Dkcembkr, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



727 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



aie only most noisy at that time — more so if 

 the weather happens to be dull or sultry. 

 Also, I think that I have noticed that they 

 are more excited on the fourth and fifth days 

 after a batch of young queens have hatched. 

 The reason for this I cannot understand, as 

 I have never seen the drones searching 

 around the nuclei; but I think it is so. 



The conditions as set forth by me may be 

 due to the peculiar lay of the land, but I 

 would be glad to have your opinion. Also I 

 hope other readers will let us have their ob- 

 servation. Axel Hoist. 



St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. 



[On referring this to Mell Pritchard, he 

 says he has never observed that drones from 

 each hive keep by themselves in one flock. 

 But he suggests that if this is true it would 

 be an advantage to have all of one's best 

 drones in one hive, in order to bring out a 

 large flock, which would attract the queens 

 away from the smaller flocks and give bet- 

 ter results in pure mating. — Editor.] 



THE BROWN EXCLUDER FUNNEL 



A Sure and Quick Way of Finding Queens When 

 in a Hurry 



While working for E. B. Ault of Calallen, 

 Tex., in the spring of 1919, helping rear 

 queens and ship bees, the need of a quicker 

 and easi<M' way of findiiitj queens in large 



A box-shapod wood-and-wire excluder strainer. 



colonics so as to fill pound packages grew 

 pressing, and the idea came to me that a 

 funnel could be made to shake bees thru, 

 using an excluder as a strainer. I drew the 

 l»lans an<l told Mr. Ault of it. He at once 

 saw the value of it and had me make two 



of them to try. They were tried with suc- 

 cess, and I am sure each one saved the time 

 of one man in the bee-yard. 



The outside shell was made of light tin, 

 as in the illustration. The zinc cylinder ex- 



The outside shell of the funnel. 



cluder worked very well. But we found it 

 too frail. It soon shook to pieces. So we 

 made the bottom of wire excluder and rein- 

 forced the sideSj but then it would not stand 

 the jar. We then made the funnel square, or 

 box-shaped, which I did not like so well. 



While visiting T. W. Burleson of Waxa- 

 hachie, Tex., I found that he had heard of 

 the funnel, and had made one. He partly 

 overcame the frailness of the zinc cylinder 

 by making it box-shaped out of wood and 

 wire excluder and also constructed it so it 

 would slip in and out of the outside shell, 

 making it easier to find the queen and also 

 to dump the drones out. 



■ I suggested to him the light holes around 

 the bottom of the funnel. He thought the 

 bees would crawl thru the excluder down 

 into the dark room better than out to the 

 light. However, either way seems to work 

 well; but I had rather have the light holes, 

 which also give ventilation. 



You have noticed when bees are smoked 

 too much and are excited they will run for 

 the entrance, and I believe when shaken into 

 this funnel they will go thru the excluder 

 better when they think they see a chance to 

 get out below. 



After a little practice with this funnel it 

 becomes easy to handle and saves time in 

 finding queens. We shake in the bees and 

 smoke them a bit to rush them thru. The 

 drones as well as the queens are sifted out. 

 Usually ^ou can find the queen among the 



