THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



205 



hives with plenty of tlie ripe IVuit 

 on them. This howl uguinst the bees 

 harming ripe griipes must surely 

 come from those who tire not posted, 

 or by those who through some irate 

 prineii)le of natural hatred liave 

 concluded to make war on the bees. 

 It .seems to me that any fair-minded 

 and unprejudiced fruit grower, who 

 would take the time and i)ains to 

 investigate the subject as he 

 shouUl, could without much dilli- 

 culty learn the facts as stated above 

 and not condemn and charge the 

 honey bee with such false procliv- 

 ities as being guilt}' of destroying 

 fruits of any kind while growing or 

 ripening on the vines or trees ; 

 while, on the other hand, there is 

 plenty of proof in favor of the 

 bees, as being of great value in 

 bringing about ijroper and much 

 needeil fertilization in many of the 

 finest grown fruits of all parts of 

 tlie United States, as well as in all 

 Europe, it has been practically 

 denionsti-aled that bees are of great 

 use and benelit in bringing about a 

 proper fertilization in many of the 

 fruits and berries grown, which 

 could not be successfully matured 

 without the aid of the honey bees. 

 Let us hear from the opposing par- 

 ties with such I'actsas are true, and 

 not hearsay evidence which is not 

 good in court, nor will not be ad- 

 missible. More anon. 



Battle Ground, Ind. 



For the American Jinculturist. 



ALLEY' JS QUEEN AND 

 DRONE-TUAPS. 



Dij. C. C. Miller. 



I have never seen any ver}' full 

 descrii)tion of the workings of the 

 queen anil drone- traj). Tiiis year 

 I have been tiying them. I don't 



kn(nv that they serve their purpose 

 any better for being neatly made, 

 but I confess I admire the work- 

 manship of these tra[)s. This 

 season having been one of utter 

 failure of the honey harvest I have 

 not been able to try them to the 

 fullest extent, l)ut will tell what I 

 know. 



When lirst put on a hive, the 

 workers show some little excite- 

 ment at the hindrance to their 

 usual free passage ; soon tiiey be- 

 come accustomed to passing 

 through the perforated zinc, and 

 mind it little. Sometimes they get 

 into the ui)i)er part of the trap and 

 are annoyed by not being able to get 

 out through the wire-cloth not hav- 

 ing sense enougii to go at once to 

 the perforated zinc above, where 

 they can easily get out. As a 

 trapper of drones the success is 

 perfect. Of course it is better to 

 have all worker comb in a hive and 

 raise no drones only where they 

 are wanted, but with the utmost 

 vigilance some drones will be 

 raised. 



The bees will build drone cells 

 in out-of-the-way places. If you 

 are not careful, mice will make 

 holes in combs in the hive in win- 

 ter to be tilled up with drone comb ; 

 and, if given all worker i'ounda- 

 tion, some of it will be sometimes 

 changed to drone, so that after all 

 some drones are apt to be present 

 and I cannot imagine any better 

 way to get rid of such, than by 

 means of this drone-tra[). On 

 coming out of the hive, the drones 

 are not long in finding their way 

 y\\) through the cone into the upper 

 part of the trap and then they are 

 out of the way of the workers' full 

 passage. The trouble is that the 

 l)eekeeper nuist empt}' the trap 

 every few days or the dead bodies 

 of the drones raise a bad stench'. 

 If he does not object to the labor, 

 the tin slide might be taken out 

 each day after swarming time is 



