150 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Mar. 



serious objection to the zinc is its cost. With me, 

 no queens have passed through it, and I have reduc- 

 ed the size of the brood-nest until the frames were 

 so full of brood that it did seem as tboug-h there was 

 not more than one-fourth of a pound of honey in each 

 frame. The zinc is inclined to sag in the middle, 

 and thus reduce the space in the center to Icsa than 

 her. space, when the bees glue them down; and when 

 they are removed, as J. B. Colton says, "they get 

 kinlced some." A wooden honey-board is always 

 sOaifl/i^, which keeps the spaces perfect, whye it is 

 more easily removed than a zinc hoaey-board, which 

 will bend when taken off, unless it is first pried loose 

 all around, and even tJicn if stuck fast in the middle. 

 1 think the point made by J. O. Pearce, on page 10, 

 in regard to the queen being less apt to pass through 

 a wooden honey-board than through a zinc one is 

 well taken, and I am at a loss to see why you, friend 

 Root, should say that you "hart no faith in wooden 

 honej'-boards for retaining queens, and not much for 

 keeping out drones either." I used about 50 of these 

 wooden queen-excluding honey-boards last season, 

 and I prefer them to the zinc. As J. B. Colton says, 

 when a queen-excUiding honey-board is employed, 

 " Your combs below will have no honey in them, 

 as the queen completely monopolizes them, and the 

 honey is shoved up stairs." W. Z. Hutchinson. 

 Rogersvillo. Genesee Co., Mich. 



Frienrl 11., the case you bring forward, of 

 your neiglibors wlio liave abandoned bee- 

 keepingr, is indeed something to be looked at 

 seriously. And since you suggest it, I lind 

 it has been a good deal so in my own county. 

 Perhaps as many as you have mentioned have 

 commenced bee-keeping around here. After 

 a year or two, a few of them raised some 

 pretty large crops of honey, disposed of it to 

 good advantage, but as time passed, most of 

 them changed aromid into something else, 

 or went back to farming, and let their a])ia- 

 ries run down through neglect. Our neigh- 

 bor Shane is almost the only one who is 

 keeping abreast of the times, and making it a 

 l)aying business year after year. Many of 

 them are a class of people who would neglect 

 almost any busines*. and have gone into 

 other things since they dropped bees, and 

 had about ilie same experience. Perhaps I 

 should mention, that ([uite a number of the 

 farmers living near here have turned their 

 attention to selling bees to me instead of pro- 

 ducing honey, and I believe they have done 

 pretty fairly. Our neighbor Rice is one of 

 these. — In regard to the honey-boards, I have 

 had little faith in any sort of a wooden ar- 

 rangement for restraining queens, because we 

 tried it so many times at the time we were 

 all excited about fertilization in conlinement. 

 A great many of us imagined we had suc- 

 ceeded ; but careful watching showed that 

 the virgin queens went through almost as 

 small a place as worker-bees ; and late re- 

 ports which have appeared in Gi.eaninc;s 

 indicate that queens get through the Jones 

 perforated zinc as well. I was greatly inter- 

 ested in the words you use in your report 

 above, where you say, in adjusting the tin 

 strips, you made a space " the merest trifle 

 less tlian ")-o2 of an inch." Now, friends, 1 

 have had an idea that worker-bees can get 

 through a smaller space than Mr. Jones 

 makes in his perforated zinc, and to test it I 

 liave had made 1000 square feet of perforated 



zinc with meshes in like the cut below. In 

 fact, this cut is an imprint of a bit of the 

 zinc itself : 



PEKB'OKATED ZIKC, WITH SM Vl.LER PERFOKATIONS. 



Worker bees can get through this ; but 

 the only trouble I anticipate is, it will scrape 

 otf the pollen worse than the Jones zinc. 

 But if we cannot use it in restraining queens 

 and drones, I shall use it for wax-extractors. 

 I am glad to be able to say, we can furnish 

 it to you, cut into sheets of any size, for 

 1-j cts. per square foot ; or for whole sheets, 

 8x7 or 3x8 feet, as you choose, at a cost of 

 S2..50, and $2,8o i)er sheet respectively. I 

 hope somebody whose bees are now bring- 

 ing in pollen will make a test of it at once. 



DUOIVE-TRAPS AND QVEEN-GUARDS. 



SOME OF FRIEND ALI.KY'S INVENTIONS. 



laifrK. LANGSTROTH has lately called our atten- 

 ![?/i'|| tion to the usefulness of some kind of a bee- 

 " ' guard which may be placed at the entrance 

 of the hive to prevent the exit of the queen in swarm- 

 ing. My profcf sion being such that 1 must leave my 

 bees to their own sweet will on those pleasant Sab- 

 baths when they are so incliDed to swarm, and my 

 interests being called out toward any thing which 

 will diminish the interference of bee-keeping with 

 church attendance, I have taken a practical interest 

 in any device 'which will control swarming. Of 

 course, any guard which may be placed at the en- 

 trance of the hive to prevent the queen from leav- 

 ing will also prevent the drones from leaving. Such 

 a device must be founded on the fact that a 5-33 

 space will admit a worker-bee, but will hinder a 

 queen or drone. 



D. A. Jones's perforated zinc comes into most hap- 

 py use to construct such a queen and drone guard. 

 There can be no question but that a guard or a trap 

 placed at the entrance of the hive, which will give 

 the workers free exit and admission, and yet which 

 will stop the queen from leaving, and will catch ev- 

 ery drone in the hive, would be a great convenience 

 in a variety of ways. Such a device, to be practical, 

 must not hinder the work of honey-gathering, nor 

 must it interfere with the ventilation of the hive, 

 for it must be used in the hottest weather. I have 

 sent and obtained two of these bee guards, or traps, 

 of two different makers, and I wish to explain eacl ' 

 and mention some of the advantages which may be 

 derived from their use. The ttrj9t that I sent for 

 was the one made by A. I. Root, after the general 

 pattern of that made by Ti. A. Jones, its originator. 

 It is simply a little box made of perforated zinc, 9'/4 

 inches long, and ''o of an inch high and wide. It has 

 no bottom and no back side, but only a top and 

 front side. The zinc of which it is made is perforat- 

 ed with oblong slits about V2 inch long and' just 5-32 

 wide. There is a row of slits, and then a row of sol- 

 id zinc, furnishing two rows of perforations in the 



