THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



167 



quick as a flasli, are points that must 

 interest any close observer while he 

 watches the outcome of the little black 

 straiijjers. 1 have made it a point to 

 test for myself all new races of liees. 

 It has cost me some money to do it, 

 but tiie interest I have felt in tlie eu- 

 t^r[)iise, and the pleasuies I have de- 

 rived from the experimentation, liave 

 been ample compensation. 1 now liave 

 a Punic queen, and anticipate much 

 pleasure in testing her workers next 

 season. 



G. W. Demauke. 



Christ lanfbnrg, Ky. 



Many thanks. Bro. Doniarce, for the -way 

 you have treat' d this qnestion of new 

 races. You have siiven the beekeeping 

 public the best article on tliis subject of 

 new races that has been written by any 

 one. 



The readers of the Api will observe that 

 Bro. Deuiaree's experience with both the 

 Carniolans and Punic races has been the 

 same as onr own. 



Tlie poNition the An has taken on this 

 question is strouii'ly iMulorsedin the above 

 comrauuicatiou. What says the reader? 



THE DROXE-AND-QUEEN TRAP. 



I wonder if all the readers of the 

 Api fully appreciate the advantage of 

 the drone and-queen trap? 1 should 

 be very loth to go back myself to bee- 

 keeping without it. Alter using it for 

 several seasons, I regard it as indis- 

 pensable, both for catching drones, 

 and constructing new colonies. A 

 good deal has been said lately about 

 devising a self-hiver, and the inventor 

 of this trap has been working on that 

 idea. But 1 think the trap is one of 

 the very best hivers ; as good as I 

 want. I have not observed its work- 

 ings in a large apiarj', for 1 keep only 

 about eight colonies, just for fun and 

 science, and all the profit I can get out 

 of them. But a man who has but few 

 swarms come out, and does not spend 

 all his time among his bees, is more 

 anxious than any one not to lose any 

 of them. 1 used to keep a long lad- 



der and hiving-box in readiness, and 

 have tlie fidgets every fair day in the 

 swarming months, lest some of my 

 pets would get away from me. When 

 1 wanted to go away to spend the day, 

 or two days, I was haunted with the 

 fear that my bees would swarm during 

 my absence. But now I have stowed 

 my hiving-box and pole in the barn 

 chamber as relics of the days before 

 Alley's queen- trap. And 1 go off for 

 the day with a serene mind, certain 

 that the bees can not get away. Sim- 

 days have been, heretofore, my worst 

 days ; for bees like to swarm on Sun- 

 day. My duties on that day being in 

 the pulpit, it is a great strain on my 

 faculties to be standing up on a fair 

 day preaching the virtue of resigna- 

 tion, and know that at that very mo- 

 ment my treasures ma}' be winging off 

 to the wild woods, and it is a test of a 

 man's religion to which he ought not 

 voluntarily expose himself, to come 

 home on a Sunday noon and find his 

 earliest, biggest, and best, swarm of 

 the season (dollar queen and all) up 

 in the top branch of an elm tree sixty 

 feet high, and nothing to be done but 

 pray or say something bad. But all 

 that is passed in my case. For a year 

 after buying my first trap I kept it as 

 a kind of curiosity, not half believing 

 that it would be a practical thing, and 

 especially doubting that the bees would 

 make muth honey through those nar- 

 row slits of zinc. But this last sea- 

 son I had them on every hive liable to 

 swarm, and they made a fine amount 

 of box honey, no difference being per- 

 ceptible. I have Dr. Tinker's best 

 perforated zinc on mine, zinc that is 

 mostly holes, and the bees ventilate 

 my (Bay State) hives as effectively 

 with the traps on as without them. 

 An instance or two as to their use. 

 One very hot morning in June, 1890, 

 I had gone to a neighi)or's to break- 

 fast (my family being awaj'), and, 

 while seated at the table, a neighbor 

 sent word to me that my "bees were 

 swarming." I returned and found a 

 peck of bees hanging serenely on the 



