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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



than six days from the time the mother- queen 

 is removed. The reason for this lies in tlie fact 

 that bees rarely miss their queen to a sufficient 

 extent to start cells in less than two and a half 

 days after her removal; and if you find cells 

 sealed over on the fifth day after the removal 

 of the old (or mother) queen, yon may know 

 that the larva in said capped cell must have 

 been three and a half days old when the bees 

 undertook to change it to a queen. All queen- 

 rearers agree that larv:v two days old and un- 

 der give the best queens, and that a larva older 

 than three days should never be used under 

 any circumstances, if we would have queens 

 which can be to any extent called good. Of 

 course, the colony is to be well fed, if no honey 

 is coming in from the fields, until the sixth day, 

 or till the cells are capped over. 



The first traps sent out in 1883 had a perforat- 

 ed slide in the top. Then that had to be dis- 

 carded, as bees would enter the trap in that 

 way, and could not find their way out for a 

 long time. I do not consider the arrangement 

 to catch drones going into the hive of any 

 practical value, or even needed in the trap, to 

 say nothing about its being an improvement. 

 If the trap catches drones when they attempt 

 to leave the hive, of what use is it to have an 

 arrangement to catch them the other way? If 

 such circumstances should ever occur that one 

 would like to catch drones entering a hive, 

 then the thing to do is to reverse the position of 

 the trap, and the thing can be done as well as 

 if not better than by the Harrison arrangement. 



But Mr. Harrison says his device gives better 

 ventilation to the hive than my trap. It seems 



THAT IMPROVEMENT OF THE ALLEY TRAP. 

 By Henry Alley. 



About the first thing that met my eye on 

 opening Gleanings of Aug. 1 was the article 

 describing an alleged improvement of the Alley 

 trap. The editor has an idea that Mr. Har- 

 rison's " improvement " is original. »So far as 

 catching drones on entering the hive, it is new; 

 but so far as covering the front of the trap with 

 metal, it is not new. Not less than fifty bee- 

 keepers have made this same improvement 

 since the trap was devised. When I pointed 

 out to them the objections to such an arrange- 

 ment they saw at once that the improvement 

 was not much of an improvement after all. I 

 have a trap in my office that has been in my 

 possession about seven years, just the same 

 thing as Harrison's, except the part of catching 

 drones from the outside. The man who left 

 the trap with me had just come from Washing- 

 ton where he had been to get his improvement 

 patented. He was told that another man had 

 a patent on the same thing. And that was the 

 last I ever heard from that particular' improv- 

 ed trap. 



Well, now, the objection to a trap arranged 

 as Mr. Harrison's is— that is, with the front 

 covered with perforated metal— is this: When 

 the bees return from the Held they enter the 

 trap instead of going through the metal at the 

 en-trance and direct into the hive. There they 

 lose much time in trying to find their way out. 

 Now, this same arrangement of covering the 

 front of the trap has been suggested by a hun- 

 dred bee-keepers. Of course, I had tested the 

 same thing long before any one else had 

 thought of it. 



to me that he has not seen our Improved trap, 

 such as we have been sending out for the last 

 two years, or he would make no such claim as 

 he does. Not only is the front part of the im- 

 proved trap covered by metal, but a part of the 

 back as well. If bees enter the trap as now 

 made they do not spend any time in trying to 

 find their way out, but pass directly through 

 the trap into the hive. 



Then, again, the bees can leave the hive by 

 passing through the upper part of the trap as 

 well as by the regular entrance. The improved 

 trap not only admits of all the above advan- 

 tages, but makes it impossible to so place the 

 trap on the hive that the bees can not find their 

 way out. But if I understand the Harrison ar- 

 rangement, it has the same defect the old-style 

 Alley trap had. That is, unless care were used 

 in adjusting the trap to the hive, the colony 

 would be closed in and soon smothered. This 

 can not be done with the improved trap. As 

 thousands of the readers of Gleanings have 

 the old-style trap in use, I will instruct them 

 how to apply the improvements above stated. 



Saw out of the back of the trap about a third 

 of the wood, say a piece 6 inches by 33.<. Gov- 



