THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



101 



hundred colonies this cold weather 

 to find out the starving ones ? They 

 will be fixed up all right when the 

 weather moderates ; that is, those 

 that do not succumb to starvation 

 before the change comes. 



G. W. Demaree. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



THE DRONE TRAP AND HOW 

 TO USE IT. 



Dear Sir : 



In compliance with j'our request, 

 I have prepared the following de- 

 scription of my method of using 

 the "Drone Trap" of which the ac- 

 companying cut is a good represent- 

 ation. The "trap" has many uses, 

 and I find it indispensable in my 

 own apiaries. 



The accompanying cut repre- 

 sents the drone trap, and shows 

 the perforated metal entrance, the 

 tin slide, the perforated metal at 

 the top, through which the workers, 

 that enter the trap, pass out, and 

 also the cone through which the 

 drones or queens pass into the 

 trap. The front of the trap, as 

 will be noticed, is covered with 

 wire cloth. 



In using the trap place the open 

 side towards the entrance of the 

 hive ; the tin slide which forms 

 the top need not be opened except 

 when a queen is to be released, or 

 drones are to be removed. Arrange 

 the entrance so that all the bees 

 must pass through the zinc. 



The trap should be placed at 

 the entrance several days before 



a swarm is expected. In case a 

 swarm issues and you wish to put 

 the bees in a new hive, wait until 

 they begin to cluster upon some 

 object, then take the trap and place 

 it near them. It can be held in 

 place by being fastened with a 

 strong string and attached to the 

 limb of the tree. When the bees 

 are quiet, hive them in the usual 

 way, releasing the queen as 

 the bees pass in. In case the 

 bees miss the queen and return to 

 the hive without clustering, ]>roceed 

 as follows : Remove the parent 

 stock back, or to one side and put 

 the new hive on the stand in place 

 of it ; as the bees run in, release the 

 queen by drawing the slide back. 

 In case the bees get confused and 

 attempt to enter the wrong hive 

 (which I think will hardly ever 

 occur), remove the trap and there 

 will be no trouble. 



When a swarm has issued, ex- 

 amine the trap to find the queen. 

 If she is in it, place the trap as 

 near the bees as possible while 

 they are flying, when they will set- 

 tle upon it and may be hived at 

 pleasure. The trap need not be 

 removed from a hive that has cast 

 a swarm, as the queen before she 

 has become fertile can pass through 

 it. B3' this you will see that your 

 queens can be mated by the drones 

 of any particular strain in the 

 apiary. 



To those who rear queens the 

 trapisindispensable. For instance : 

 suppose one has 100 colonies of 

 black bees in his apiary and 10 

 colonies of pure Italians. Now if 

 several of the Italian colonies have 

 cast swarms, each one of which 

 has left a fine lot of cells which 

 one wishes to save in order to use 

 the queens that come from them 

 to replace some inferior ones in 

 the impure colonies, this can be 

 easily and quickly accomplished 

 by the following method : remove 

 the queens from the colonies and 



