queens, etc. 



In these cases a queen-trap may be 

 put on, and may catch all the drones 



that are ready to fly out, but as there 

 are young drones constantly hatching 

 and maturing, it willbeseen that if such 

 a colony has a virgin queen, the queen- 

 trap must be taken away from it for 

 a few days until the queen is mated. So 

 that when she issues there will be many 

 objectionable drones to fly out with her. 

 The placing of a trap with the drone- 

 excluder zinc before such a colony will 

 catch the drones and allow the young 

 queen to pass out readily. 



Not alone many bee-keepers who de- 

 sire to keep a pure stock of bees, but the 

 queen-breecer more especially is inter- 

 ested in the use of drone-excluder zinc, 

 for he will be able to effectually prevent 

 in-and-in breeding by the undesirable 

 mating of his young queens. 



In my own experience as a queen- 

 breeder, I have many times been obliged 

 to look through a colony of bees comb 

 by comb, and hand-pick objectionable 

 drones, and also to destroy the drone- 

 brood. If I had had drone-excluder 

 zinc, all of this trouble would have been 

 unnecessary. 



I might also add that this zinc has 

 been used for screening purposes in 

 threshing machine separators in thresh- 

 ing wheat, and it has been found supe- 

 rior to every other kind of screen that 

 has been used. 



A machine in use the past harvest in 

 this county having this zinc, cleaned the 

 wheat so perfectly that it was sought 

 for far and near to the exclusion of other 

 machines. 



New Philadelphia, O. 



[A sheet of this queen-excluding zinc, 

 from Dr. Tinker, is placed in our 

 Museum for the inspection of visitors. — 

 Ed.] 



Early Brood— Bee-Ileis. 



J. A. HOLMBERG. 



The last of November, 1891, I moved 

 all colonies into the bee-house, except 

 one which I left on the summer stand, 

 and they seem to winter nicely. On Jan. 

 30, 1892, one colony became worried, 

 and I moved it out, as that was a fine 

 day — 48°, Fahr., above zero. I exam- 

 ined it, and to my surprise it had 5 

 inches square of sealed brood, and 

 lots of eggs. Then I went to the hive 

 on the summer stand, and found the 

 same condition. I have between 50 and 

 60 colonies in the bee-house. 



