THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



231 



[The above shows how our efforts 

 as a publisher are appreciated in a 

 foreign land. We believe that the 

 June, 1887, issue also the October 

 number of 1886 of the Api, were 

 two of the most valuable papers 

 of any publication devoted to bee 

 culture ever issued from any office, 

 yet not one of the papers here in 

 America, so far as we remember, 

 has ever mentioned the subject to 

 its readers, notwithstanding the 

 fact thafa^Z" bee journals are pub- 

 lished for the benefit of their read- 

 ers. Most of the editors and pub- 

 lishers of American beepapers are 

 mighty afraid that they will do some 

 free advertising for their neighbor.] 



From the Australian Beekeepers^ Journal. 

 THE DEOXE-TRAP. 



WHAT IS THOUGHT OF IT IN AUSTRA- 

 LIA? 



Among the now numerous conven- 

 ient inventions for beelveepers, the 

 Alley drone trap, or swarm arrester, is 

 likely to prove of the greatest value 

 to those who don't care about losing 

 swarms. This arrangement is a little 

 movable porcli to go in front of the 

 hive on the entrance. It is closed with 

 zinc, perforated witli oblong holes 

 large enough for the worker bee to 

 get tluough quite easily, but too small 

 lor drones or laying queens to get 

 til rough. The porch has an upper 

 story, which can be entered from the 

 lower one through two cones of fine 

 wire net, with holes in their apex large 

 enough for queens and drones to get 

 tlu'ough easily. When once in the up- 

 per story they are caged, for, although 

 they could go back the way they came, 

 tliey never do, because the wa}' out is 

 on the top of a cone or pyramid, and 

 bees seldom or never enter an opening 

 situated at the end of a cone or tube. 

 Now if one of these "traps" is on a 

 hive when a swarm issues, all the bees 

 get throuiih the zinc front, but the 

 queen cannot, and she crawls up 

 through one of the cones into tlie up- 

 per story of the trap, and is thus 

 caged ; the bees soon find she is not 

 out, and cluster around the cage, 

 whence the swarm iseasily taken. Mr. 



Bonney, of Adelaide, writing to us his 

 experience of these useful little ar- 

 rangements, says : — "Do you use the 

 Alley drone trap? It is a capital in- 

 vention. I keep one on each of my 

 pure Italian colonies during swarming 

 time, and can then go to business 

 without any fear of loss of swarms. 

 If the bees swarm, the queen goes into 

 the trap and remains there with the 

 swarm hanging about the hive till I 

 come home in the evening, when mat- 

 ters are easily arranged." 



Mr. Alley himself says : — " You can 

 go to church on Sundays in swarming 

 time without thinking of your swarms 

 all prayer time." 



From the Australian Beekeepers' Journal. 



FIXING FOUNDATION IN 

 WIRED FRAMES. 



The methods usually adopted 

 for fixing foundation in wired 

 frames are either to rub the wires 

 into the foundation with a grooved 

 button Jiook, or some tool of the 

 kind, or to press it in with '■'■Blood's 

 roller" (an American device), or, 

 better, with Mr. Root's " rocJdng 

 tool" an instrument like a poi'- 

 tion of the periphery of a wheel, 

 with a few sharp teeth on it. Each 

 tooth is rolled on to the wires em- 

 bedding the wire in the foundation. 

 Foundation fixed by any of these 

 methods is apt to part from the 

 wires and curl up in very warm 

 weather, or when used for newl}' 

 hived swarms. The fact is. there 

 is no real union between the wax 

 and the wires unless the wires are 

 heated. I have tried several plans 

 for doing this, but none so satis- 

 factory as warming the wires with 

 a galvanic current from a good, 

 large single-battery cell. The 

 mode is very simple. Lay the 

 foundation on a board which fit 

 inside the frame ; now lay the frame 

 horizontally over the foundation, 

 so that the wires lie nicelj^ and ev- 

 enly on the foundation ; take the 



