540 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



ey desired. I am much interested, and I am 

 sure we shall experience a general awakening 

 upon the subject of adulteration. 



I have read carefully this last report of Dr. 

 Wiley, and I must say I can find little to crit- 

 icise in the intentions apparent. I believe that 

 honey is mixed and sold in that state, in our 

 cities much more generally than most of us 

 imagine it to be. We all know, too, that this 

 adulteration is done by wholesale packing- 

 houses in the cities. Those who read Byron 

 Walker's article on page lfi3 of March 1st 

 Gleanings must realize that he tells the truth; 

 and if so. we may well be on the war-path 

 rather than holding back and crying " a liel" 

 The latter will accomplish nothing, while a 

 course of active interest in securing good laws, 

 and then of aggressive warfare in enforcing 

 them, will help the market for our product, 

 and our good name as honest producers. 



If the Bee-keepers' Union would nail to its 

 masthead the legend, "' Death to adulteration," 

 it should secure immediately a number of thou- 

 sand names. Such a cause of universal interest 

 would be worthy of this noble organization. 

 J. H. Larkabee. 



Ag"l College, Mich., June 2S. 



[We may be mistaken in regard to the perfo- 

 rated-zinc matter; but we feel, from some obser- 

 vations that we have made, that the abdomen 

 does Itelp to prevent the queen from going 

 through. We propose to measure at the earliest 

 opportunity the thorax of queens, laying and 

 virgin.] 



ALLEY'S LATEST SELF-HIVEE. 



HE THINKS HE HAS ATTAINED PERFECTION AT 

 LAST. 



After •' fooling around" some little time. I've 

 finally hit upon a perfect practical self-swarni- 

 hiver. The cut above fully illustrates it. As 

 stated in the June^-lpf., it is an arrangement of 

 the drone-and-queen trap. The traj). Fig. 2. is 

 made nearly twice as wide — that is, nearly twice 

 as large — from end to end as those usually sold 

 for drone-and-queen catchers. It is also pro- 

 vided with four tubes; and the luckless drone 

 or queen that sallies forth to leave the hive is 

 sure to be trapped. The trap has a metal front 

 and back. This provides the needed ventila- 

 tion to the largest colony of bees. Then, again, 

 the entrance is so much wider than the one in 

 the old trap that the bees have no more trouble 

 in coming out and going in than they do in 

 hives where no trap is used. In fact, this self- 

 hiver is a superior drone-catcher, as no drone 

 returns to the hive after once leaving the brood- 

 chamber; nor are they fussing at the entrance 

 a long time trying to escape, as in the old trap 

 when there are many drones in a hive. Hardly 

 does the drone go to the entrance when he dis- 

 covers one of the four tubes, and, before he 

 knows it, he is in the trap. It is the same with 

 the queen. As surely as she leaves the hive 

 with a swarm she is trapped. 



Vig. 1 illustrates the swarmer complete, ready 

 to catch a swarm. The box A is 18 in. long, lOi 

 in. wide, and 10 in. deep. This is large enough 

 to give the largest swarm all the room it needs 

 to cluster in, for a while at least. A larger one 

 can be used. 



Fig. 2 shows the trap, or queen-and-drone 

 catcher. It is not attached permanently to the 

 box. Half of the front of box A is cut oft', and 

 the trap is pushed in to fill the space, and so 

 that the front of the latter is flush with the 

 front (or face) of the box. It will be seen that 

 the bottom of the metal, whei-e the bees pass 



through, is depressed, so the bees enter the hive 

 easily, and with as little delay as possible. 



The trap is provided with a small swinging 

 door, B, at one end, so that the queen can be 

 taken or shaken out, also for removing dead 

 drones, etc. The trap can be used on any hive 

 for catching drones when not used as a self- 

 hiver. The box has two covers. One is con- 

 structed of w're screen nailed to a light frame, 

 which is used so that the inside of the box can be 

 seen without letting the bees out. The other, a 

 common board cover, is to keep out sun and 

 wet, and is placed directly on the screen cover. 

 One comb is placed in the box just far enough 

 from the trap for a bee-space between. 



FIG. 1.— ALLEY 



SWARMER. 



When a swarm issues, the queen enters the 

 trap. The bees, after circulating about in the 

 air for a while, return, or they may settle on 

 some tree and hang there for a while, and then 

 return to the hive. As soon as they reach the 

 entrance they discover their queen (the very 

 object they returned for), and the bees at once 

 cluster in the box on the comb. I want it un- 

 derstood, that, when I say the bees, I mean nil 

 that issued with the swarm. Not even one bee 

 will return to the brood-combs. This arrange- 

 ment is a self-hiver in every sense of the word, 

 as it catches the entire swiu-m. 



FIG. 2. — ALLEYS LATEST TR.VP. 



It will be observed that the bees have but one 

 piece of metal to pass thi-ough on their way out 

 of and into the hive, and that is at the regular 

 entrance; thus their passage out of and into the 

 hive is not seriously obstructed. When a swarm 

 has been hived automatically in one of the Per- 

 fection swarmers, it is easily and quickly trans- 

 ferred to the hive they are to occupy. As soon 

 as the bees are all in the hiver. place the new' 

 hive upon the ground (or on a blanket); smoke 

 these in the box and turn them down in front of 

 the new hive, when they commence to I'un in; 

 take the trap from the box, open the door, and 

 shake the queen and bees out among those at 

 the entrance of the hive. Now, isn't this an 

 easy and interesting operation as well as a labor 

 and bee saving method? Just think how hap- 

 py a fellow can be when he leaves home in the 

 morning, to know that, on his return, he will 

 find his bees already in a box to be hived if they 

 have swarmed during his absencel All he has 

 to do on returning home is to raise the board 

 cover of the swarm-box. If the box is full of 

 bees, a swarm has issued. This is the only at- 

 tention the bees need. His wife or attendant 

 won't have a chance to say, when the bee-keep- 

 er returns home, ""The bees have swarmed and 

 decamped." No. sir; no bees can decamp, nor 

 will a swarm be found hanging fifty feet in the 

 air on the limb of some neighbor's tree, in some 

 chimney, or in the coving of some neighbor's 

 house. 



Th(> other morning a swarm came off just as 

 I was going to the postoftice. They settled on 

 the limb of a tree near by. When I returned, 

 twenty minutes later, the bees had gone back 



