THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



roaring angrily. I used to stand around 

 looking at the disturbed hive and won- 

 der and wonder what the trouble was. 



I read everything that came to hand, 

 in hopes to find out, but I was still won- 

 dering and looking, when, as easily as 

 possible, 1 decided to put them out, and 

 let them have their rows in the open air. 



When the hives were lifted, I found 

 a great heap of dissected bees under 

 each hinged alighting board. The pile 

 was so large that 1 was sure the greater 

 part of my bees must be there, in frag- 

 ments. 



Well, the toaring in the hives ceased, 

 and the colonies began to build up 

 again. 



Still, I could not learn that a mouse 

 could get into a hive. So I experi- 

 mented. I put a new hive in the barn, 

 and set grain in it. Bless you ! the 

 mice just revelled in the hive. That 

 settled the fact for me, and I made up 

 my mind that I should never leave my 

 hives open again, and have lain awake 

 nights planning some kind of fixture to 

 be covered with wire netting, that I 

 could set firmly before -the entrance. 



I had my plan complete, but not 

 my mouse-excluder, when a neighbor 

 showed n:ie a drone-trap. And that 

 settled it. It is heavier, firmer, more airy, 

 and better in every way than my inven- 

 tion, to be set in front of the entrance 

 while the bees are in the cellar, to keep 

 out the mice. 



Jf dead bees should clog it, one could 

 lift it, and shake them off without dis- 

 turbing the colony at all. 



Now, Mr. xAUey, please score me one 

 point. 



With your drone-trap I can catch 

 drones, catch the queen if I am on the 

 watch at swarming time, and also, keep 

 the tnice out of the hives in tvinter. 



All this I had settled, when I took up 

 a late bee paper, and found a query from 

 some ignoramus like myself asking if 

 mice would disturb hives, and the ans- 

 wer in the affirmative. 



I only wonder now, that my colonies 

 were not entirely ruined this last winter. 



Beekeepers around here seem to be 

 well supplied with drone-traps but a 

 self-hiver is an unheard-of thing, and a 

 self-hiver is the one thing needed to 

 make beekeeping practical for women. 



I believe I asked the Apiculturist 

 if one ought to clip queens' wings. The 

 answer was a big "No," but 1 went on 

 clipping. You see, I had got to catch 

 the runaway queens somehow. 



•Well, that settled the first swarm. I 

 caught it. But what of the second 

 swarm that is found to issue from each 

 hive? That's, aye, thafs the rub. 



If some one will show me how to 

 catch that young queen, and how to 

 put the swarm back where it will go to 

 work again, I'll — I'll — yes, I will for a 

 fact, I'll give him a nickel. 



Now if, next spring, when I catch my 

 first swarm with a new swarm-hiver — 

 for I must have one — if I put that swarm 

 into an empty hive, and about five days 

 later I cut every queen cell out of the 

 frames in the old hive from which they 

 issued, and hang those frames in the up- 

 per story, over the new colony, with a 

 queen-excluder between, will that settle 

 the swarming business for that hive, and 

 will the brood hatch and go down be- 

 low, while the workers store honey for 

 extracting in the empty combs? 



Has anyone ever tried this plan? 



There is a revolving query in my 

 mind. Why revolving ? Oh ! because 

 it always comes back to the same spot. 

 It is this : a neighbor of ours, when I 

 was a child, had five funny box hives. 

 I never saw more ; never noticed less. 

 I lived near by for about twenty years. 

 He always had some honey. Query : 

 what did he do with the new swarms? 

 Kit Clover. 



[Tlie above queries will be answered laler on. 

 — Ed.J 



DO THE ITALIANS DEGENERATE? 



Friend Alley: — The discussion be- 

 tween you and friend Robbins, carried 

 on in such admirable spirit, is very in- 

 teresting reading. My prejudices are 

 with friend R. when he savs, "I do not 



